Express Thoughts: Big Ten Player of the Year race, and more

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 BIG TEN PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Has the Big Ten Player of the Year race cleared out in a way that it’s Purdue’s exclusive domain? Maybe.

Look, Braden Smith may run away with it. He is right now. He was the preseason pick and he is the in-season pace-setter.

But Trey Kaufman-Renn has positioned himself well to take silver. The numbers are there, the winning is there and the name recognition is getting there.

And who else is there? Michigan State doesn’t really have one guy. Illinois has been a disappointment as a team, disqualifying its best guys, and Rutgers’ pros aren’t worthy.

Bruce Thornton? He’s good but not player-of-the-year good.

Ace Baldwin‘s and Dawson Garcia‘s teams aren’t good enough to put them in this conversation.

My No. 3 right now would be Danny Wolf and my No. 4 Brice Williams, neither of which you could argue ahead of Kaufman-Renn, let alone Smith, unless Michigan takes off and wins the league outright, which doesn’t seem likely.

Smith and Kaufman-Renn should both be All-Americans at this rate, as Purdue just keeps pumping them out.

Who else in the Big Ten can really say that?

ON PURDUE AND MICHIGAN

Tuesday night’s Purdue game at Michigan may also serve as a peek into the future coaching power structure in the Big Ten, as the league is about to undergo another sea-change cycle in its ranks.

Matt Painter and Dusty May figure to be long-haulers still and set up to swing big sticks in the conference for years to come.

Around them, a shifting landscape.

Mike Woodson’s inevitable ouster formalizes the most obvious looming change. Had IU’s well-funded season gone well, he still would have been just keeping a seat warm. He’s not just 66, but an old 66.

Dana Altman is a young-ish 66 but his Oregon team has taken to the Big Ten like a Duck to a thermal spring and this may not be worth it.

Fran McCaffery is a young 65, but 65 nonetheless in a job that’s getting harder and harder. My guess is you saw the last of him vs. Purdue last week.

Brad Underwood is a stubborn 61 in a job that’s been absolute chaos by his own choosing. He’s had retirement in the back of his mind and probably too old to finish out anywhere else, so the likelihood of him being there another decade may not be great.

How much has managing two lottery picks and coaching a team that doesn’t guard anyone aged 57-year-old Steve Pikiell this season?

Which brings us to the biggest domino. Tom Izzo is 70 and well-known to be less than enthralled with the modern college basketball landscape. He seems well dug in for the time being and intent to go out on top. But that may come down to his definition of “on top,” because there probably aren’t any more Final Fours or national titles forthcoming for the group he has now.

There’s going to be a lot of turnover in the Big Ten in the near future, setting Painter, May and a few others up to rule for a while.

ON FOOTBALL SIGNING DAY

Last week, Purdue coach Barry Odom announced his first 40 — FORTY — Boilermaker signees. What a world.

But like college coaches all over America one of the questions that went only sparsely answered was an important one: Who are these guys? Can coaches themselves even keep ’em all straight? I wouldn’t be able to if I were them.

The game has really changed and with it, so has the fan experience around these teams. But even though TV money matters most, it remains important to connect with your fans. Ticket sales and ancillary revenue matter probably even more now as rev-share comes into play, and viral online goodwill — as opposed to the alternative — should be kept in mind.

Fans’ connections to their teams are being deconstructed and built entirely new these days, in a very short period of time.

Programs would be wise to put their new guys, the transfers in particular, out there, whether that’s through media access, in-house promotion, social media, whatever. Spring ball is a great opportunity in that regard.