With Purdue basketball set to officially open preseason practice on Oct. 14, we are keeping busy with a series making projections on each of Purdue's scholarship players, keeping in mind that we are basing such things off less than ever because of this bizarro world off-season. Please keep in mind that more in unknown — to people like us and maybe even to coaches and such — than ever before heading into a season.
Anyway, we continue today with Eric Hunter, as we go in descending order by eligibility.
Prior Editions: Trevion Williams.
The point in his career
Hunter's at the same point in his career as a bunch of his teammates, that moment where experience should lead to considerable gains, gains that his team very much needs. After playing a secondary role on a championship team as a freshman, Hunter played more of a leading role last season, by and large a successful one for him, but one where room for growth remained very apparent. As Purdue aims to become more consistent, guard play will matter so much along those lines. Hunter must be part of the solution, in more ways than one, whether it's consistency, aggressiveness, decision-making, defensive effort, whatever it may be. He's one of Purdue's most important players and seemingly quite capable of raising his level as needed. He's not a kid anymore.
Projected role
Hunter will be Purdue's point guard again, for all intents and purposes, which isn't to say it's the only role he'll play, but it's the main role he'll play. He must — must — be one of the Boilermakers' top scorers and he will probably have the ball in his hands as much as anyone all season.
If he plays well, plays smart, plays hard, etc., he will lead Purdue in minutes. That said, if he doesn't, Purdue has the sort of options now it didn't last season and Ethan Morton and Isaiah Thompson will be happy to lay claim to some of those minutes. Everyone in the backcourt is now on notice in that sense.
But the likeliest scenario is Hunter is one of Purdue's rocks. He did more than enough last season to suggest that should be the deal, and he's too important on offense and perhaps more so on defense — he should be Purdue's best perimeter defender — to not be on the floor a lot.
Best case scenario
The best case for Hunter is that he grows, that he grows into a more assertive, more aggressive and more authoritative player, and a more consistent player. Purdue must improve wholesale offensively, and that starts with its guards not playing passively, with them being certain and purposeful in their cuts and all Purdue's other offensive actions. Purdue needs Hunter to score, and he will need to look to, and be ready to, when the moment finds him. He disappeared at times in that sense last season, which might have been just part of the process for all we know. Purdue needs Hunter to dogged and disciplined on defense, because his position is the most important on the floor and on a team with a number of imperfect defenders, Hunter at least has a résumé of sorts at that end of the floor.
Hunter's ceiling may in the best-case scenario may be a back-end sort of All-Big Ten campaign In which he's a consistent double-digit scorer — he should be one of Purdue's top three, IMO — and more importantly a consistent decision-maker, on top of a solid defensive player.
Purdue desperately needs leadership, too, this season, and he'll be one of the ones hoping to provide it.
Worst case scenario
The worst case, as with a lot of these guys, is that Hunter stays the same, that he remains inconsistent, that guard play continues to hold the offensive back, that he doesn't assert himself on D or show great maturity and leadership and such, and he winds up losing minutes to younger guys.
I think Hunter is pretty close to being the right side of known commodity, but nothing is guaranteed at this stage.
Reasonable expectations
Somewhere between the best and worst scenarios, the truth probably lies. Hunter is capable of being a pretty good Big Ten player. Expecting an All-Big Ten sort of season may be ambitious, but he's good enough where you can expect a baseline of productivity that would make him one of Purdue's best players and most important players.
He should be one of Purdue's two or three top scorers, may lead them in assists, should improve his shooting percentages, and should be a reliable defender. How much all of it leads to winning will tell the tale of his season more than anything, though.
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