Express Thoughts: Basketball starters and going for two

GoldandBlack.com’s Express Thoughts from the Weekend column, with analysis of Purdue football, Boilermaker men’s basketball, recruiting, or whatever else comes to mind.

ON PURDUE BASKETBALL STARTERS

For months, I’ve been telling you that Purdue’s starting five for this season was as set as can be, with its five main returnees locked in. I was wrong.

Do not be surprised in the least if freshman guard Gicarri Harris starts his first game at Purdue and every one thereafter. There’s star potential in that one.

Do not surprised if a 7-footer — maybe Will Berg, maybe Daniel Jacobsen — pushes Trey Kaufman-Renn out to forward again, at least to begin with.

You’re going to have scoring-optimized lineups with Kaufman-Renn at center and rebounding- and rim-protection-optimized lineups with the two bigs, and it may just come down to which Matt Painter decides to lean toward. I always assumed scoring, but maybe not, or maybe not every game. I don’t know.

But it’s great for Purdue that this team does have real competition when it easily could have split like oil and water between veterans and freshmen.

The best competitive situations are the ones where people have to earn their spots, then keep re-earning it again and again.

That’s what Purdue seems to have here when it might not always have looked like that would be the case.

ON GOING FOR IT

Upon further refection, I can’t say Ryan Walters made the right call or the wrong call by going for a game-winning two-point conversion at Illinois this weekend, because that decision is one where right and wrong is only determined in hindsight and no coach has that luxury in the moment.

But I will walk back my explicit opinion that he was wrong to not extend the game and keep the pressure on Illinois. Before Purdue even scored its OT touchdown, my sneaking suspicion was that the emotions of this deeply personal game for him might get the best of him, but that just as soon could have happened to Bret Bielema and I have no reason to believe hubris drove that decision, nor was it fair for me to suggest it might have.

Whether it was the right call to go for it all right there, you have to make that decision in a rational way that does right by the players who put their team in that position in the first place. It’s too bad for them it didn’t end on the fourth quarter fumble that wasn’t called right, but those are the breaks of the game.

ON COLLEGE BASKETBALL LINEUPS

Can you still play big men together in college basketball anymore? This Big Ten season to come might address that question.

Obviously, Purdue just had a great season playing Zach Edey and Trey Kaufman-Renn side-by-side, but Matt Painter also had the flexibility to get out of it quickly and effectively when floor-spacing or defensive problems popped up. Mason Gillis afforded them that leeway and you might have noticed that Gillis actually played more minutes than the player he backed up.

Now, Purdue will play Kaufman-Renn a good deal next to a 7-footer, but won’t be the only Big Ten team doing such a thing.

Is Indiana going to play Oumar Ballo and Malik Reneau together? Did playing Reneau next to Kel’el Ware really work last season?

If so, what becomes of Mackenzie Mbakwo, who’s better at the 4 at this level? The true small forward is dying a slow death at all levels of basketball these days, especially in college basketball, a sport for guards. You will see the value of additional ball-handlers guiding Purdue’s lineups a lot this season.

Is Maryland going to put Julian Reese next to Derik Queen?

Is Michigan going to play 7-footers Vlad Goldin and Danny Wolf, its two best newcomers, together? If so, what becomes of Will Tschetter, your best returnee? As we know, Tschetter makes everything better. Cheesy joke, I know.

Is Michigan State really going to use 7-footer Xavier Booker at a position other than center, where his shooting makes him a real pain-in-the-neck matchup? Doesn’t him being guarded by more mobile people kind of defeat the purpose?

All of these teams are going to have to find the right balance between finding lineups that can dribble and shoot and guard dynamic offense while also getting the most out of their best players/their NIL money’s worth.