Express Thoughts: Walters, Purdue hoops 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 FOOTBALL

If you watched Purdue’s loss at Michigan State Friday night, you saw a particularly manic Ryan Walters on the sideline looking like a man who knew there was way more on the line for him than the negligible difference between a likely 2-10 season and a likely 1-11 finish.

After the game, the weight of it all was unmistakable around Purdue’s embattled football coach, who struggled to compose himself at times while speaking on the maddening loss in Spartan Stadium, a winnable game that literally slipped through his team’s fingers, as three dropped or tipped passes extinguished the Boilermakers’ comeback.

Walters’ post-game press conference was all the reminder you’d ever need that these are real people with real human emotions. Hate the results ’til your heart’s content and don’t forget that these are big-boy jobs with big-boy money and that’s what people sign up for, but no one should ever forget the fact that these powerful and prominent men are flesh and blood, same as you and me.

It was a notable effort at Michigan State — too-rarely-seen “fight” — but also a backhanded compliment, because where was this in September and October? Walters spoke emotionally about his players in East Lansing, and yes, those relationships are part of the job, but those same players are the ones who quit on him against Notre Dame, didn’t show up at Wisconsin and didn’t start playing ’til halftime at Illinois. Call it what it is.

Either Walters and his staff couldn’t get through to their players, couldn’t organize or prepare them properly or just flat-out got the wrong players, or maybe all of the above. Seasons like this, it’s never one thing. That’s ultimately what coaches are accountable for and after Michigan State, there was no hiding Walters’ knowledge of that fact.

Yes, the schedule set Purdue up to fail, but a lot of people have difficult schedules in this age of consolidated power in college football and don’t get outscored by 224 points through Week 11. This season isn’t a historic failure because you got blown out by Playoff teams Notre Dame, Ohio State and Penn State, but because of games like Friday night. And Illinois. And Oregon State. And Northwestern. The winnable games in which your team just couldn’t do one more little thing right or avert one more catastrophe.

Last season, Purdue didn’t have a great year, but it beat its peers, an acceptable first step after the house-flipping Brohms spent six years just painting over shoddy infrastructure. You saw competence and at times, promise, in Year 1 under Walters. There were some reasons to believe last season that this might work under Walters.

This season blew it all up, shockingly quickly. Soon, we’ll see the full extent of the blast radius.

It’s difficult to see Purdue not making another change after this season, because the idea of getting rid of a guy after just two seasons for job performance reasons goes against everything I’ve ever believed about college football.

But this season has been the wrong kind of game-changer and sometimes coaches say things they wouldn’t say out loud by not saying anything at all and that post-Michigan State press conference sure looked like one of those moments.

ON ASSET MAXIMIZATION

I don’t know if you know this or not, but Purdue changed its starting five for the Marshall game, a step toward committing even more to what you might call small ball, with Trey Kaufman-Renn playing center and Camden Heide moving into his forward spot.

The hope here now is for a win-win-win-win sort of situation, that this can make Kaufman-Renn a little better by playing to his strengths, even though he’s still going to play forward. Additionally, Myles Colvin gets his starting job I’d imagine he’s been hoping for, and earned it with his development as a two-way player. How much coming off the bench contributed to him making those steps, I don’t know. But it should be heartening for him to know he earned it as opposed to simply being handed it simply by being a returnee.

But a big winner here is Camden Heide, rescued from Tweenerville by this apparent guaranteed minutes share at the 4, his best fit, but a spot where Kaufman-Renn was a hard ceiling. You’ve seen him play very well lately. Comfort and fit matter. So does confidence. Related or not, Heide is 8-of-11 from three since Matt Painter voiced his displeasure with him passing up open shots.

As for Gicarri Harris and Will Berg, those moved out of the starting lineup, maybe this can spark them, too, not that either were playing badly, necessarily. It’s happened before where taking a player out of the starting five has benefited them by taking a bit of pressure off and allowing them to watch for four or five minutes.

ON SAN DIEGO

This event in San Diego, where serendipity strikes as Purdue gets N.C. State, then either Kanon Catchings or Chris Beard, isn’t what the Boilermakers have conquered in years past in the loaded Hall of Fame Tip-Off, PK85 or Maui Invitational, but is reflective of its place in the world now.

Purdue travels to SoCal as the big dog. These are good teams, but not Duke, North Carolina, Villanova, Gonzaga, etc.

Handling that label was something Purdue did masterfully last season, but this is a new team and that understanding that heavy lies the crown applies once again.

When Purdue lost at Marquette last week, it was its first road loss in a long while in which the court wasn’t stormed.

Doesn’t mean the Boilermakers don’t remain marked men.