LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- No one-and-dones. No five-star recruits. Nobody fetched from the transfer portal.
Take a long look at the Purdue roster Matt Painter has pulled together while building the current No. 1 team in America. Then score one for old-fashioned college basketball.
You won’t find anybody who stacked offers from Duke, Kentucky, Gonzaga, Kansas, North Carolina, Michigan or other schools that feast at the top of the recruiting rankings. According to 247Sports, none of Painter’s last four classes ranked in the top 35 classes in the country.
Painter has eight players who weren’t even top-100 recruits. You’re not supposed to win the Big Ten doing that.
The highest-ranked player on Purdue’s roster is a guy local fans know well: Trey Kaufman-Renn, who led Silver Creek High School to back-to-back Indiana Class 3A state titles.
Kaufman-Renn has not scored a point or grabbed a rebound for the 8-0 Boilermakers. He agreed to take a redshirt season. Work on his game. Work on his body. Work on adjusting to college life. Work on becoming a better all-around player.
How wonderful.
Purdue’s players missed the memo that if you’re a dazzling player you better hop in your Porsche and zoom to the NBA Draft combine after your first 20-point game. If you don’t, you’re a dud.
Turns out the duds were the folks who evaluated Purdue’s talent. Painter has a better eye for what he needs than the guys who think they know the difference between the No. 15 and No. 154 players.
I mentioned No. 154 for a reason. That was the composite recruiting ranking for Trevion Williams, the Boilermakers’ powerful 6-foot-10-inch forward. Williams was ranked No. 154 in the Class of 2018 as well as the sixth-best player in the state of Michigan.
This season, according to Ken Pomeroy’s metrics, Williams is ranked the eighth-most efficient player in America.
That’s not his most impressive quality. After starting 64 games the last three seasons, Williams accepted a new assignment. He is Purdue’s sixth man, averaging 12.4 points as well as a team high 8.8 rebounds. He’s a senior without an ego.
Williams went to the bench for several reasons. One was the continuing development of Zach Edey, Purdue’s troublesome 7-foot-4-inch, 295-pound center.
I’m not trying to embarrass anybody, but the composite recruiting rankings put Edey the No. 440 player in the Class of 2020.
Can you imagine the reaction if your favorite program signed a player ranked No. 440 and tried to tell fans the school was serious about chasing the national title?
Nobody has done a better job of identifying, recruiting and developing overlooked big men than Painter. There was Isaac Haas. There was Matt Haarms. Now there is Edey, the best of the group.
Edey is a Canadian who got to Purdue via IMG Academy in southeast Florida. He’s obviously a late bloomer who was more interested in hockey and baseball until his junior year of high school.
You can attribute his 72.3% field goal percentage to Edey’s ability to loom above the rim and dunk. But here is the statistic that has NBA scouts blinking: Edey has also made 30 of 37 free throws (81.1%).
He is 7 feet 4 inches tall and can shoot. Edey is also No. 5 in Pomeroy’s latest national player of the year rankings.
Purdue has another guy who has created more NBA sizzle: Jaden Ivey, a sophomore guard.
Ivey’s father played football for Notre Dame. His mother played basketball for Notre Dame. In fact, Niele Ivey succeeded Muffet McGraw as the head coach of the Fighting Irish women’s basketball team.
Some thought Ivey was a legacy lock for Notre Dame. Some recruiting gurus thought he was a very good but hardly a can’t-miss college prospect, ranking him No. 89 player in the Class of 2020.
Painter saw Ivey’s potential. He didn’t blink about the Notre Dame connection.
Ivey leads Purdue in scoring at 15.9 per game. He’s a dynamic driver and finisher with an improving shot. Sports Illustrated listed him as the seventh pick in its latest 2022 NBA mock draft.
Like most of Painter’s guys, Ivey is a better player than the talent evaluators said he would be, which explains why the Boilermakers have ascended to the No. 1 ranking for the first time in school history.
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