Welcome to this week's “BOILING OVER,” GoldandBlack.com’s weekly Ultimate Ticket information-clearinghouse and analysis column meant for our subscribers and our subscribers only.
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When we say "contract year," we mean that Painter currently has three years remaining on his current deal and ideally for recruiting purposes, five (or more) is a good number, especially considering the importance of the 2017 recruiting class for Purdue.
We have long expected this to be a pretty straight-forward deal in terms of the two sides simply extending the current terms for period of time, maybe just two years.
Don't know if the NCAA results from this past year have changed any dynamics there or not and not sure what effect on this Purdue's transition at athletic director has. We believe Morgan Burke is handling Purdue's end of this, but obviously all contract matters require more than one hand in that cookie jar.
Something could be finalized soon. (staff)
The fifth-year point guard who went to Southport High School was going to visit Purdue today, but a family work conflict deep-sixed it, but he will officially visit first chance he gets.
Per a source close to Thomas, Minnesota, Northwestern, IUPUI, Georgia State and Duquesne have joined Purdue in those who've already reached out since news came out yesterday of his free agency.
Thomas and Spike Albrecht from Michigan - despite some talk of him maybe returning to Michigan, that's almost certainly not happening - are both going to be players Purdue recruits. Can/would it take both if it could get them? No idea, but that would seem like an unlikely scenario anyway.
The 5-foot-11, 190-pound Thomas averaged 12.3 points this past season. He wasn't particularly efficient shooting the ball, but committed just 47 turnovers in more than a thousand minutes for Rob Senderhoff's Kent State program this season. His junior season was marred by injury, but he started 22 games his first two seasons with the Flashes.
We haven't seen Thomas play in years, not since his AAU days, but between he and Albrecht, he'd be the faster and quicker of the two, Albrecht the better shooter and obviously the one with Big Ten and NCAA Tournament experience.
Thomas, who scored 20 or more four times for 19-13 Kent State this season, is a lefty who did a lot of his damage at Kent State off ball screens and in transition. Physically, and in his mechanics, posture and shot delivery, he's actually strikingly similar to Ronnie Johnson.
Hard to imagine at this point Purdue not getting one of these guys considering the opportunity and the proximity to their homes. (BN)
With Drew Brees, one of the major donors on the project, on hand for the spring game, it makes the timing right. The project is expected to be completed by August, 2017 and to date nearly $13 million has been raised.
Brees is expected to help raise up to $62,500 with a $250-per person autograph session before the spring game which will be done in conjunction with fellow Boilermaker Super Bowl champions such as Bob Griese and Matt Light.
As of this morning, there is still space available for the event which is limited to 250 fans. The opportunity for three fans to catch a pass from Brees at halftime is also part of an online auction with the top trio of bids ranging from $828 to $1150.
Purdue has been very active early in looking at junior college wide receivers and offensive tackles (again). (BN)
• As is his general approach to most everything, Swanigan is going to level-headed and unemotional about this process. It's nothing personal, strictly business, to quote Michael Corleone.
But though he made say anything publicly about having a baseline for what he's willing to accept from a draft-stock perspective, this is a player conditioned to make reasoned, pragmatic choices. Obviously he has been on a fast-track sort of path, taking into account his reclassification in high school, but it would be hard to imagine Swanigan cashing in his college chips before he's come close to maxing out his stock.
He and his group are astute people and the fact that Swanigan has gotten through the hard part of his transition to the 4 to this point where he might be primed to take off likely isn't lost on them, though the season did end badly for Purdue. Provided he remains his usual emotionless self when it comes to such matters, we wouldn't think that would compel him to leave prematurely.
(Swanigan just lost one of the most influential people in his career in Eugene Parker, but not sure that would have any bearing on this beside taking away a trusted, respected and connected influence.)
All this said, it is entirely possible Swanigan crushes workouts and gets favorable feedback for it to make sense to go now. That possibility shouldn't be discounted, because NBA people already have background with Swanigan from his high school and USA Basketball days.
As for Edwards, this feels like a deal where he's in it for the experience and to lay the groundwork for the future. It would be shocking if he left, quite honestly, but again, you never know. (BN)
Purdue might be wise to prepare now for life after Isaac Haas and Swanigan and it would be an attractive hypothetical to bring in a sit-out transfer who could practice against those players next season, acclimate to the program, then step in in 2017.
But again: The 2017 class is a critical one for Purdue, so the Boilermaker coaching staff isn't going to make moves now to compromise its options there unless it's a no-brainer, most likely. (BN)
There still are three- and four-receiver sets with the occasional double-tight-end grouping. There still are options elements, still plays that have QBs rolling out of the pocket. There's still a possibility at varying tempo with no-huddle looks.
Without seeing the playbook — and knowing what John Shoop's said — it's hard as an outsider to identify just where most of the offense has changed.
Except in one place: The offensive line's splits. The fellas up front have widened them, something that was discussed last season but never implemented, for whatever reason. But now, under Malone and new O-line coach Darrell Funk, the group has spread out after being essentially foot-to-foot last season to having about a foot-and-a-half between them.
It'd seem, with the widening, that it'd make it more difficult for Purdue to zone block, which it likes to do, and double-team before bouncing a lineman up to take out a linebacker, which it also likes to do.
Apparently, though, that's not the case, says fifth-year guard Jason King. Because, though Purdue's splits are wider, they're not that wide, at least not enough to derail its primary intentions.
"The big splits — you can see on tape during practice or watching any NFL tape — you can see how they help," King said recently. "You want to have a perfect block every play, of course, but if you don’t get the width that you want to be able to get on a 3-tech(nique tackle) and you’re running inside zone, those big splits, they create natural running lanes. So it makes a couple of things a little more difficult, but in the grand scheme of things, it makes the running lanes bigger. It really helps out."
The Boilermakers won't be a zone-blocking-only team, though, in 2016. It's likely Purdue will man block on certain plays to take advantage of the athleticism of guards King and Jordan Roos, as well as center Kirk Barron. Good teams can do both — and Purdue wants to be able to do both.
This spring, though, King and his linemates still are getting used to the newness of the splits and even more small details many don't see.
"There are tons of things that are different and a lot of them, I don’t even know what’s going on behind me. I’m just blocking," said King, smiling. "That’s one thing that has never changed for me. But (the linemen) are going to different people. We’ve got different points, different linebackers, different combos, you leave certain people unblocked, you block certain people — there’s differences that I’ve had to get in the playbook and realize because I thought maybe it was the same, too. But I was wrong." (SC)
• GoldandBlack.com is in the middle of its annual plea for donations to support research at the Purdue Center for Cancer Research as part of The Challenge 5K Run/Walk. The event, in its ninth year, takes place the morning of the spring game at 8:30 a.m. at the North end of Ross-Ade. You can still register to participate, but if you can’t make it, a donation is greatly appreciated. Nearly 1,300 have registered as of Thursday morning with the goal to beat the record of 1,800 participants by next Saturday. The long-range forecast is good, which will help. The Challenge has raised nearly $500,000 for cancer research over the years and hopes to add well over $100,000 to that total this year.
There will be much to discuss with both. Hope you'll join us.
If you can't, a replay will be posted later in the afternoon.
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