Tall order

Can Purdue shake off the finishes of the last two seasons? Plus, Robbie Hummel on his move from ESPN, Bronny's health update, and much more.

Author

Mike Miller
October 03, 2023

It’s a bit of a longer Daily this morning, so pour yourself an extra cup of coffee.

1. Purdue’s time to breakthrough

Purdue’s won 58 games the last two years. It’s featured the National POY, an NBA lottery pick, and swept the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles last season. And it made the Sweet 16 in 2002.

But both of those seasons ended with losses to double-digit seeds in the NCAA Tournament. Coach Matt Painter admitted this summer that those losses — especially the stunner to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson — can overshadow what was an otherwise tremendous run.

So how do the Boilermakers finally breakthrough to the Final Four? Or even cut down the nets in Phoenix.

Well, they’re not going to change too much from what worked last season. As Jeff Goodman details in The Almanac, Zach Edey remains the game’s premier cheat code. The 7-4 senior center dominated nearly every team he faced last season. They’ll still prominently feature him.

But beyond Edey, does Purdue have enough athleticism and play-making for crunch time in March? From The Almanac:

The odds of Purdue running away with the Big Ten again are slim. Michigan State’s too deep and too athletic. And teams have had a year to adjust to playing against Edey.

But remember, Purdue didn’t lose a non-conference game last season. Or the year before that. The Boilermakers have had plenty of success out of conference. Now it’s just time to extend that non-conference success from November and December into March.

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2. Robbie Hummel on move from ESPN, Purdue’s outlook and more

If The Almanac analysis on Purdue isn’t enough, we can always turn to former Boilermakers star and current college hoops analyst Robbie Hummel for a little more.

Hummel’s become one of the sport’s most insightful analysts thanks to his honest critiques and encyclopedic knowledge of its coaches and players, particularly in the Big Ten. If he’s not discussing the Big Ten on air, he’s doing it once a week on the Field of 68’s Goodman and Hummel podcast.

That league expertise was one of the reasons why Hummel elected to leave ESPN (who' no longer airs Big Ten games) and join NBC Sports and Fox Sports, where he’ll continue to focus on the Big Ten, and perhaps some occasional work with other leagues. He spoke about it a bit this week.

Q: Congrats on the move. Is it going to be strange not being at ESPN? Or did it just make the most sense to continue calling Big Ten since that’s your expertise?

Robbie Hummel: With the Big 10 leaving ESPN and my contract being up, there was an opportunity to go back there and do some stuff in some other leagues. But I played at Purdue. I played against all these teams. I know the coaches so well. And even though ESPN is a great place to work, I just thought with the opportunities that NBC, and then the whole Fox package, and then of course, Big Ten Network, where I've worked for, for my entirety of my career in television, it just seemed to really make sense.

Q: It does, especially since I would argue many people view you as the expert of Big Ten basketball.

Hummel: I appreciate you saying that, but it's one of those things where I know their history because I've watched Big 10 games since I was seven- or eight-years-old. I can remember watching the IU and the Purdue games on the local channel, because that was the Big Ten Network era. I remember Channel 56 having those local Big Ten games, and then ESPN Plus. I feel very comfortable in the conference and that's for multitude of reasons. I think that that only enhances my ability to the broadcast.

Q: And soon enough, that’ll mean preparing for four new Big Ten programs next season in UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington. What did you think about adding those schools?

Hummel: So much of this it comes down to college football. With what the Big Ten did, I think if they didn't make the move, someone else would have. It will take a little bit of time for fans to get used to those teams. But when you talk about acting from a position of power, that's what the Big Ten did. The conference has some of the biggest brands in sport, and in college football in Ohio State and Michigan. But adding UCL A and USC from a football and basketball standpoint is a total win for the league. And I think what you've seen, Oregon and Washington do just this season and really the last 10, 15 or 20 years in college football, they're, they're massive brands themselves.

Q: If nothing else, it opens up more opportunities for the basketball programs to have more success in March. The ongoing critique of Big Ten basketball always focuses on the lack of a title since 2000, but that must be something where you might feel like you’re defending the league a bit given the quality of teams through the years.

Hummel: Yeah, I think I do. We could start with the 2006 Ohio State team with [Greg] Odon and [Mike] Conley. They ran into Joakim Noah and Al Horford and Corey Brewer and a team that went back-to-back national championships. That's a tough deal because that Ohio State team was unbelievable. You talk about the Michigan teams that were runners-up twice, including a really good Villanova team. We've had national runners-up, we've had Final Four teams.

But I do think everyone in the conference would say that the last couple NCAA Tournaments the end results have not been good enough. Last year, Michigan State was the only team playing in the second weekend. That's not good enough for this league. We have too many good teams, too many good coaches.

A lot of these NCAA tournament games come down to elite guard play, and elite playmaking on the wings. And for a number of different reasons, I think those type of playmakers are in other conferences. There's a couple of different reasons for that, but I think that's been a part of the Big Ten’s struggles and probably the reason why Michigan State made it the furthest last year.

Q: One could argue this season presents as good of an opportunity to end that perception as any other. Michigan State and Purdue will most likely be Top 5 or Top 10 teams all season.

Hummel: I agree. Michigan State has dynamic guards, and then Tom [Izzo] brings in one of the best recruiting classes in the country with Jeremy Fears and Xavier Booker. They’re going to have a tremendous season.

And I think Purdue is going to have a tremendous season. Matt Painter did a nice job of answering some of the roster questions people have had around athleticism and defensive ability. Myles Colvin, his dad, Roosevelt Colvin played for the Bears and played for the Patriots, is a big time athlete. Red-shirt freshman Cam Heide is a really good athlete and I think Lance Jones, the transfer from Southern Illinois helps them as well. You build that around Zach [Edey] and your guards who played so much last year, become sophomores — I think Brandon Smith is poised to have a terrific year and Fletcher Loyer had some really, really positive moments last year.

Those two teams are the Big Ten's best two chances this year to maybe cleanse some of these unfortunate losses.

Q: Beyond the Big Ten, what else jumps out about this season?

Hummel: I think the Big East is loaded.

Big East basketball — and maybe this is just because of the time period of my life in college when the Big East was a gauntlet of 16 teams that would go play in the Big East Tournament at Madison Square Garden, which to me, was prime Big East; it’s insane how good that league was — is going to be as good as any conference this season. Marquette has a terrific team with almost everybody back, and UConn is a team that can legitimately talk about going back-to-back. Kansas is a big storyline with Hunter Dickinson, and the pieces they already have in Kevin McCullar and Dajuan Harris.

And then I think I'd be remiss if I didn't talk about, this is the last year of normal hoops before conference realignment really starts to show itself. All chaos breaks loose next year with the Big Ten, the ACC, the Big 12 and the SEC.

You can hear Robbie Hummel as an analyst this season for NBC Sports, Fox Sports and FS1 and the Big Ten Network. And, of course, every week on the Field of 68’s Goodman and Hummel podcast.

3. Bronny ‘on the up and up’ after surgery

It’s been a little over two months since USC freshman Bronny James suffered cardiac arrest during practice. The family issued a statement in late August, noting the cause of the incident had been identified, and they expected him to make a full recovery.

During the Los Angeles Lakers’ media day on Monday, LeBron James said his oldest son recently had successful surgery and that Bronny might even play for the Trojans this season.

"Bronny is doing extremely well," LeBron said. "He has begun his rehab process to get back on the floor this season with his teammates at USC. The successful surgery that he had ... he's on the up and up. It's definitely a whirlwind and a lot of emotions for our family this summer, but the best thing we have is each other."

Bronny is on campus taking classes, but has yet to practice. If the 5-star recruit does suit up, he’s expected to play a key role for Andy Enfield’s squad. The 6-3 guard would spell either No. 1 overall recruit Isaiah Collier, or Boogie Ellis, the team’s leading scorer.

Or, if the Trojans go small, Bronny would likely defend the opponent’s top wing player, freeing up Collier and Ellis. Regardless, both USC and the James family hope to see him play this season.

"We stuck behind each other and gave Bronny strength throughout the whole process," LeBron said. "We're happy to see where he is today. We look forward to seeing what his future still has in store for him."

4. Hokies have a big prize coming in 2024

Virginia Tech’s never been shy about hoisting a 3-pointer during coach Mike Young’s tenure. Doesn’t look like that’ll change anytime soon.

The Hokies landed 4-star prospect Ryan Jones on Tuesday, a 6-8 power forward who should be ideal for Young’s system because of his inside-out scoring ability.

Jones, a Gainesville product who chose the Hokies over Florida, is the prototypical big who’ll post up smaller defenders, or simply take bigger, less mobile defenders to the perimeter for a shot. At 225 pounds, he’s also able to use his size inside.

He’s not overly mobile, but that shouldn’t be a problem with Virginia Tech’s style of defense.

Jones is the second Virginia Tech commit for the class of 2024, joining 3-star wing Tyler Johnson.

In other 2024 recruiting news:

5. Bruce Pearl is ‘the best coach in the SEC’

OK, that headline’s a bit of cheat considering proud Auburn alum Charles Barkley said it. But it’s worth considering.

First, the context.

Barkley was back on campus for the weekend’s Auburn-Georgia game, then stuck around Monday for his charity golf event that he hosts with coach Bruce Pearl. From there, the hoops legend puffed out his chest a bit about how much Pearl’s meant to Auburn hoops.

"For most of our existence there haven't been expectations," Barkley said Monday at the 2023 Bruce, Barkley and Basketball Golf Classic. "To get to the point where we're expected to do well? That's pretty cool and special.

"Like last year I thought the team did as good as they could do, and people were disappointed. Which was a good thing. Now we have expectations. I never worry about our coach. We've got the best coach in the SEC, in my opinion. Nobody is going to out-strategize us and our staff is fantastic. Now the kids have to implement it."

…

"As much as I love Auburn and have high expectations, I never thought Auburn would make it to a Final Four. Ever. Ever since we made it to the Final Four one time, that changed the whole dynamics of the program," Barkley said. "Auburn people are disappointed when we only win one SEC (Tournament) game.

"It's really a great time. Like, 'Man, we're really excited about basketball season.' No disrespect to anybody, (but) Auburn has gotten to the point where it's like, wow, if Auburn doesn't go to the NCAA Tournament that's a bad year. That's pretty cool."

No disagreements here about the state of the program. Pearl’s been at Auburn since 2015 and turned it from a middling SEC program where football ruled all, to a place where Neville Arena is loud, proud and a difficult place to win.

That’s 2019 Final Four remains peak Auburn basketball, if only because the 2021-22 team that had such a marvelous regular season fell short in the NCAAs. Now Auburn is a program that’s regularly ranked, and expected to get a top seed in March.

But the best coach in the SEC? Hm. That’s a trickier argument to win, especially given the recent influx of elite Xs and Os coaches.

Chris Jans took home the honors in The Almanac. Jerry Stackhouse is viewed as a superb tactical mind. Todd Golden and Dennis Gates are the newbies who show lots of promise. And that’s not even broaching the established winners such as Eric Musselman, Rick Barnes, and Nate Oats.

Put it this way, Pearl’s the perfect coach for Auburn. And really, that’s what matters most for that program.

On the rebound

Syracuse has been underwhelming the last few seasons, hovering around .500 and missing out on the NCA Tournament. Enter new coach Red Autry. With a new man on the sideline, and more talent on the roster, are the Orange now the best team nobody’s talking about? Terrence Oglesby sure thinks so.

Links as you save up for more Powerball tickets.

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