Express Thoughts: Purdue’s NCAA Outlook

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

ON PURDUE’S NCAA TOURNAMENT OUTLOOK

In a distinct turnabout from a year ago at this time, when Purdue went bracketeering with the weight of the world on its shoulders, this season it heads to the NCAA Tournament with only the pressure it puts on itself. No one will make the Boilermakers a punchline this season if they don’t reach a certain rarified air this month, nor does this team have a pterodactyl-sized albatross to scare off, as last year’s team did.

“Underdog” is probably too heavy a term for a premier program carrying a 4 seed, but there’s no doubt this is at least an opportunity for Purdue to surprise people again. That’s not a position it’s been in often the past few years and perhaps it’s a role this team can figure out how to embrace and channel productively these next few days. This is what losing six of nine to end the season can do to shape perception.

Purdue has personalities accustomed to flipping the bird — not that poor albatross — to perception and now gets another chance to do so, starting with the most important element of all: Defensive energy.

The Boilermakers obviously need to watch film of Round 1 opponent High Point, but a refresher on January Purdue might not hurt, too. You remember January Purdue, the one highlighted by help defenders appearing suddenly at the right place at the right time, seemingly from out of nowhere. And frenzied hands. And misdemeanor-level harassment of opposing ball-handlers. And a little honey badger of a point guard making life hell for centers and power forwards he switched onto around the rim. That was rim protection of a different form for one of the worst shot-blocking teams on the planet right now.

That all was outstanding, self-aware scheme working, but it was energy that breathed life into It.

Purdue’s not going to be that dominant defensive again this season — its schematic cards are all on the table at this point — but recapturing that energy again can make all things possible and cash in that opportunity for Purdue to surprise people again.

ON FLETCHER LOYER

If you saw Fletcher Loyer walking off the floor the other night with his arm hanging like an overcooked noodle at his side, you probably figured the worst, that the key Boilermaker upperclassman broke something important and might not be seen again this season.

It looked bad, but now sounds good, or at least as good as could be hoped. It’s a “sprain,” per Matt Painter, who expects Loyer to play against High Point.

Perhaps you’re aware that Purdue’s had some terrible luck over the years with injuries undermining NCAA Tournament opportunities, and for a few hours there, it looked like maybe it happened again.

We’ll see. Loyer still hasn’t really had a chance to do anything, but that scans showed no breaks or anything bad like that for a player who really, really needs his arms, that’s as positive as you could have hoped for, because it sort of goes without saying that Purdue’s hopes to make a meaningful run in March Madness probably wouldn’t last very long without Loyer.

ON GREENER GRASS

This past week yielded a few really difficult-to-watch end-of-season locker room spiels, first from Kansas State’s Coleman Hawkins, second from Indiana’s Oumar Ballo. Just brutal stuff, as the two portal prizes of last spring tearily expressed a wide range of emotions about how their final seasons concluded at new schools and reminded us all to not look at these young people as price tags, but as people.

It also reminded us what price tags do to people in terms of how they’re perceived and subsequently treated. You could write me a $2-million check tomorrow and I’d still wake up Wednesday as the same above-average-on-a-good-day writer and analyst I am right now. Money wouldn’t change me; it would change your perception of me.

Whatever you might think of Hawkins and his legendary troll game or Ballo and his normally idling motor, I think we can all agree whatever abuse they took was out of bounds — and I don’t doubt their stories for even an instant — and that it’s too bad they leave college basketball with such regrets, feeling like disappointments.

But it is also a cautionary tale for those in similar positions that the money doesn’t always come easy. Walking away from solid situations comes with risk, even if it is lucrative risk. Hawkins’ team was one of the biggest disappointments in the country and he was the six-figure face of it; Ballo was the star recruit for a team that ostensibly got its coach forced out into the cold, the same place IU found itself on Selection Sunday.

Be careful out there, prospective bag-chasers.