It's really hard to make any sort of rock-sold projections about what new Purdue guard Jon Octeus can mean to the Boilermakers this season before the kid has so much as put on a practice jersey, but it's not exactly going out on a limb to say this is a big add for Matt Painter and his team.
This is a talented player who's been very productive at very solid levels of college basketball. He's a guard and an athlete joining a team that's been looking for months if not years for guards and athletes for this coming season.
At the very least, 11 scholarship-recruited players are better than 10 scholarship-recruited players and one scholarship-recruited senior is better than none. Senior Night is no longer just Neal Beshears Night.
You have to temper things somewhat, though, due to circumstance: This is almost unprecedented, if precedented at all. Has a team ever added a brand-new scholarship recruit a week into preseason practice and a month into a semester? I have no idea, but Octeus' head might be spinning for a few days, if not weeks or even months.
Here's the thing, though: This transition is on Octeus to make, but it's also on his team to help make it work.
Purdue believes it has great chemistry and a much improved collective attitude right now.
Here's its first test: Do current Boilermakers embrace their new senior and do everything in their power to make his transition as smooth as possible? Do guys who've been on campus all summer working toward prominent, or enhanced roles, feel cheated here? Octeus is going to play. He's going to have to. And even if it's five minutes per game, those are five minutes someone else spent the summer figuring they would be playing, opportunities they worked for.
What's become very clear in all that's been said the past few months, Purdue's leadership the past few seasons has been shoddy at best.
(Painter yesterday: "We met this morning and I explained Jon was joining our program. It's what we always talk about, whether it's a recruiting visit or freshmen coming in in the summer: 'Help them.' Sometimes you go through a rough transition and maybe some people in a program didn't help you. Don't use that as a reason not to help others. Help them.")
This is a good test, I suppose, of just how much the name on the front of the jersey matters to some of these guys more than the name on the back to steal a horrible cliché.
If the other 14 players on the roster buy in here and create a great situation for Octeus to come into, that's a huge - enormous, really - sign that Purdue's no longer coughing up a lung culturally.
Octeus seems like a solid person. I had to a chance to speak at length with him the other night and came away impressed. When guys bounce around, sometimes you wonder, but Sterling Carter showed last season he was a rock-solid guy despite his well-traveled past and Octeus seems very much cut from the same cloth. He came off as smart, professional and driven, said all the right things, unprompted, about caring more about winning than any "agenda." Doesn't seem like a mercenary.
Provided Octeus fits in well - can't say anything for certain yet, because this is all so new on all sides - then there's no way around him helping in some capacity, maybe a very significant one.
Purdue's still going to have a non-traditional point guard situation, I think, with Octeus giving it another option, most importantly an experienced one. Offense is one thing, defense another, and I think it's almost as important the Boilermakers be able to defend that position at a high level this season as it is to carry out anything offensive-oriented. They have to get better, much better, on defense and it's always started for them at the 1.
Having seen Octeus now with my own two eyes, he has legitimate size and functional, athletic length, something Purdue didn't otherwise have. That's a huge added element defensively and something you can do a lot of things with.
To make a comparison, this might be Kelsey Barlow, minus the Fear and Loathing. Octeus isn't as tall as Barlow, not as long as Barlow and not as athletic as Barlow (very few on this earth are). But he is tall, long and athletic and by every account defensive-minded. Like Matt Painter said, you can put Octeus where he's needed, whether it's the point guard spot or on the wing.
Offensively, Octeus is versatile and athletic, the sort of slasher that might really complement Kendall Stephens and Dakota Mathias well. There was plenty of room on this roster for somebody on the wing who can do something off the dribble, someone who can get to the basket, and now might have it.
Time will tell here. Again, this is a first-of-its-kind transaction at Purdue and maybe anywhere. No clue how this is going to go.
But Purdue can use all the players it can get right now.
And Wednesday night, Purdue got a player.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2014. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
This post was edited on 10/10 11:41 AM by Brian_GoldandBlack.com
This is a talented player who's been very productive at very solid levels of college basketball. He's a guard and an athlete joining a team that's been looking for months if not years for guards and athletes for this coming season.
At the very least, 11 scholarship-recruited players are better than 10 scholarship-recruited players and one scholarship-recruited senior is better than none. Senior Night is no longer just Neal Beshears Night.
You have to temper things somewhat, though, due to circumstance: This is almost unprecedented, if precedented at all. Has a team ever added a brand-new scholarship recruit a week into preseason practice and a month into a semester? I have no idea, but Octeus' head might be spinning for a few days, if not weeks or even months.
Here's the thing, though: This transition is on Octeus to make, but it's also on his team to help make it work.
Purdue believes it has great chemistry and a much improved collective attitude right now.
Here's its first test: Do current Boilermakers embrace their new senior and do everything in their power to make his transition as smooth as possible? Do guys who've been on campus all summer working toward prominent, or enhanced roles, feel cheated here? Octeus is going to play. He's going to have to. And even if it's five minutes per game, those are five minutes someone else spent the summer figuring they would be playing, opportunities they worked for.
What's become very clear in all that's been said the past few months, Purdue's leadership the past few seasons has been shoddy at best.
(Painter yesterday: "We met this morning and I explained Jon was joining our program. It's what we always talk about, whether it's a recruiting visit or freshmen coming in in the summer: 'Help them.' Sometimes you go through a rough transition and maybe some people in a program didn't help you. Don't use that as a reason not to help others. Help them.")
This is a good test, I suppose, of just how much the name on the front of the jersey matters to some of these guys more than the name on the back to steal a horrible cliché.
If the other 14 players on the roster buy in here and create a great situation for Octeus to come into, that's a huge - enormous, really - sign that Purdue's no longer coughing up a lung culturally.
Octeus seems like a solid person. I had to a chance to speak at length with him the other night and came away impressed. When guys bounce around, sometimes you wonder, but Sterling Carter showed last season he was a rock-solid guy despite his well-traveled past and Octeus seems very much cut from the same cloth. He came off as smart, professional and driven, said all the right things, unprompted, about caring more about winning than any "agenda." Doesn't seem like a mercenary.
Provided Octeus fits in well - can't say anything for certain yet, because this is all so new on all sides - then there's no way around him helping in some capacity, maybe a very significant one.
Purdue's still going to have a non-traditional point guard situation, I think, with Octeus giving it another option, most importantly an experienced one. Offense is one thing, defense another, and I think it's almost as important the Boilermakers be able to defend that position at a high level this season as it is to carry out anything offensive-oriented. They have to get better, much better, on defense and it's always started for them at the 1.
Having seen Octeus now with my own two eyes, he has legitimate size and functional, athletic length, something Purdue didn't otherwise have. That's a huge added element defensively and something you can do a lot of things with.
To make a comparison, this might be Kelsey Barlow, minus the Fear and Loathing. Octeus isn't as tall as Barlow, not as long as Barlow and not as athletic as Barlow (very few on this earth are). But he is tall, long and athletic and by every account defensive-minded. Like Matt Painter said, you can put Octeus where he's needed, whether it's the point guard spot or on the wing.
Offensively, Octeus is versatile and athletic, the sort of slasher that might really complement Kendall Stephens and Dakota Mathias well. There was plenty of room on this roster for somebody on the wing who can do something off the dribble, someone who can get to the basket, and now might have it.
Time will tell here. Again, this is a first-of-its-kind transaction at Purdue and maybe anywhere. No clue how this is going to go.
But Purdue can use all the players it can get right now.
And Wednesday night, Purdue got a player.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2014. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
This post was edited on 10/10 11:41 AM by Brian_GoldandBlack.com
