You know that scene at the end of the "Dark Knight" movie where Gary Oldman/Commissioner Gordon explains to his little boy that Batman is the hero, "Gotham deserves but doesn't need right now."
Great ending (spoiler alert) to a great movie.
(Bear with me here, this is going someplace, kinda.)
Well, when Jon Octeus swooped in at the 11th hour this fall to, as it turned out, save Purdue's season like said comic book superhero would go on to save Gotham (spoiler alert), he became exactly the hero the Boilermakers needed exactly when they needed him.
Look, getting a player two weeks into preseason practice is one thing.
Getting a starter two weeks into preseason practice is another thing.
Getting an Octeus two weeks into preseason practice was an entirely different animal, a total game-changer.
There is no understating what the well-traveled guard meant to Purdue.
Forget the fact for a moment he's been a borderline All-Big Ten player filling a position at Purdue that might otherwise have been an open wound.
Forget the fact he's tall and long and athletic and rangy and sudden and plays both ends of the floor, fitting ideally into Purdue's desired M.O. on offense and defense.
Focus instead on the substance and what it's meant.
Octeus was exactly the presence Purdue needed.
Matt Painter put it perfectly when he used the term "professional."
Octeus carries himself like a pro. I don't mean "pro" in an everybody-on-Kentucky's-roster sense (well, not everybody) but rather in a Crash Davis/Kevin Garnett-at-the-end sense. He brought wisdom, experience and a certain way of handling himself to a team that had very little of all three.
Or, I mean "pro" in a non-sports context too. Octeus oozes polish, carries himself a certain way, a way you'd want every player on your team to if you had your way. He presents himself and conducts himself in a manner that would translate to just any walk of life, seems like.
Octeus brought wisdom, maturity and a certain standard to Purdue, a team that needed it all.
And he was a perfect complement to this group. When you look at Purdue's leadership, Rapheal Davis is the alpha, but he does things a certain way. He's an emotional, visceral guy. The polish that Octeus oozes, for Davis it's emotion, passion, raw energy.
The two have been a nice counterbalance from a personality standpoint, the proverbial yin and yang.
Octeus is everything Purdue hasn't had at point guard since Lewis Jackson and obviously needed very badly. I'm not saying that to take a stab at Ronnie Johnson, but it is what it is, you know? There was a certain fundamental casualness to Purdue the past two seasons, a certain recklessness, and what's the one position on the floor that tends to influence its team the most?
Point guard.
(Of course comparing a 20-something-year-old to a player who last season was a second-year sophomore is fundamentally unfair, but the personality types are 180 degrees separate.)
Jon Octeus was exactly what Purdue needed exactly when Purdue needed it, because it needed to do something positive this season and needed someone like him to help it do it.
In fact, you know those build-a-bear stores that open in your local mall one week, then close two weeks later? Yeah, well if they had those for point guards and Painter went into one back in the fall, I'm not sure he could have crafted, within reason, a better fit, in every sense of the term.
"Fit" was the operative term here all along. Understand what a weird, potentially uncomfortable situation this could have been for everyone. Octeus undoubtedly wants to play professional basketball after this season. This was his last chance at the college level, his last chance to help himself there.
Did he ever, in any way, seem to you like a player whose goals trumped those of his team? When this group was 8-5, who'd have blamed him, I suppose, if he'd started to shift his focus, to go get his, as they say. Guys started going to get theirs at the end of last season at Purdue, which lost its last seven games in part because of it.
When I was in my final semester in college, I skipped classes left and right to do things that would help prepare me for a glorious career in the field of being lied to by teenagers and talking into my computer like a lunatic after basketball games. It's human nature to shift your focus to what lies ahead.
But by every account, both told and observed, Octeus has been anything but a solider of fortune, here to advance himself over his new team, in which he had nothing invested as of like five months ago.
Just unbelievable.
I said it months ago and I'll say it again: Jon Octeus was a godsend for Purdue.
Gotham didn't deserve Batman.
Purdue deserved Octeus.
First off, there's the simple fact that Matt Painter and his staff worked beyond reason to look for a guard to help this team. It looked last winter during the season. It looked last spring. It looked through the summer.
You know what would seem like a reasonable time to stop looking? The start of school.
Purdue's diligence was rewarded.
I know skeptics will say Purdue "lucked into" Octeus.
I suppose, but they say you make your own luck.
And if Painter hadn't put all that time into looking - or if he hadn't put all that time into recruiting lost-cause Trevon Bluiett, thus being around then-Park Tudor coach-turned-UCLA-contact Ed Schilling so much - maybe this lottery ticket never hits in West Lafayette.
Work has a funny way of, um, working out, one way or another.
This worked out for all involved.
Purdue got a crucial, season-changing player; Octeus got a place to play at the highest level after all, now standing right on the precipice of returning to the NCAA Tournament.
What a story it has been.
People call him "Octeus Prime." You know, irresistible nickname.
Me, I typically hate nicknames, because they're almost always stupid and too often given before they're earned.
But in this case, I like "Dark Knight" myself, because Octeus has been Purdue's Batman on the floor and its Bruce Wayne off the floor.
More than anything, again, he's been the hero Purdue needed and the hero it deserved.
Purdue can only hope for a sequel.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2015. 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.
Great ending (spoiler alert) to a great movie.
(Bear with me here, this is going someplace, kinda.)
Look, getting a player two weeks into preseason practice is one thing.
Getting a starter two weeks into preseason practice is another thing.
Getting an Octeus two weeks into preseason practice was an entirely different animal, a total game-changer.
There is no understating what the well-traveled guard meant to Purdue.
Forget the fact for a moment he's been a borderline All-Big Ten player filling a position at Purdue that might otherwise have been an open wound.
Forget the fact he's tall and long and athletic and rangy and sudden and plays both ends of the floor, fitting ideally into Purdue's desired M.O. on offense and defense.
Focus instead on the substance and what it's meant.
Octeus was exactly the presence Purdue needed.
Matt Painter put it perfectly when he used the term "professional."
Octeus carries himself like a pro. I don't mean "pro" in an everybody-on-Kentucky's-roster sense (well, not everybody) but rather in a Crash Davis/Kevin Garnett-at-the-end sense. He brought wisdom, experience and a certain way of handling himself to a team that had very little of all three.
Or, I mean "pro" in a non-sports context too. Octeus oozes polish, carries himself a certain way, a way you'd want every player on your team to if you had your way. He presents himself and conducts himself in a manner that would translate to just any walk of life, seems like.
Octeus brought wisdom, maturity and a certain standard to Purdue, a team that needed it all.
And he was a perfect complement to this group. When you look at Purdue's leadership, Rapheal Davis is the alpha, but he does things a certain way. He's an emotional, visceral guy. The polish that Octeus oozes, for Davis it's emotion, passion, raw energy.
The two have been a nice counterbalance from a personality standpoint, the proverbial yin and yang.
Octeus is everything Purdue hasn't had at point guard since Lewis Jackson and obviously needed very badly. I'm not saying that to take a stab at Ronnie Johnson, but it is what it is, you know? There was a certain fundamental casualness to Purdue the past two seasons, a certain recklessness, and what's the one position on the floor that tends to influence its team the most?
Point guard.
(Of course comparing a 20-something-year-old to a player who last season was a second-year sophomore is fundamentally unfair, but the personality types are 180 degrees separate.)
Jon Octeus was exactly what Purdue needed exactly when Purdue needed it, because it needed to do something positive this season and needed someone like him to help it do it.
In fact, you know those build-a-bear stores that open in your local mall one week, then close two weeks later? Yeah, well if they had those for point guards and Painter went into one back in the fall, I'm not sure he could have crafted, within reason, a better fit, in every sense of the term.
"Fit" was the operative term here all along. Understand what a weird, potentially uncomfortable situation this could have been for everyone. Octeus undoubtedly wants to play professional basketball after this season. This was his last chance at the college level, his last chance to help himself there.
Did he ever, in any way, seem to you like a player whose goals trumped those of his team? When this group was 8-5, who'd have blamed him, I suppose, if he'd started to shift his focus, to go get his, as they say. Guys started going to get theirs at the end of last season at Purdue, which lost its last seven games in part because of it.
When I was in my final semester in college, I skipped classes left and right to do things that would help prepare me for a glorious career in the field of being lied to by teenagers and talking into my computer like a lunatic after basketball games. It's human nature to shift your focus to what lies ahead.
But by every account, both told and observed, Octeus has been anything but a solider of fortune, here to advance himself over his new team, in which he had nothing invested as of like five months ago.
Just unbelievable.
I said it months ago and I'll say it again: Jon Octeus was a godsend for Purdue.
Gotham didn't deserve Batman.
Purdue deserved Octeus.
First off, there's the simple fact that Matt Painter and his staff worked beyond reason to look for a guard to help this team. It looked last winter during the season. It looked last spring. It looked through the summer.
You know what would seem like a reasonable time to stop looking? The start of school.
Purdue's diligence was rewarded.
I know skeptics will say Purdue "lucked into" Octeus.
I suppose, but they say you make your own luck.
And if Painter hadn't put all that time into looking - or if he hadn't put all that time into recruiting lost-cause Trevon Bluiett, thus being around then-Park Tudor coach-turned-UCLA-contact Ed Schilling so much - maybe this lottery ticket never hits in West Lafayette.
Work has a funny way of, um, working out, one way or another.
This worked out for all involved.
Purdue got a crucial, season-changing player; Octeus got a place to play at the highest level after all, now standing right on the precipice of returning to the NCAA Tournament.
What a story it has been.
People call him "Octeus Prime." You know, irresistible nickname.
Me, I typically hate nicknames, because they're almost always stupid and too often given before they're earned.
But in this case, I like "Dark Knight" myself, because Octeus has been Purdue's Batman on the floor and its Bruce Wayne off the floor.
More than anything, again, he's been the hero Purdue needed and the hero it deserved.
Purdue can only hope for a sequel.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2015. 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.
