Purdue Message Boarders: I Don't Hate Out-Of-State Recruits, I Like Matt Painter

In the aftermath of my newfound near-unanimous popularity on Purdue message boards, this "open source sports" writer feels even dumber than usual.

Last week, when I posted my fact-based findings about the success of former Indiana schoolboys on the hardwood in college, the piece quickly and unfortunately made its way to said boards where fellow Boilermakers fans gasped at my (supposed) mordacious tone, cachinnated in response to my (supposed) demands, and clucked at my (supposed) censuring of Matt Painter.

One even went so far as to mournfully (and creepily!) satire my writing with an incoherent incident that you can view for yourself here. "If Purdue or Indiana could recruit two of the top-five players from Indiana every season, they'd continuously be Big Ten Championship contenders and reside high in the polls," I'd argued with (supposed) acerbic aplomb, unaware while typing that the sentence would be misconstrued as a call to ban out-of-state players from wearing black-and-gold.

To me, the point of the piece was simple and not-so-thinly-veiled. To others, it was a Magic-Eye challenge to read between the lines for sentiments that simply do not exist anywhere in my mind.

Because I am a Purdue fan, because I'm young and thin-skinned and do not want fellow Boilermakers to hate me over a misconception, and because I would rather not see any more attempts at Billy Buckles satire (that is what it was right?), I wish to add to, clarify, and clearly state the arguments I tried to express in my oh-so-famous piece (over 1,000 reads!):

1) Once again, if Purdue or Indiana could recruit two of the top-five players from Indiana every season, they'd continuously be Big Ten Championship contenders and reside high in the polls. I’d love for Purdue to get all of the top-five from Indiana every year.

I may be from West Point, Indiana (shout out to everyone in WePo!), but I understand that is typically not possible for many reasons, chief among them academics (see: Robert Goff) and competition (kids grow up fans of many different schools).

2) Indiana Mr. Basketball winners and the best player from the best team in Indiana are as sure a thing as you'll find in recruiting. I think my research validates that point, and it was the main idea that I wanted to express.

I tell my friends all of the time that I'm confident of a recruit if he is the best player on his team, and his team enjoys great success. I think it takes an extraordinary lead player to make a team elite in Indiana. I always bring up Josh McRoberts and Purdue's four freshmen from this season as examples of this. The consensus on McRoberts was that he was a top-five recruit nationally. Before seeing him play, I questioned the ranking since his Carmel teams were never much above average. Upon seeing him play against Greg Oden, I had no doubt that he was extremely overrated.

Purdue's freshmen, on the other hand, all led their teams to the top of the Class 4A rankings and gaudy records. They also passed the sight test. To me, each are important. J.R. Angle dropped almost 30 points a night, but Indian Creek wasn't anything special. His stats didn't translate into team success. I believe it's a valuable indicator.

3) Purdue missed out on about a dozen top-class in-state players this decade that common sense says would have loved to play in Mackey Arena.

I don't blame many of those on Matt Painter. He and his staff deserve dap for unearthing Chris Kramer. They were also on Scott Martin, Tyler Zeller, E'Twaun Moore and many others before other high-majors joined in the recruitment.

I was close enough to the team the last few years to know that Painter almost miraculously landed Dominic James and would have had it not been for Tom Crean and his damn Dwayne Wade anecdotes.

I know what you're thinking, "If you don't blame Painter, then why bring it up?" To shame the name of Gene Keady, of course. He got what he deserved, courtesy of Darrick Martin!

No, in all seriousness I wanted to illustrate the fact that as we passed on a lot of potential good players in our backyard the quality of our program fell. Even when we're not a national power program (as we're once again becoming today), I think Purdue can still be very good by feeding off of the talent yielded in-state.

Gene Keady may still be coach today had he offered Shane Power, Andre Owens, Avery Sheets, Anthony Winchester, Peyton Stovall, Stanley Burrell, and Brandon Crone.

(Message boarders… Please notice I said may. That is a very loaded may.He probably wouldn't still be coach. PLEASE don't start three threads calling me out for moronically, definitively stating that if Keady had stood outside Mad Mushroom after school on signing day in 2002 and offered five West Lafayette High School nerds walking by scholarships, Purdue would be coming off their sixth straight national title.)

4) I think Matt Painter has done an incredible job at Purdue, and I actually fear the day soon may come when he is priced out of West Lafayette. What he has done thus far at Purdue bears a striking resemblance to the early career of Billy Donovan (With the obvious difference being that Purdue had a much more storied history than Florida, but do high school kids today care?).

The two spent a similar length of time as assistants, possessed similar head coaching experience prior to landing a major gig, attack recruiting with ardent zest, and seem keen on playing up-tempo basketball with pressure defense. Painter's development of Carl Landry, David Teague, and Keaton Grant has been remarkable; I can't wait to see how the three freshmen from last season progress this year.

Donovan has turned a handful of mere four-star recruits into NBA lynchpins. If Painter can produce similar tournament success (Donovan took Florida to the championship game in his third season as head coach of the Gators), he'll be a major target for any deep-pocket program- if not NBA team- with an opening. I hope that day comes soon, and I hope when it does Morgan Burke can find the $3 million a year required to lock up Painter.

5) Despite my professed profound admiration for MP, I don't think it's the worst thing in the world to question him, or any coach for that matter, from time-to-time. And I doubt he really cares what I think.

No, no, no, I know he doesn't care what I think. What do I think? Losing very nice kids who get lots of playing time like Scott Martin and Chris Lutz is a worrisome trend that can't continue.

6) I hate the expression "Baby Boilers."

7) Plymouth's Randy Davis wouldn't have been a waste of a scholarship at Purdue* (don't worry, he's not related to Jamaal). Same goes for Winchester's Tyler Koch.

8) I really hope I didn't forget anything...

*Comment sure to trump everything stated above and start message board furor that ends in Knucklehead torch-laden march outside my house and yet another amended "open source sports" posting.