dallasboiler1

The Sandusky scandal pretty much and justifiably destroyed JoPa’s reputation, and this article takes whatever glimmering hope fans had of restoring it. His malfeasance goes back to the days before Sandusky. It’s not altogether surprising, but what this guy did is just awful. Closest thing that I could conjure was Purdue’s experience with "Bonecrusher" Williams in the 00s.

But, I cannot wait for Edey to dunk in his face on multiple occasions next season. As much as I dislike DICKinson, the B1G will look better in terms of fielding nationally competitive teams with him deciding to stay. Hopefully a couple of Boilermaker wins over them next season will help to catapult us to a better NCAAT seed.

For a mid-market team this will be the precise step-function shift in thinking that will be needed to compete in the NIL landscape. Other programs will likely still put together larger NIL collectives, but Purdue will need to think differently about how it funds athletics to preserve its current placement in the post-NIL world.

As I mentioned in another post, it will also challenge alumni who have historically wanted their funds to build new buildings to instead repurpose those funds to the NIL collectives. Old timers will have a hard time not seeing a building or addition with their name on it vs. contributing to a more nameless collective; but if Purdue doesn’t step up to the plate in this regard, the names on those athletic buildings/improvements will quickly become meaningless if the seats end up empty in the long-run.

My biggest concern is how this shakes the foundation for those that are slow to raise NIL pools. Teams like Purdue have always survived by getting the most out of guys who don’t have significant NBA prospects, so they stick around for 4 years getting a good education and playing on a competitive team in a competitive league to sharpen their skills for the international game.

NIL deals like what Pack is getting totally upends this. Now, players like Gillis, Morton, Hunter, etc. have to consider the transfer portal and grabbing cash while in college which would otherwise take them 5+ years to earn in international ball. These team-first guys have to think about the financial end-game for themselves, and nobody can blame them for doing it.

All of the money that we’ve seen pumped into major facility upgrades the past couple of decades is probably over. All of that booster money will need to be corralled into these NIL pools needed to recruit and retain players.

I thought the G&B video artfully addressed that the programs that have likely been cheating and have been best at hiding it are going to dominate the new world order. They had sub rosa infrastructure in place to raise this money that no longer needs to remain hidden. Programs like Purdue cannot build that on a moment’s notice. Perversely, the programs that were already punished most by following the rules are going to be even further punished during this transition.

Maybe I’m too salty and gloomy right now, but this has really opened my eyes to an issue that I thought would work itself out better than this. What we saw last year was pretty tame, but this year the flood gates are definitely open.

I also agree in the I do not blame Pack or these athletes. They’re making wise long-term economic decisions. Championships and fans are meaningless if somebody elsewhere is getting paid 5-10x what you are and said championships do nothing to boost your professional level value.

nm

I share your dream scenario. I don’t know that we can read too much into it on Pack, but I hope that you’re correct. It could be more related to EHJ getting less favorable feedback on his next level prospects and figuring that if he’s going to stay in college that he might as well see who out there might be interested in him. It, like testing the draft sans agent, is a risk-free option as long as you think your coach will hold no ill will. Painter loves the kid, so I’m sure that this is all very well thought out.

I’ll save my good-byes for EHJ until either next March/April or until we see a definitive post from him that he will no longer be a Boilermaker.

I had never heard about Gicarri until I saw Gelen Robinson’s tweet last week. Looked like he was doing a nice job marketing Purdue. Would be great to see another Robinson wearing black & gold!

For as long as I can remember, I cannot recall a time that IU was an impediment to Purdue’s success. Purdue has had bigger issues with Michigan, MSU, and Wisconsin now for decades than they have with IU. Keady bested Knight in head to head matchups over their years when IU held the recruiting edge nearly every season.

There’s no doubt that this year’s team failed to capitalize on a golden opportunity to get to the FF, but that doesn’t have any effect on the teams which are yet to come. Painter is putting together solid recruiting classes and can still fulfill this program’s objectives no matter what is going on in Bloomington. Woodson is the best coach they’ve had since Kelvin Sanctions, so it stands to reason that IU will improve and will steal a game from us here and there. I would be okay for going 0-2 against IU and getting to the FF in the same season … there’s no reason that the two events need be dependent on one another.

Anything Brandon can do to get more reps with the 1st team on defense will go a long way. It’s hard to judge him due to how sparingly he was used the last 2/3 of the season, but in the brief minutes that he got out there he seemed a little lost in his assignments. So much of defense is communication, so not getting regular reps with guys on the court was likely a huge contributor.