I'll give it a go. Keep in mind there is no clear cut answers, or solutions to these questions. Just like there would be no clear cut answers if I were to flip your questions around and ask what's keeping us from getting to the FF, or landing top 50 recruits....
Bringing in talent:
It is my belief that the coach is by far the biggest factor in landing top talent. I'm not saying the coach alone is over 50% of the reason a recruit would choose a school, but it is by far the biggest reason (ie. If the coach is 35% of the reason a recruit chooses a school, and the next biggest factor is say location at 10%).
A lot of you will say things like playing time and play style are factors as well. It is my belief that both those factors fall under the "Coach" category. The coach controls playing time. The coach controls play style.
At Purdue we need to get rid of the "defense lives here" and being a "Blue Collar" team brands. These brands don't resonate with young people, and especially not with elite talent. This years team is playing incredibly fast, however the view of most in the country is that Purdue is still a slow playing team that makes its mark on the defensive end (obviously not this season). Our marketing department, along with our coaching staff needs to be promoting how we have seemingly finally changed to look like a modern basketball team.
Furthermore, we need a Gen Ed major. I'm not saying we make admission standards less, but we need to offer an easier option (no required math). I'm sure this point will draw a ton of criticism.
Lastly, we absolutely need to get rid of the "IU Sucks" chant when we aren't playing IU. People outside of Purdue don't get it. It makes us seem petty and weird (although fun to scream when hammered drunk at Purdue sporting events). When we are playing a home football game and say it on kickoffs, you can go on twitter and see tweet after tweet of people asking why we are chanting IU Sucks when we arent playing them. I know for sure one basketball recruit that didn't understand why it was being said (IU recruit as well).
Tourney Success:
Our team is setup year after year to be competitive in the Big Ten, but not on the national level. Big Ten play is physical. We can be competitive, because we usually have dominant bigs that can overpower people physically. Most Big Ten teams don't have super athletic teams, so we can get away with this without being run off the court. When it comes to the NCAA tournament and we get matched up with a superior team athletically we get run off the court. We need less Clines and Sashas and more Malik Halls and Louis Kings. We need less Haas and Hammons and more JJJs and TJDs.
Plain and simple, we need to get more athletic while also not losing skill (ie. top 50 talent). This season we got more athletic in some areas. Haarms is more athletic than Haas. Nojel more athletic than PJ. Wheeler more athletic than Vince. The issue is the guys I just mentioned that we lost were all more skilled than who we have now.
*I'm sure these opinions are going to set some off*