Express Thoughts From The Weekend: Football's spark, basketball 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 PURDUE QB RYAN BROWNE

Ryan Browne isn’t the prototype. Purdue’s quarterback isn’t exactly an instructional video for throwing mechanics, he’s not a pure pocket passer and his decision-making in option-geared offense remains a work in progress.

What he is, though, is a player. Whatever “it” is, Browne has a lot of it, with an uncanny knack for making chicken salad, as they say, the reason it seems like more of his touchdowns than not this season, the ball’s hit the ground before Browne’s hands. Sometimes when all hell breaks loose, you just gotta be an athlete and go playground mode.

But what Browne also has is an incredibly overlooked quality for quarterbacks: The sort of fight, spirit and energy that make people want to play not just with you, but for you. Drew Brees had it. David Blough had it. A select few others had it. Browne has it, and I think that is going to give Purdue a chance here and there to rise up and exceed the sum of its parts.

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ON PURDUE BASKETBALL AND BIG TEN MEDIA DAY

This week, Purdue and 17 of its closest — um, well, you know what I mean — friends visit the tropical outskirts of O’Hare for Big Ten basketball media days, where coaches will cry into microphones about this revenue-sharing structure that stunned every coach who didn’t read their e-mail or talk to their ADs for the eight months before it came to pass. If nothing else, it will be funny.

You can always tell what coaches are whining about by what national media are parroting, and the whole “It’ll just bring back cheating!” tack is just really stupid and that’s what you’re hearing from the nationals, who weren’t too worried about cheating when they were all laundering it so that their calls and texts would keep getting returned.

Cheating is the worst thing ever now that certain programs and coaches aren’t getting everything they want all the time and there’s actually some measure of parity gaining traction here between Duke, Kansas, Kentucky and everyone else.

It’s funny now how national types seem to be by and large taking this jaded, nihilistic view that all that matters in recruiting now is money, but back in the 2000s and 2010s, Duke was getting every single player it wanted because Coach K was such a closer and all those assistant coaches he had (several of whom got sideways with the NCAA when they became head coaches) worked their asses off.

In Chicago this week, a bunch of coaches will gripe that everyone but them is going to play in the grey. Watch. They’ll complain about the enforcement structure then complain about nothing being enforced.

The two coaches in the league with the most credibility and wisdom — Matt Painter and Tom Izzo — probably won’t be among them. The co-faces of the Big Ten have always worn their hearts on their sleeves and looked out for college basketball. Theirs are the only voices that should carry.

Editor’s Note: Thanks for humoring me on that weird word salad of a rant.

ON PURDUE BASKETBALL

Purdue’s going to Chicago to answer questions despite having the fewest questions to be asked.

There’s no FDU storyline to apply to this season, just the reality that Purdue is really good and really known. For the latter reason, Purdue is kinda boring this year as far as media interest goes, though it’s about time the goal posts move on Painter and this turns to nothing short of national title equals failure, which is stupid, but not something Purdue would even disagree with.

This is going to be a mind virus of a season around Purdue in the court of public opinion, chock full of bold declarations after wins, Walking Dead-level scorched earth after losses and some of the worst Internet takesmanship and click-hoarding you’ll ever see in your life. And if you were here two seasons ago, you’ve seen your share.

The Inside Baseball stuff some of us care about — playing two bigs together, defensive rebounding’s connection to transition offense, etc. — aren’t what media day is all about. It’s about narratives. I hate that word and had blacklisted it until just this moment, but that’s what this day is about and it’s kind of what makes it insufferable and good for very little beyond BTN theatre.

Anyway, stay tuned to our site Thursday for full coverage from Big Ten media day. 🙂