With the season just completed, GoldandBlack.com is taking your questions as a way of looking back on the season and ahead to next. Here's our latest installment of our extremely original, in-no-way contrived Mailbag, undoubtedly the first of its kind anywhere.
Question: Now that the season is over and all of us have seen the talent and deficiencies on this team, what should we expect from our now seasoned players next year? The freshmen are now a year older playing minutes that juniors would normally get. Making the reasonable assumptions that no Hammons and no transfer point guard, do you see this team being better, worse or about the same?
Answer: It is really is too early to speculate credibly because the Hammons decision and spring/summer recruiting loom large here, but if all things remain as is - i.e. Hammons returns - or even if they don't and Hammons leaves, then there's no reason Purdue can't be even better next season, at least in part because I think you can reasonably expect it to play more consistent early.
We can't say Purdue started slow this season with all its new faces, because it didn't. When the Boilermakers were 7-1, they looked like a sure-fire NCAA team and fringe top-25 sort of team. Then Purdue went through that spell where it defended like it had four guys on the court and the bottom dropped out for a while.
Any way you slice it, Purdue will have the luxury of a more experienced team next season and a team more accustomed to playing in meaningful games and, in a lot of cases, winning them. The experience next year's team will have shouldn't just be measured in the volume of games its players have played, but the circumstances those games were played under, too. There has to be some value in that.
Purdue had pretty solid leadership this season and there's no reason to think that won't continue. Even if it's just Rapheal Davis in the senior class if Hammons leaves, then that's one more ideal leader than the two teams prior to this season had and a great starting point. Jon Octeus will be missed, but there's immense leadership potential in that rising sophomore class that'll come to bear organically.
From a basketball perspective, it is reasonable to expect everybody to be a little bit better than they were this past season, though I think the freshmen's potential lies more in being experienced and understanding the college game better than it does in anything physical- or skills-related. Those guys came in pretty advanced as players from Day 1 so their upside probably lies more in just intangibles.
The rising juniors have to make a jump. Have to.
They all got passed over in one way or another this season, and for whatever reason, by freshmen. Last year, Purdue's juniors - Davis and Hammons - made big jumps. It would really help if these guys now would do the same as they elevate to upperclassman status.
Kendall Stephens will be better next season. I'm fairly certain of that. I think he's too good of a player and a conscientious enough individual for this disappointing season to be his new normal.
That's where some of Purdue's up-side lies collectively: It was a good shooting team this season that shot lousy, no better than it did the year before, actually. If that gets straightened, it will make it better. Not sure Purdue will be its 2011-12 form next season, but it won't be its 2014-15 form either, and this season, just a few more shots here and there might have won it three or four more games, including its NCAA tourney game, obviously.
Purdue's sophomores will all be at least incrementally better with experience next season, but the common denominator among all of them is athleticism, quickness, etc., the same areas where Rapheal Davis made pretty notable progress last season.
Vince Edwards and Dakota Mathias can obviously improve defensively and part of that might just be becoming a little more quicker-footed, faster, agile and stronger. Strength is an area where Edwards can make progress and will want to to become the rebounder he's capable of being.
Isaac Haas is obviously, obviously, obviously never going to be Vince Carter circa 2002 athletically being as big as he is, but Purdue doesn't need him to be. The quicker and more agile he can get, the better, especially defensively. Opponents moving forward are going to try to isolate him defensively on face-ups if they can and put him in ball-screen defense, so the better he can hold up in those areas of the game, the better chance he has for his greatest advantage to not be turned into a vulnerability, if you ask me.
P.J. Thompson may have a golden opportunity at point guard. Like with all his classmates, he will want to get a quicker, more athletic, etc. if he can.
But like with all his classmates, it's just a matter of understanding things better, and all of those young players understood things uncommonly well this season.
Purdue was a young team this season. It won't be next season. Everyone returning can obviously improve, but I think the two biggest things are simply experience and that dormant outside shooting coming alive.
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.
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Question: Now that the season is over and all of us have seen the talent and deficiencies on this team, what should we expect from our now seasoned players next year? The freshmen are now a year older playing minutes that juniors would normally get. Making the reasonable assumptions that no Hammons and no transfer point guard, do you see this team being better, worse or about the same?
Answer: It is really is too early to speculate credibly because the Hammons decision and spring/summer recruiting loom large here, but if all things remain as is - i.e. Hammons returns - or even if they don't and Hammons leaves, then there's no reason Purdue can't be even better next season, at least in part because I think you can reasonably expect it to play more consistent early.
We can't say Purdue started slow this season with all its new faces, because it didn't. When the Boilermakers were 7-1, they looked like a sure-fire NCAA team and fringe top-25 sort of team. Then Purdue went through that spell where it defended like it had four guys on the court and the bottom dropped out for a while.
Any way you slice it, Purdue will have the luxury of a more experienced team next season and a team more accustomed to playing in meaningful games and, in a lot of cases, winning them. The experience next year's team will have shouldn't just be measured in the volume of games its players have played, but the circumstances those games were played under, too. There has to be some value in that.
Purdue had pretty solid leadership this season and there's no reason to think that won't continue. Even if it's just Rapheal Davis in the senior class if Hammons leaves, then that's one more ideal leader than the two teams prior to this season had and a great starting point. Jon Octeus will be missed, but there's immense leadership potential in that rising sophomore class that'll come to bear organically.
From a basketball perspective, it is reasonable to expect everybody to be a little bit better than they were this past season, though I think the freshmen's potential lies more in being experienced and understanding the college game better than it does in anything physical- or skills-related. Those guys came in pretty advanced as players from Day 1 so their upside probably lies more in just intangibles.
The rising juniors have to make a jump. Have to.
They all got passed over in one way or another this season, and for whatever reason, by freshmen. Last year, Purdue's juniors - Davis and Hammons - made big jumps. It would really help if these guys now would do the same as they elevate to upperclassman status.
Kendall Stephens will be better next season. I'm fairly certain of that. I think he's too good of a player and a conscientious enough individual for this disappointing season to be his new normal.
That's where some of Purdue's up-side lies collectively: It was a good shooting team this season that shot lousy, no better than it did the year before, actually. If that gets straightened, it will make it better. Not sure Purdue will be its 2011-12 form next season, but it won't be its 2014-15 form either, and this season, just a few more shots here and there might have won it three or four more games, including its NCAA tourney game, obviously.
Purdue's sophomores will all be at least incrementally better with experience next season, but the common denominator among all of them is athleticism, quickness, etc., the same areas where Rapheal Davis made pretty notable progress last season.
Vince Edwards and Dakota Mathias can obviously improve defensively and part of that might just be becoming a little more quicker-footed, faster, agile and stronger. Strength is an area where Edwards can make progress and will want to to become the rebounder he's capable of being.
Isaac Haas is obviously, obviously, obviously never going to be Vince Carter circa 2002 athletically being as big as he is, but Purdue doesn't need him to be. The quicker and more agile he can get, the better, especially defensively. Opponents moving forward are going to try to isolate him defensively on face-ups if they can and put him in ball-screen defense, so the better he can hold up in those areas of the game, the better chance he has for his greatest advantage to not be turned into a vulnerability, if you ask me.
P.J. Thompson may have a golden opportunity at point guard. Like with all his classmates, he will want to get a quicker, more athletic, etc. if he can.
But like with all his classmates, it's just a matter of understanding things better, and all of those young players understood things uncommonly well this season.
Purdue was a young team this season. It won't be next season. Everyone returning can obviously improve, but I think the two biggest things are simply experience and that dormant outside shooting coming alive.
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.
https://purdue.rivals.com/content.asp?SID=892&CID=818514
