247 put out its ranking of the 18 Big Ten basketball teams for the next season and had us as number 17! Only Minnesota was below us.
No respect again
- Thread starter jensberg
- Start date
Are these guys morons? I can certainly see how outsiders may doubt we make it back to the NCAAs again next year, but to think that we will go from top 4 finishes the past two years to the cellar (or basically the cellar) is laughable. Anything is possible, but its misinformed to outright predict that.
I am glad about these dire approximations. The worse they say we'll be the better! The last time we were ranked and given the opposite...we lost to chicago state! Let's play with a chip and be the underdog again and make the ncaa tourney for the 3rd year in a row!
Great to see - there is no better motivational fuel than this.
Purdue has been a 4 seed or better in every tournament since 2016… when they were a 5 seed. They return many good known players and have good recruits and transfers coming in. Clocking in around number ten is about an average guess for them over the last 8 years or so.
Not saying I agree with them, but isn't Purdue returning most of the team that played in the championship a few months ago? Gillis was the only guy with real minutes and I'm confident Painter will have Berg ready to go as the next 7'2" center headed for glory.
You’re 100% right, of course. I was thinking of their good recruits and no catastrophic portal losses and idiotically wrote that.
Yes. I have a hard time seeing Purdue above .500 in conference play. After 3 seasons with the dominant center and some outside shooting, it would be hard for their freshmen to make a dent against the experience teams. They need a completely new offense and hope kids just out of high school can play defense. I just can’t see it. What can they do when their big man can’t generate 30 fouls?
I didn’t say that at all, I just made the mistake about the transfers. Viewing them as very strong, but not #1 seed type elite, coming into the season is very reasonable
Guess I’m underestimating Berg. I’m assuming a major drop off from Edey. Maybe not. Gillis was a solid player for them. Wasn’t overly impressed with their other three starters. Thought the Smith kid was vastly overrated. Time will tell.
Sorry Adam. I didn’t mean to imply you said that. It is the way I feel about them.
Illinois has the best record in the Big Ten over the last 5 seasons. They aren’t going to drop that low.
With all the transfers, rankings mean little right now.
Exactly. Team cohesiveness / flexibility / success are very difficult to guess at, although Torvik likes to try.
Predictions about how guys will play together based on stats accumulated with other teams is difficult, or worse. The best Torvik can say is "On paper this team looks pretty good."
But anybody who has studied Torvik's player ratings knows that Edey's supporting cast gets far too much credit.
I'm not working with any actual information on Berg, just the basic assumption that Painter doesn't plan to change the team's game plan very much, and is probably hoping his (now experienced) guards can make up some of the offense lost with Edey while still mostly just dumping the ball into the tallest guy on the court.
What do you expect? Yes we did well last year but we also lost two top players. And we are NU
Not really. We lost our best player. But he wasn't just our top player. He was about the most important player (to his team) in the conference. And we also lost Langborg. Plus we don't know how Berry and Nicholson will come back and we really don't know what we have in our replacements
Honestly thinking NU can just absorb the loss of a player of Boo’s caliber requires… a bit of a leap of faith, frankly. And I’m optimistic and excited about next year!
To me, a leap of faith would be thinking Jordan Clayton will fill in for Buie after outplaying Jordan Leach.
Anyhow, here's another review of Big Ten transfers, hot off the presses.
Inside NU’s Big Ten Men’s Basketball Transfer Portal Report Card
How did each Big Ten squad fare in the transfer portal?
www.insidenu.com
I can understand pundits being down on us, but second to last? Come on.... Penn State will be better than us? Nebraska? They are starting over. Iowa and Wisconsin lost some key pieces. I don't know enough about the PAC12 teams to rank them yet. I assume Oregon and UCLA will be good, but don't know about Washington and USC. Rutgers has some splashy recruits, but no guarantee that they will step in and lead a BIG level team right away. It may be the ultimate compliment to Boo, but it just seems pretty disrespctful.
It's way to early for rankings. At this point, the only thing we know beyond a reasonable doubt is that Indiana will play below expectations.
Maybe it's not so much Berg but Kaufman Renn who people believe will step up. He was Mr. Basketball in Indiana I believe.
Having said that, my brain can't possibly imagine them being more than a borderline tournament team next season.
Purdue's roster isn't complete yet, because right now they have 8 scholarship players and 6 signed high school recruits for next season, so they're one over the limit.
Sr: Caleb Furst
Jr: Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, Trey Kaufman-Renn, Brian Waddell
So: Myles Colvin, Camden Heide, Will Berg
Fr: CJ Cox, Kanon Catchings, Daniel Jacobsen, Gicarri Harris, Jack Benter, Raleigh Burgess
Either way, this would seem to be something similar to the 2012-13 season, after Robbie Hummel graduated, when Purdue went 15-17 and missed the tourney. Granted, the returning talent for 24-25 is a step up from the returning talent on that 12-13 team, and they aren't losing their PG, but their recruiting class, while large in number, is not as strong as the 12-13 recruiting class, at least on paper.
I suppose it depends on how much Edey improved the others around him, and how much improvement TKR and Berg make over the summer. Might be a lot different for Smith and Loyer when opponents are focusing much more on them than on Edey.
That looks like a middle-of-the-road roster to me. Not saying they won't be decent and not saying they won't make the NCAAs, but it's hard to gauge just how good these players are when they're not playing with Edey. Maybe some like TKR will step up and be stars now that Edey is gone, but just looking at a list of players, this is not a team that looks like a conference contender.
I don't know what the best comparison is for what drop-off is possible, but I looked at Ralph Sampson and Virginia. If you can remember 40 years ago, Sampson was just about the most dominant college player in a generation. In his three years he won the Naismith Award, Virginia won the ACC each year and was a #1 seed in the NCAAs each year. No championships though.
After Sampson left, the Cavaliers dropped to sixth in the ACC and a #7 seed in the NCAAs. Though they did make the Final Four that year without Sampson, which is interesting.
Purdue is losing a similarly dominant player, and while it's tough to compare eras, especially in the age of the transfer portal, I would expect a similar drop-off. A good team but nothing special, especially when you consider the transfer portal has been a big whiff so far. Nothing like the #1 team in the conference.
After Sampson left, the Cavaliers dropped to sixth in the ACC and a #7 seed in the NCAAs. Though they did make the Final Four that year without Sampson, which is interesting.
Purdue is losing a similarly dominant player, and while it's tough to compare eras, especially in the age of the transfer portal, I would expect a similar drop-off. A good team but nothing special, especially when you consider the transfer portal has been a big whiff so far. Nothing like the #1 team in the conference.
Only sorta . You could say maybe that they don't deserve to be ranked #1 in the conference (but probably still in top 3 ). They still have most of the pieces (including their PG) that took them to NCAA Championship Game and have another 7 footer in the wings plus their key guys are not coming off of significant injuries
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