Last year we played a pretty weak non-conference schedule. According to the selection committees there were several teams that didn't make any postseason tournament due to scheduling. Is this something we might strengthen this coming year?
A: Well, Purdue obviously didn't miss the postseason this year because of its schedule, which was a pretty user-friendly one, whether it was the non-conference portion or the single-play advantages it had in the Big Ten season. Had the Boilermakers won a few more games and gotten themselves onto the bubble, that schedule would have hurt them, but in part due to factors outside its control, to some extent.
Butler obviously didn't have the sort of season you normally expect from Butler and Oklahoma State, the jewel of Purdue's pre-conference schedule, didn't finish anywhere close to where it started. Purdue had no say in its ACC/Big Ten draw, so getting a poor Boston College team wasn't its call. The win at West Virginia was arguably Purdue's best of the season.
For next year, obviously Purdue will have the same basic structure in place. Its exempt tournament will be the Maui Invitational, where others in the field include Arizona, Kansas State, Missouri, Pittsburgh, San Diego State, BYU and host Chaminade. That alone gets you a couple of, at worst, respectable games. That event is loaded.
The ACC/Big Ten gets you another, though considering Purdue finished where it finished in the Big Ten this year, we'd expect a game against a lower-profile ACC team, with Notre Dame almost certainly not being the pick since the two teams will already be playing at the Crossroads Classic. It's all up to TV, but just looking at standings, some possibilities would seem to be Wake Forest or Georgia Tech.
Purdue hosted its ACC/Big Ten game this year, but there's no guarantee that means it'll be on the road this year.
Again, Purdue will draw Notre Dame in the Crossroads.
The West Virginia home-and-home has run its course. Matt Painter has said he'd like to have a similar sort of level of game each year, as they have with teams with WVU or Xavier in recent years. If Purdue has something in the works for next season, we're unaware of it at this point, but figuring something will be in place. If the ACC game is on the road, Purdue will want an attractive game in Mackey Arena.
Purdue, and anyone else, crafts schedules based on the teams they have returning, so I don't know. Right now, Purdue is in a position where it will have as many freshmen as returnees next season, maybe more depending on how this spring shakes out. For that reason, it wouldn't seem likely for them to try to play the world next season, especially with Maui already on the docket. They will want a good home game on the schedule though, whoever that may be.
I realize this might be hard to answer right now, but what do you foresee the basketball team doing to add to the roster in the short term? Will fifth-year transfers (if any are available) be the only option? Will any junior college players be on the table? If so, any idea which JUCOs might be possibilities? I'm assuming that with a five-man class already committed that adding another freshman is unlikely, for class balancing purposes.
A: All options on the table. Purdue would be most interested in guard help, probably, but when you only have five returning players on scholarship, it's not like you're loaded at any one position.
The most likely situation being for Purdue to monitor the waiver wire for recruits who've gotten out of letters to schools that have gone through coaching changes.
The high school senior class and prep school ranks are probably pretty picked over at this point, but will be looked at too.
As for the junior college ranks, not sure that's ideal. Purdue hasn't signed a junior college player in years and hasn't seriously, seriously recruited one in a while. It's dabbled with a few, but hasn't really tried to sign any of them.
Purdue does now have a bunch of scholarship space to play with, too, which is good news for the 2015 recruiting class, but also gives it the luxury now to accommodate a transfer if a worthwhile one can be found. An extra body wouldn't hurt in practice next season, and then an experienced addition to the 2015-16 team wouldn't be such a bad thing for practical reasons, class balance included.
Fifth-year transfers are always ideal and will be until that loophole is closed any day now. But if you're relying on that market, you're setting yourself up for disappointment, because there's no telling who's going to be available and those who are are going to over-recruited into oblivion. Things lined up perfectly for Purdue to get the two guys it got last spring. That won't happen every year.
I know they're not directly connected, but does Ronnie Johnson transferring make Hammons more or less likely to leave (other factors notwithstanding)?
A: Hammons won't be deciding whether or not to return to Purdue. He'll be deciding whether or not to leave for the NBA. There's a distinction there. So this consideration would be a minor one, but we can tell you with certainty that it makes Hammons' situation at Purdue a better one for him and would have a positive effect on his feelings toward returning. But it shouldn't be a deal-breaker either way.
Question: Do you think the Chemistry on this team gets better this next year? Is there anyone else besides Davis that you believe will be a leader on this team?
A: There's no telling, but the past two springs - if it even counts as spring right now - have seen some players leave who were impacting chemistry for the worse. Purdue has to get it fixed, and it'll be up to this year's combination of freshmen and sophomores to do, because they're going to represent most of the scholarship roster.
In terms of leadership, Rapheal Davis is obviously the one who sticks out. He emerged later in the season and has always been a good example-setter sort of player, it's seemed like. Him moving up the ranks now may empower him to be even more assertive, with no upperclassmen around to defer to.
From the sophomore class, we'll see, but they have to grow up in a hurry. Basil Smotherman is a pretty positive, charismatic guy and there's something to be said for that. Bryson Scott puts in work and practices hard and that can be of great value too as long as he's positive about everything. It will be interesting to see what Kendall Stephens grows into all across the board.
The incoming freshman class seems like an atypically mature on, but you never know. Dakota Mathias and Vince Edwards are guys who take basketball very seriously and really work and P.J. Thompson was recruited, I can promise you, for his demeanor almost as much as anything. Isaac Haas is smart. Not leaving out JacQuil Taylor but just don't know enough about him, other than the fact that any time a kid chooses a school based primarily on academics, he's got at least most of his synapses firing. But I'll repeat: You never know until they get here.
But Purdue is in a different sort of position, same as it was back in '07-08 when it is going to be an underclassmen-dominated roster.
A: Well, Purdue obviously didn't miss the postseason this year because of its schedule, which was a pretty user-friendly one, whether it was the non-conference portion or the single-play advantages it had in the Big Ten season. Had the Boilermakers won a few more games and gotten themselves onto the bubble, that schedule would have hurt them, but in part due to factors outside its control, to some extent.
Butler obviously didn't have the sort of season you normally expect from Butler and Oklahoma State, the jewel of Purdue's pre-conference schedule, didn't finish anywhere close to where it started. Purdue had no say in its ACC/Big Ten draw, so getting a poor Boston College team wasn't its call. The win at West Virginia was arguably Purdue's best of the season.
For next year, obviously Purdue will have the same basic structure in place. Its exempt tournament will be the Maui Invitational, where others in the field include Arizona, Kansas State, Missouri, Pittsburgh, San Diego State, BYU and host Chaminade. That alone gets you a couple of, at worst, respectable games. That event is loaded.
The ACC/Big Ten gets you another, though considering Purdue finished where it finished in the Big Ten this year, we'd expect a game against a lower-profile ACC team, with Notre Dame almost certainly not being the pick since the two teams will already be playing at the Crossroads Classic. It's all up to TV, but just looking at standings, some possibilities would seem to be Wake Forest or Georgia Tech.
Purdue hosted its ACC/Big Ten game this year, but there's no guarantee that means it'll be on the road this year.
Again, Purdue will draw Notre Dame in the Crossroads.
The West Virginia home-and-home has run its course. Matt Painter has said he'd like to have a similar sort of level of game each year, as they have with teams with WVU or Xavier in recent years. If Purdue has something in the works for next season, we're unaware of it at this point, but figuring something will be in place. If the ACC game is on the road, Purdue will want an attractive game in Mackey Arena.
Purdue, and anyone else, crafts schedules based on the teams they have returning, so I don't know. Right now, Purdue is in a position where it will have as many freshmen as returnees next season, maybe more depending on how this spring shakes out. For that reason, it wouldn't seem likely for them to try to play the world next season, especially with Maui already on the docket. They will want a good home game on the schedule though, whoever that may be.
I realize this might be hard to answer right now, but what do you foresee the basketball team doing to add to the roster in the short term? Will fifth-year transfers (if any are available) be the only option? Will any junior college players be on the table? If so, any idea which JUCOs might be possibilities? I'm assuming that with a five-man class already committed that adding another freshman is unlikely, for class balancing purposes.
A: All options on the table. Purdue would be most interested in guard help, probably, but when you only have five returning players on scholarship, it's not like you're loaded at any one position.
The most likely situation being for Purdue to monitor the waiver wire for recruits who've gotten out of letters to schools that have gone through coaching changes.
The high school senior class and prep school ranks are probably pretty picked over at this point, but will be looked at too.
As for the junior college ranks, not sure that's ideal. Purdue hasn't signed a junior college player in years and hasn't seriously, seriously recruited one in a while. It's dabbled with a few, but hasn't really tried to sign any of them.
Purdue does now have a bunch of scholarship space to play with, too, which is good news for the 2015 recruiting class, but also gives it the luxury now to accommodate a transfer if a worthwhile one can be found. An extra body wouldn't hurt in practice next season, and then an experienced addition to the 2015-16 team wouldn't be such a bad thing for practical reasons, class balance included.
Fifth-year transfers are always ideal and will be until that loophole is closed any day now. But if you're relying on that market, you're setting yourself up for disappointment, because there's no telling who's going to be available and those who are are going to over-recruited into oblivion. Things lined up perfectly for Purdue to get the two guys it got last spring. That won't happen every year.
I know they're not directly connected, but does Ronnie Johnson transferring make Hammons more or less likely to leave (other factors notwithstanding)?
A: Hammons won't be deciding whether or not to return to Purdue. He'll be deciding whether or not to leave for the NBA. There's a distinction there. So this consideration would be a minor one, but we can tell you with certainty that it makes Hammons' situation at Purdue a better one for him and would have a positive effect on his feelings toward returning. But it shouldn't be a deal-breaker either way.
Question: Do you think the Chemistry on this team gets better this next year? Is there anyone else besides Davis that you believe will be a leader on this team?
A: There's no telling, but the past two springs - if it even counts as spring right now - have seen some players leave who were impacting chemistry for the worse. Purdue has to get it fixed, and it'll be up to this year's combination of freshmen and sophomores to do, because they're going to represent most of the scholarship roster.
In terms of leadership, Rapheal Davis is obviously the one who sticks out. He emerged later in the season and has always been a good example-setter sort of player, it's seemed like. Him moving up the ranks now may empower him to be even more assertive, with no upperclassmen around to defer to.
From the sophomore class, we'll see, but they have to grow up in a hurry. Basil Smotherman is a pretty positive, charismatic guy and there's something to be said for that. Bryson Scott puts in work and practices hard and that can be of great value too as long as he's positive about everything. It will be interesting to see what Kendall Stephens grows into all across the board.
The incoming freshman class seems like an atypically mature on, but you never know. Dakota Mathias and Vince Edwards are guys who take basketball very seriously and really work and P.J. Thompson was recruited, I can promise you, for his demeanor almost as much as anything. Isaac Haas is smart. Not leaving out JacQuil Taylor but just don't know enough about him, other than the fact that any time a kid chooses a school based primarily on academics, he's got at least most of his synapses firing. But I'll repeat: You never know until they get here.
But Purdue is in a different sort of position, same as it was back in '07-08 when it is going to be an underclassmen-dominated roster.
