blog.evanmiya.com
If I thought much of Painter as a coach, I could see it, but I don't. Obviously they got punked as a 1 seed, and that demonstrated how little strategy that team had other than Edey. The next year, they still had only 1 plan....play edey 37 minutes a game or whatever. Which worked fine until they ran into a team that focused on perimeter defense...and they had no answer when edey inevitably tired out. (and before someone argues, edey got something like 17 points in garbage time after the initial spurt in the first 8 minutes or so)
You don't get the Braden Smith NPOY hype? He was the Big Ten Player of the Year and a consensus 1st Team All American and he returned to school. That's the kind of guy that always gets picked for pre-season POTY. Plus, the all-time NCAA assists record is within his reach if he averages the same number of assists as last year and plays a few games into the NCAA tournament. If he sets the record and Purdue is a top 1 or 2 seed, he'll win the award.
Painter has finished in the KenPom top 25 for 10 straight years. The top 10 five times in that stretch. He's the exact opposite of a one hit wonder.
It’s hard to find 3 better rosters on paper than the one with the best offensive player in the country, and a 20 ppg post scorer. Before even getting to the reliability of Loyer and Cluff and the other good talents on the roster. Purdue has been consistently really good for awhile now, including before Edey. I
and has made it out of the sweet 16 exactly twice in those 10 years. He is the posterchild for a coach who can get some decent recruits, but can't actually coach them to their potential.
Why is it “impossible” for them to be a top 3 team?
Smith is great. I can’t fully accept the hype for Trey Kaufman Renn or the rest of that roster
He doesn't get high recruits. He coaches up mediocre recruits to strong seasons. Their only top 50 recruit on the roster is Kaufman-Renn at exactly #50. Loyer and Smith are outside of the top 100 guys. Edey was an outside of the top 400 guy. They've been to 6 Sweet 16s or later in the last 10 years, with 2 of those being an Elite 8 and a Championship game appearance. Dan Hurley has been to two S16s total.
And because of that doesn’t have what you would call physical talent. He coaches up guys that aren’t as physically gifted, and there is something to be said for that. I don’t think Purdue is the kind of team that is going to overwhelm anyone. They will be beatable, and will run into issues against team physically superior. I can see it both ways. They have invaluable experience and chemistry, some very talented players, but will never win because they are bigger, stronger, faster, more athletic. With that will always be susceptible to being knocked around and smothered, will have to win on execution. It’s the opposite of a Duke last year that was massive and athletic, but young. This team has no first round draft picks on their roster.
Theyre not being billed as just a “top 3 team”. They’re being billed as the number 1 team in the sport and being compared to 2023 UConn. Besides the fact that preseason number 1’s don’t normally live up to that billing, they won’t be as dominant as 2023 UConn. Need I remind you what that team accomplished and how they did it?
