In case you missed it, not only did the Big Ten finally win a national championship with Michigan rounding up a season of dominance in Indianapolis with a national title, but the landscape of college basketball announced itself as changed.
Michigan, for many reasons, was the best team in college basketball, but at the top of that pile was that Michigan’s three-headed front court stuck out above a Final Four that featured the best programs using their myriad of advantages off the court to create size advantages on the court.
That was Michigan’s great secret revealed and a trend of most of the top programs in the country are following. All that pedigree, all that green, and programs have bucked away from the last two decades of basketball that has valued shooting and skill over almost anything else.
Now, the Michigan and Duke’s of the world have found with NIL and trasnfers, the greatest discrepency and advnatage it can put together is with size. Not just height, but size and physicality that has allowed fringe NBA bigs and wings to stay in college another year because they’re now getting paid just as well or better to stick around. Big players that can both offer up size on defense but also advantages on the glass on both sides of the ball that is more consistent night to night than hot shooting nights and elite play making.
And unlike shooting and skill, there’s no nights where Aday Mara doesn’t wake up at 7-3, 255 lbs..
I don’t think that trend is going away. In fact, I’d be willing to bet on it because college basketball coaches pay attention to what wins.
Height wins. Just take a look at the list of teams in the Elite Eight and their Average Height ranking according to KenPom:
Michigan (27th)
Iowa (42nd)
Purdue (118th)
One of those teams is not like the other. Despite Purdue’s reputation as the homeland of giants and seven footers, the rest of Purdue’s roster this season was significantly smaller than anyone else in the Elite Eight. It is the only team that made the Elite Eight to not have a roster in the top-50 for height in the country. It took the all-time assist leader and four seniors to combat teams with elite size all over teh rotation.
With small guards and no big wings, Purdue relied solely on the heft of Trey Kaufman-Renn and Oscar Cluff to make up for length everywhere else on the roster. That wasn’t enough against Arizona where Purdue had to break out unsued lineups with double centers, bringing Jacobsen to play alongside Kaufman-Renn and Cluff.
Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer were both undersized guards in length and stature. CJ Cox is strong and defends above his weight class, but at 6-3, he’s still a not big guard. Ditto for Gicarri Harris coming off the bench.
Purdue will get bigger by losing Smith and Loyer, supplementing them with more Omer Mayer minutes at the point who at 6-4 is a bigger guard, bringing in Jacob Webb, a 6-6 freshman wing, and River Night a 6-8 forward alongside transfer Caden Pierce at 6-7.
Purdue will play Jack Benter at the three more this season and at 6-5, that’s a significant difference than relying on Benter as the back up four.
But also expect Purdue to experiment and perhaps even thrive/depend on playing more two true big lineups like it had to against Arizona.
Raleigh Burgess redshirted last season after playing his true freshman season and struggling through injuries. Burgess is 6-11 and has rebuilt his jump shot, gotten his body right, and spent a year working on his ability to get through a season and he will re-emerge into a college basketball landscape where he might just thrive, not just as a versatile five, but as someone capable of helping Purdue battle with the biggest teams in the country and bullying the other teams when he plays the four.
Purdue brings in another seven foot freshman, Sinan Huan, and returning Daniel Jacobsen (7-4) who will look to respond to something of a disappointing showing after a promising game and a half freshman season that was cut short by a significant leg injury. Jacobsen’ size, mobility, and ability to shoot and score is still a tantalizing package that makes him one of college basketball’s potential unicorns. That versatility at the five makes it easier to play even bigger next to him by providing bonus spacing and rim rolls.
Purdue was a physical team last season with two pretty elite bigs. Oscar Cluff and Trey Kaufman-Renn bullied opponents, but it wasn’t enough against the elite size of Arizona who has size everywhere.
The addition of redshirt freshman Antoine West, more Omer Mayer, more Jack Benter on the wing, and new big bodies will have Purdue bigger this season, but as Purdue rolls through this portal season, look for Painter to try to continue his search for more and more size as Purdue tries to stay at the top of college basketball with the biggest big dogs.