Photo credit: Purdue
Question: You've written about Jaden Ivey maybe being a "star" for Purdue? Can you explain why you see that in him?
Answer: Yeah, I've felt that way about Ivey since last spring and probably got ahead of myself in writing it, because I don't take such things lightly. Only recent recruit I can remember tabbing a "star" while they were in high school was David Bell. I'm 1-for-1, I guess.
Obviously, it is early, and the jump from high school to college is not an insignificant one, and this jacked-up off-season can't possibly have helped Purdue's newcomers, but I think Jaden Ivey has everything you think of when you think of a 'star' no matter what our definition of the term may be.
For one thing, I think his skill set and style of play jibe with being exciting. He's fast and athletic and explosive and can do difficult things easily. I think people tend to like scoring, and he can definitely do that in a lot of different ways, but from what I've seen he's an uncommon and creative finisher at the basket and really quick and really fast in space. He can create for himself and could have a few of those one-man-fast-break moments at Purdue.
People like those attention-grabbing moments, I think, part of the reason Carsen Edwards resonated so much with fans, because his game was so viral. Ivey just has an energy about him as an offensive player. I don't know if he's gonna be the three-point shooter that E'Twaun Moore or Edwards were at Purdue — he may be, I don't know — but as a prospect I see him as having some of Moore's game plus some of Edwards' physical gifts, a pretty good combination. Purdue's not had a guy like that.
I think another reason is that he's going to be a pretty driven individual and will carry himself accordingly. He'll be an NBA prospect, IMO, and I could see him being cut from the Caleb Swanigan/Carsen Edwards cloth in terms of the effort he'll put into being a great college player. I think that's something that always resonates with fans. He has a marketable name — "Pick your poison with Ivey" and other such nonsense — and a marketable story with his mother being the coach at Notre Dame.
Third, I think he's a smart, charismatic and thoughtful sort of player who knows basketball, who smiles, who'll be good on camera, and all the other superficial stuff that goes into 'stardom.'
But the most important part of all this is that I think he can be a great player at Purdue.
I think Ethan Morton can achieve sort of localized 'stardom' too because so much of what he'll all about as a player jibes with what Purdue people tend to appreciate. I'm not minimizing what he's capable of here on a broader scale, but I think the possibility exists that he can end up as that sort of Chris Kramer or Rapheal Davis sort, where maybe they weren't necessarily great college players on a national scale, but they were loved at Purdue. Robbie Hummel would be a great example of that, too, but he was a legit national star.
