Three Thoughts From The Weekend: Zach Edey’s decision,
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, Zach Edey’s decision, spring football and recruiting.
ON ZACH EDEY
Zach Edey has described his upcoming decision whether to stay at Purdue or depart for his shot at the pros as a win-win, his exact words being “only good options.”
You know, I’ll say this: I think Purdue is kind of in the same boat. Would you love to have the best player in college basketball back? Of course. Are you a contender for Preseason No. 1 without him? Of course not.
But hear me out. Purdue has good players returning otherwise, players whose promise could crystalize if invested in in a meaningful way. At some point, Caleb Furst and Trey Kaufman-Renn need a chance to foundational guy who are more than just window-dressing around Edey and these athletic wings Purdue is so excited about are the sorts of players for which up-temp play will matter. Braden Smith is primed for a breakout year. Fletcher Loyer, too. I want to add too that this Lance Jones fellow they just signed, this isn’t just a depth piece. He’s a starter-caliber player.
If Edey leaves, Purdue’s still gonna be good, but also not married to the specific style of play that got knee-capped by Fairleigh Dickinson’s game plan and a horrific shooting game at the worst possible time.
Make no mistake: if Edey comes back, Purdue wins a ton of games and likely repeats as Big Ten champs but we all know that in the court of public opinion, their season will be defined by the NCAA Tournament. You’d have to think that with Edey, Purdue gets a 1, 2 or 3 sort of seed. That’s done what for them lately.
You lose Edey and you still get in the Tournament as like a 7 seed or something, with nothing to lose and with personnel that might be better suited to contend with floor-spreading small.
Make no mistake: Every Purdue stakeholder should want Edey back in the worst way. He’s beloved around here, I’d say, and players like this don’t come around often, though Purdue’s had a lot of All-Americans lately.
But it’s my belief that if Edey does leave, he’ll be leaving behind a Purdue team still quite equipped to win at the highest level.
Purdue quarterback Hudson Card (Photo: Chad Krockover)
ON SPRING FOOTBALL
Ryan Walters’ first spring at Purdue should have been an event, right? Like, a foundational step toward the 2023 season and that formidable schedule.
Maybe it was. Hudson Card got reps, at least, but here’s what you need to know about Purdue’s state of knowns, as well as the state of college football in general …
“We’ll see in June who’s here and who’s not,” Walters said as part of a broader comment.
The team Purdue’s new staff coached this spring may look unrecognizable from the one that takes the field in a few months. And I don’t mean as much the guys on the field — key players miss spring every year — but I mean on paper. The inevitable roster purge that comes with any coaching change looms; the scramble to replace warm bodies with warmer ones began months ago. That sounds harsh, talking about young men like commodities, but it is what it is nowadays.
Point is, Purdue has no idea what it has right now, maybe a slightly better idea than it did in February but not by much.
Purdue basketball (Photo: Chad Krockover)
ON SPRING RECRUITING
This weekend was this year’s first spring evaluation period, and I noticed some at Nike’s EYBL session in the Atlanta area: Where were the coaches?
These events are normally overflowing with them. Instead, rows of chairs reserved for coaches went unfilled. Parking was shockingly easy. There was a 16-and-under game Sunday with a bunch of eventual high-major prospects and at least one with double-digit offers. Matt Painter was the only college coach there. Not head coach. Coach, period.
Next, Kanon Catchings‘ Indy Heat team played. Catchings is spoken for, but Jalen Haralson and Trent Sisley are two blue-chip 2025s sitting right in the middle of Big Ten Country. It wasn’t long ago that there was kind of this unspoken rule that Purdue, Indiana, Ohio State, Butler, Xavier, Illinois, etc., miss not a second of any game like this one. Coaches are just petty enough to play the, “Look who’s not here” card sometimes, and recruits often just pampered enough to notice on their own and take it personal. Some business.
During this Indy Heat game, with Haralson and Sisley, the end lines with coaches seating cleared out at halftime, leaving just Painter and Brandon Brantley to watch the second half. Indiana assistant Yasir Rosemond did return for the end of the game.
It was all very different than it’s always been, but reflective of all that’s changed.
First, lots of coaches were probably hitched to their campuses hosting transfers who’d be joining their teams in a matter of weeks.
But second, what’s the point anymore?
What’s the point of watching underclassmen anymore if you’re a high-major coach who knows his collective is gonna do all the heavy lifting anyway, and so you can swoop in at the 11th hour. If you’re a low- or mid-major, this is the definition of futility. If you recruit and develop good players, they will be taken from you. That’s just the hard truth.
You can’t tell me, either, that he increased likelihood of any player leaving any program has created a certain kind of nihilism among these coaches when it comes to spending two or three years recruiting players.
Weird world right now.
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