Three Thoughts From The Weekend: Purdue and Iowa, Big Ten hoops media day and more

GoldandBlack.com’s Three Thoughts from the Weekend column runs every Monday morning, with analysis of Purdue football, Boilermaker men’s basketball, recruiting or whatever else comes to mind. In this week’s edition, In this week’s Three Thoughts, we discuss Purdue’s loss to Iowa, Big Ten basketball media day and more.

ON PURDUE AND IOWA

This is going to sound stupid after Purdue’s offense went poof at Iowa this weekend, but that game illustrated exactly why at Purdue you run offenses like Joe Tiller’s spread, Jeff Brohm’s vertical-minded passing game and the derivative of Air Raid Ryan Walters and Graham Harrell are trying to build now.

Iowa is the Big Ten West-iest of the Big Ten West. It beats the hell out of you, whether it’s tackling you or especially blocking you, which we for some reason don’t talk enough about. It’s bigger and more physical, a classic farm-culture, wrestling-state football concoction. It beats you with offensive tackles, tight ends and linebackers more than it does quarterbacks or wide receivers.

Your options at a place like Purdue then, too, are to try to build and play that way — ask Illinois right now how that’s going — without a great recruiting base for it or you can try to circumvent Iowa’s and those like it’s strength in the box with creativity, speed and styles offensive recruits want to play. Try to beat them at your game, not theirs.

Now, as Saturday reminded in no uncertain terms, it’s easier said than done, but the approach is the right one.

ON PURDUE AT MEDIA DAY

Today, I fly to Minneapolis — a day late to be Travis Kelce’s special guest — for the annual extravaganza that is Big Ten basketball media day, at which time Purdue’s (meaningless) preseason coronation will begin.

Matt Painter is always a sought-after voice at these things because he’s actually honest, he’s wise to basketball and in these environments, he can be damn funny. But rarely is his team the talk of the event. This year, it will be, the Boilermakers being the obvious, runaway preseason favorite to repeat as conference champs, with Zach Edey being the best player in the league by a mile.

But with expectations comes the flip side.

Painter and seniors Edey, Mason Gillis and Ethan Morton will also be at the Target Center to answer for last March’s flameout, the cloud that’ll hang over the program until Purdue has a chance to take a high-powered fan to it in a few months.

With that story will come questions, probably the same ones over and over (and yes, I’ll be one of those asking), meaningless comparisons to Virginia — like anyone’s ever gonna get that lucky again — and so on. Big Ten media day, for Purdue, may as well just skip right over the Big Ten season.

Purdue can’t do that. Winning the Big Ten is still a big deal, and no lay-up, no matter how it looks on paper.

But this is also an opportunity for Purdue to soak it all in. This is a great team deserving of sky-high expectations. I’ll keep saying this: It ought to embrace it. Take nothing for granted, but embrace the “hype” and carry itself accordingly.

WHO’S THE BIG TEN’S SECOND-BEST PLAYER?

Monday, our unofficial Big Ten writers poll will come out — I’ll post my ballot as well for the none of you dying to know — and the interesting thing here is while Purdue is a no-brainer preseason No. 1, so is Zach Edey. Obviously the reigning National Player-of-the-Year is going to be his conference’s preseason player-of-the-year, but this year the gulf between No. 1 and everybody else is Grand Canyon-ish.

The Big Ten is down from a talent perspective.

Tyson Walker, to me, is the Big Ten’s second-best player, because A) he’s really good but also B) he’s really old, 23 to be exact. (Terrence Shannon is right there with him.)

You can say the same about Michigan State, the clear No. 2 behind Purdue. Were the Spartans that good last year to be viewed as a top-five team nationally, or are they all just adults?

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