Purdue basketball nonconference challenges come with potentially lucrative payoff

INDIANAPOLIS — Purdue basketball did not schedule like a team shrinking from the departure of a historic talent.

Zach Edey may be gone, but six of the team’s top eight scorers return. The Boilermakers needed both a challenge worthy of that reputation and a proving ground for a team adapting to a post-Edey identity.

Teams such as Yale and Toledo make for great nonconference opponents due to their consistently strong play. Power conference opponents at Mackey Arena reward already zealous season-ticket holders. Neutral sites serve as mini March run-throughs in the winter.

INSIDER: Cutting sports not Purdue’s ‘first option,’ but creativity, efficiency needed in order to pay athletes

SAM KING: Why Purdue isn’t fazed after losing Zach Edey in the middle

Overall, though, this schedule will pressure test a team still carrying lofty expectations in specific, potentially enlightening ways.

Men in the middle

Purdue has plenty of potential successors for Edey’s minutes in the paint. It does not yet know how that production will come together on either end of the floor and what that will mean for the team’s evolving identity. Trey Kaufman-Renn, Caleb Furst, Will Berg, Daniel Jacobsen, Raleigh Burgess, Cam Heide — what combination works best, and does that change from night to night?

It should have a better idea by Big Ten season, thanks to a handful of frontcourt challenges.

Auburn 6-10 center Johni Broome projects as one of the best players Purdue will face this season, period. He averaged 16.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.2 blocks as a third team All-American last season. Bruce Pearl also brought in former Furman star J.P. Pegues (18.5 points) to create the kind of inside-out conundrum the Boilers usually pin on opponents.

Alabama added multiple impact transfers after its Final Four run, including SEC All-Freshman guard Aden Holloway (Auburn) and AAC Co-Player of the Year Chirs Youngblood (South Florida). It also added former Rutgers big man Cliff Omoruyi, who scored in double figures…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/purdue-basketball-nonconference-challenges-come-184649532.html

Author : Indianapolis Star

Publish date : 2024-07-16 18:46:49

Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.