Weekly Word: College hoops’ officiating issues, Brandon Newman and more
The Weekly Word is GoldandBlack.com’s weekly opinion column, written by Brian Neubert. In today’s Weekly Word, college basketball officiating, Brandon Newman, Hudson Card and more.
FIGURE IT OUT
So, I wrote on Monday about the NCAA’s basketball officiating problem, which is as apparent in the Big Ten as anywhere else.
To follow up, let me offer the Big Ten a suggestion: Those two conference games in December, call everything. Ev-ery-thing.
Any official working Big Ten games then, any official working those games — and it’s a misnomer to say “Big Ten officials” because these refs are all independent contractors, mercenaries, if you will, like the A-Team. Anyway, any striped shirt working a Big Ten game in December should call anything and everything.
Every time Zach Edey is fouled (if he’s back), call it. Every time he fouls, call it. Every time he’s in the lane for 10.2 seconds, call it. Imbalance, be damned. Everything be damned. Just call it all.
Make the games ugly and unwatchable. Make TV viewers change the channel. Hell, it’s bowl season anyway.
Why? The big picture.
You know what happens when games are called tightly and teams aren’t allowed to just poke eyes and pull hair for 40 minutes? Teams have to adjust. They can’t play Battlebots basketball in a phone booth anymore. The floor spreads out, and suddenly maybe this conference is better conditioned to win NCAA Tournament games.
Just an idea.
Hey, and while we’re at it, let’s have a real conversation about six fouls. Let’s stop holding college kids to the same per-minute fouls standard as the pros. Value added would lie in taking away some of the impact of bad officiating.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – MARCH 12: Brandon Newman #5 of the Purdue Boilermakers celebrates a basket against the Penn State Nittany Lions during the second half in the Big Ten Basketball Tournament Championship game at United Center on March 12, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
GOOD LUCK, BRANDON NEWMAN
Tough deal for Purdue basketball seeing Brandon Newman depart, as he’s always been a well-liked individual who was a good soldier for the program through good times and bad, but this was a highly predictable outcome. It just never clicked for Newman at Purdue in a sustainable way and maybe a fresh start will do him good. He leaves with degree in hand.
Newman saw some golden opportunities at Purdue but also lost out on some as the immensely talented Jaden Ivey and the distinctly advanced Fletcher Loyer came in behind him. That’s a sign of a strong program, but also the tough part sometimes of the realities of college basketball.
Newman deserves immense credit for his handling of adversity at Purdue, the sort that could have broken other players, especially those as unabashedly ambitious as Newman, who I’ll always remember coming back out to Keady Court right after games to shoot during the COVID year (before everyone realized they’d get shouted out on Twitter if they did the same).
That Penn State game in last year’s Big Ten Tournament was really something. I swear you could feel the crowd rooting for Newman in such a way that it affected that game positively for Purdue.
I hope Newman does well at his next stop, whether it’s Notre Dame or wherever. Purdue will hope Newman does well at his next stop. Every Purdue fan should want the same, because he was a solid representative of the program who just could never really sustain success, perhaps in part because he wanted to be good so badly, which by itself is a very positive thing.
As I said, hopefully a fresh start turns out to be just what he needs.
No one’s going to be immune to be departures during this pick-up-ball era in college basketball, but I do think Purdue’s way of doing things will minimize that element around here, and you’d think that at some point continuity, chemistry built over time and minimal chaos (looking at you, Illinois) should pay off. As I’ve said before, though, if Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer were 21-year-olds right now, Purdue might have been playing this past weekend. That’s what I’d guess you’d call the peril of building traditionally: Stars have to line up. You’re not just going out and getting (or buying) what you need every year exactly when you need it, like a trip to the grocery store.
Purdue Flag (Photo: Chad Krockover)
RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK
• I’m really interested to see how much Hudson Card‘s presumed running ability gets put to use in Ryan Walters’ and Graham Harrell’s offense. You never want to expose your QB to too many different hit angles and such, but the impact a running element at quarterback can have on third-down conversion rate and turnover reduction could be significant, as could be the sleight-of-hand potential that could unlock a little more from Devin Mockobee.
• This spring will be a strong tell regarding NIL potential at Purdue, because my sense is that Player-of-the-Year award hoarder Zach Edey wants to return, but when the moment of the truth comes, it will have to make business sense, same as it would for you or I.
After just navigating a league that stayed old thanks to NIL money, maybe now it’s Purdue’s turn to take advantage.
• Matt Painter’s comments about quickness remind of his lamentations years back about offensive skill, to which he shifted hard in recruiting, perhaps even to the point of over-correction, as quickness and shooting very often are mutually exclusive. It has been an issue defensively for some years now.
To combat small ball when playing big, Purdue could use quicker feet all over the floor, but also quicker reactions and anticipation. The self-assured tend to move with more sudden-ness.
But I do want to mention that quickness unto itself does not fix dribble containment issues. Quickness plus desire does. Jaden Ivey was otherworldly quick and Carsen Edwards wasn’t far behind, but neither ever became basketball mature enough during their Purdue careers to really want to defend unless an opponent got mouthy and pissed them off.
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