Heading into the holidays after the first two months of the season, most college basketball programs across the country would gladly switch places with a team that is 8-4 and currently ranked as the 21st-best squad in the nation.
However, fans of Purdue basketball in West Lafayette, Indiana and elsewhere across the map know the team for which they root is not “most” organizations. While the Boilermakers’ first segment of their schedule has had plenty of positives on which to build, supporters of the black and gold have come to expect a certain level of competency from their team.
After two consecutive losses to Texas A&M and Auburn, both ranked SEC teams, doubts have sunk in about whether or not Purdue has what it takes to compete against the big boys and make a second consecutive run to the NCAA Final Four in April. In the five games they have locked horns against top-25 teams, the Boilers are a mere 2-3.
The holidays represent the season of giving, which makes this the perfect time to bestow hopeful wishes upon Purdue to reset for the upcoming back half of their calendar. Here is the most desired gift fans of the Boilermakers would love to have delivered to Mackey Arena for head coach Matt Painter to unwrap on December 25th.
All I Want For Christmas Is An Intimidating Big Man
While no one expected the Boilermakers to fully replace Zach Edey with any combination of players, Purdue truly misses their big man and has struggled mightily with teams that boast an athletic presence in the paint.
Saturday’s matchup with #2 Auburn exposed this deficiency. The Tigers’ Johni Broome, an ultra-athletic 6’10” power forward, torched the Boilermakers in all areas of the game with 23 points, on 10-of-15 shooting, and 11 rebounds, both game-highs for all players, in Auburn’s 87-69 triumph.
Purdue was definitely spoiled over the previous four seasons with Edey in the lineup; at 7’4″, the two-time Player of the Year was a natural match-up nightmare for any team and those who dared encroach the paint during his watch.
During Edey’s senior season, Purdue out-rebounded their opponents by an astounding 11.2 boards per game (40.4 to 29.2). Edey himself corralled 12.2 rebounds each game.
This year, the Boilers enjoy a mere 1.1 rebounds per game edge on their adversaries, and with 39 boards against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi as this season’s high, they have not reached last year’s average in any single game thus far.
Edey’s presence on both ends of the court made life difficult for opponents, but it may have had the unintended consequence of spoiling the Boilermakers.
After Purdue’s loss at Penn State, basketball writer and podcaster Rob Dauster commented on the state of the Boilers minus Edey, both offensively and defensively.
“Where I worry about Purdue is defensively because there’s always obviously all the talk about the guard rail that Zach Edey was offensively I think they miss him more defensively because that’s a guy that blocked 85 shots last year probably altered hundreds more and probably deterred teams from driving into the paint hundreds of times more as well,” said Dauster.
This year, Trey Kaufman-Renn has manned the spot vacated by Edey adequately, but at only 6’9″ and 230 pounds, there is only so much he can do down low. TKR leads the team with 6.6 rebounds per game, but that is just over half of Edey’s 2023-24 production, and he has shown that he needs assistance down low.
Painter thought he had help for the undersized Kaufman-Renn at the onset of the season. Prized freshman recruit Daniel Jacobsen, a 7’4″ center from Chicago, was brought in to start immediately and eventually step into the oversized shoes of Edey.
After going for 13 points, 7 rebounds, and three blocks in his debut against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Jacobsen’s future as a Boilermaker seemed set.
Unfortunately, Jacobsen suffered a season-ending injury one minute into his second collegiate game, leaving an unexpected void for Painter. In Jacobsen’s absence, senior Caleb Furst, freshman Raleigh Burgess, and sophomore Will Berg were expected to ease the load in the front court.
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However, that trio has only averaged a combined 9.4 points and 5.8 rebounds in 27.1 minutes per game, and their minutes have diminished significantly over the last month; in fact, Berg logged just two minutes against Auburn.
Is Purdue Due For A Christmas Miracle?
With all hyperbole and dreaming aside, the Purdue basketball team faces an imposing dilemma to solve when the Big 10 kicks off in earnest next week: improve their offensive output and rebounding production from their big men in the front court.
How should Matt Painter go about this? Does he find more minutes and ultimately more experience for Burgess and Berg, his green and wet-behind-the-ears players? Does he get bigger and give more minutes to C.J. Cox or Gicarri Harris on the perimeter to ease the pressure off of Kaufman-Renn in hopes those freshmen step up?
Those answers will be tough to figure out, and after 20 years at the helm of the Boilermakers, Painter will need to draw on his background and wealth of knowledge to put his team back on track to March and April greatness. Boilermaker fans truly hope that those answers are waiting under the tree just waiting to be unwrapped.
