You can look at the class of 2014 positively or negatively. Haas and Edwards sought to enter the draft, but both were told to go back to school because, you're not NBA material. Neither PJ or Mathias are close to NBA material. Cline isn't getting any looks. Simply stated, we've got a bunch of players who are still here, because they are not good enough to play at the next level.
Many people here claim that Edwards and has will surely be drafted next year. There were people out of UW and Maryland who said the exact same thing about their star players. the reality is their players weren't NBA material either.
and a current look at our team, I don't see anybody on it who is or will be an NBA player. The closest would be eastern if he becomes a PG. the NBA doesn't need or want a 6'6 SF, and has plenty of quick combo shooting guards.
and admittedly that effects recruiting. A guy like Carmody who still has NBA dreams doesn't want to come to a school where he will be at most a 6th man for the next 2-3 years. That would be the same for all of the guards Painter is currently recruiting. outside of Langford, none of them are great enough to be one and done players. And none of them are probably great enough to be able to unseat Edwards or Eastern to earn a starting role. At best, they would be a platoon player and play 20-25 minutes. And that's a hard sell for any coach to go and recruit a top 150 player and tell them they won't start for another 2-3 years. And I doubt any elite guard wants to come here and play SF just because they are taller than 6'5.
Purdue's good recruiting is its worst enemy. We have good players, but not elite players. unlike UK, Painter was not able to tell/sell JJJ that he would be an immediate starter and replace Biggie. I imagine that was part of his sales pitch, but biggie's late announcement really hurt our recruiting opportunity for JJJ. the same could be said about Bowen. he didn't see immediate starting time at SF on Purdue's roster. And on offense, he would have been the #3 or #4 scoring option at best.
Ask yourself the question, If Bowen came to Purdue, would he start? probably not. Would he get more than 20 mins playing time a game? probably not. and o n the pecking order of shooting /scoring, where would he be? I'd say at best he'd be after Edwards, Mathias, and Edwards. and maybe Haas. many guys could handle this. But most top 50 players would not.
and i' m sorry, nobody ever believes the story al l positions are open, and you just need to beat out the player in camp. Eastern is far better than PJ, but as has been said many times by people in the know. PJ WILL be the starter. if I was a top 50 rivals player, I wouldn't want to go to a team where I'd sit on the bench for my first 2 years.
that's the good and bad of having good , but not elite players. Elite players look for holes and to immediately become a star or at least play for Duke or UK and use that as an excuse for not starting. if an elite player came to Purdue and didn't become a star his freshman year, he'd move on to someplace where he would be - just ask Kyle Macy.
