Three Thoughts From The Weekend: Lance Jones, recruiting 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, Purdue football, Lance Jones’ commitment and more.

Ryan Walters at spring practice on April 4, 2023. (Photo: Chad Krockover)

ON PURDUE FOOTBALL PRACTICE

In a perfect world, I think you’d like to see Purdue’s defense getting the best of the offense during spring practice, though very little matters all that much this time of year.

Nevertheless, clearly Ryan Walters intends to promote a defensive identity with this program, and spring success would suggest it’s beginning to stick.

Meanwhile, if Walters, Kevin Kane, etc., can get that defense relatively established, that’s developmentally crucial offensively, too. You’ve heard me talk about complementary football ad nauseum. It’s important.

The best way for these unproven wide receivers to develop is for Walters’ reputation for strong secondary play to give them no choice. Same for Hudson Card, Purdue’s most important player this season by a wide margin. If Walters can really challenge him on the practice field, then suddenly Michigan isn’t quite so scary.

Lance Jones (Photo: Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

ON PURDUE ADDING LANCE JONES

Seems to me as if Purdue hit this one right on the screws, quickly and quietly adding Southern Illinois grad transfer Lance Jones to its backcourt. A process that seeped into June last year wrapped up about roughly seven weeks earlier.

Is Jones a transformative player for what should be an excellent team as it was? Maybe not. Did Purdue need a transformative player, though? Certainly not.

But where Jones should really matter is that his player profile aligns with some acute deficiencies. It’s hard to sit here and say that a 29-win runaway league champion needs anything other than to not shoot 19 percent from three with its season on the line, but the Boilermakers certainly can find use for Jones’ high-end quickness and burst, elements that fell off a cliff this season sans Jaden Ivey. Jones’ defensive track record and on-ball potential could be his most impactful addition.

Purdue was not terribly athletic last season. The additions of Jones, Myles Colvin and Camden Heide represent a marked upgrade when it comes to things like open-floor potential, defensive versatility and so on.

Jones’ profile as a shooter is something where you’d like to see more consistency, but as his volume drops, one would think his efficiency would increase. Regardless, Jones should give Purdue a real weapon against backcourt pressure — he’s a better ball-handler and much faster and quicker than David Jenkins ever was — and a threat to break down defenses in the halfcourt or flip the floor real quick in transition. No harm in building on different avenues for scoring.

Basketball (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

ON MODERN RECRUITING

You know, coaches have more moving parts to deal with in recruiting than ever before.

But consider what this is like for the high school kids being recruited.

Forever — or at least since the Internet saddled coaches with unwanted transparency — high school recruits have been able to look at and assess the rosters of the schools pursuing them, looking for opportunity or fit or what have you.

Now, a player could sign with a school only to see the coaches he chose to trust recruit right over him two months before he enrolls. This is a much bigger deal in basketball than football (save for certain positions, like quarterback) because one of 13 matters so much more than one of 85, and because in basketball players start getting recruited much younger.

There are obviously schools out there who will live and die with transfers. Hell, there are Big Ten programs right now recruiting whole teams basically. Those programs, how can a discerning 16-year-old take them seriously when they talk about their projected opportunities as freshmen?

The COVID year has made this an even bigger mess but that window has just about passed.

For those high school players trying to find the right fit and intending to spend their college careers at one school and one school only, this is a complicated time.

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