2025-2026 B1G Basketball Thread

[SFBadger96]

Absolutely it's tough to do. That's why Painter is Painter, and Purdue is Purdue. Same with Izzo. They are rare and valuable coaches.

[medinabuckeye1]

Shouldn't be a surprise. After all, Sinan said both of these things:

• "Purdue’s track record in developing big men also played a big role in my decision. Their system has produced many successful bigs with different body types and skill sets, and during my visit I got to see how structured and intentional their player development program is."
• "Purdue has an impressive roster retention rate, which allows me to have some time and structure to develop without feeling rushed in my first year."

On the first point, Painter has a strong track record with bigs. And as he mentions, it's not like Painter expects every single one to be carbon copies of the others. He's shown that he's willing and able to adapt to the skill sets of the player. On the second point, bigs are typically slower to transition to the college game than guards--often because it's the first time that they're regularly playing against anyone else remotely close to their own size. I can see how in the world of the transfer portal and basically free agency, knowing that you're walking into a situation that is going to meaningfully invest in developing your skills and not just see you as a 1-year rental before you go somewhere else, has to be reassuring.

If you were a 7-foot recruit, wouldn't Purdue be very near the top of your list? It certainly would be high on mine.

Not to derail this conversation, but a good coach imbues the program with an identity that people buy into. This is part of Purdue's identity--and why people would want to go there, and would want to stay there.

I agree with both of you.  From an opposing fan perspective it is just at the point where you assume that Purdue will have some massive 7+ footer under the rim EVERY FREAKING YEAR and that he won't be a 7' oaf, he'll actually be able to play.  Good for Painter/Purdue.  

[Brutus Buckeye]

Good point. They never get the pedestrian 7 footers, like Kosta Koufus or BJ Mullens. 

[medinabuckeye1]

Good point. They never get the pedestrian 7 footers, like Kosta Koufus or BJ Mullens.

Well it is either that they don't get them or that they successfully develop them into quality players.  Those two are great examples of guys who had the height but simply weren't decent BB players.  Purdue's guys have the height AND the ability.  That is a tribute to Painter because he is doing some combination of recruiting the right ginormous guys and developing the ginormous guys into quality BB players.  

[betarhoalphadelta]

The problem is that's tough to do, if you weren't in place prior to the change.

Purdue could do it.  MSU could do it.

Dusty May said he didn't want to run a transfer program at Michigan, but he needed to in Year 1.  And who could blame him.  Guys come in, and flip a roster, and have success.  Dusty May was one of those.  But the two best of those transfer moved on.  In prior years, maybe UM gets to the NIT last year, those guys are back for another year, and you grown.  Instead your two best players are gone.  So what do you do?  Go backwards?  No, he brings in more transfers, including the #1 transfer in the country.  And they are seemingly good again.  But because the expectations are that you can turn it around in one year, you have to, and once you get on the transfer treadmill, its tough to get off.

Eh. It's not like Painter and Izzo aren't availing themselves of the transfer market. Heck, even before the portal turned everything into the wild west, Purdue was taking transfers who would have to sit a year, and making as much use of the immediate grad transfer process as they felt they needed to. 

I think SFBadge is making a statement more about institutional culture. MSU, Purdue, as well as Wisconsin, have a culture of stability, and the program has an identity. That goes partly hand in hand with having long-tenured coaches, and in every single one of those cases, coaches who ascended into their roles as proteges of the long-tenured successful coach before them. 

Undoubtedly it's harder for a coach like May coming in today. And yeah, when you take over a program in the current environment, nobody is going to wait for you to get "your guys" when you can put together a successful team via transfers. But ultimately May is going to have to build his program's culture and identity, built around a core that comes [mostly] from HS recruits, with transfers on an "as needed" basis rather than a constantly rotating roster every new season. 

[ELA]

No, but they aren't building their teams out of the portal.

In the portal era, I think Tyson Walker is the only impact transfer they've brought in, and that was 4 years ago.  They added no transfers in 2022 or 2023

[ELA]

But ultimately May is going to have to build his program's culture and identity, built around a core that comes [mostly] from HS recruits, with transfers on an "as needed" basis rather than a constantly rotating roster every new season.

That's the problem, how do you establish that?

He started 4 transfers last year.  2 of his 3 2024 recruits transferred out.

6 of his top 7 players in terms of minutes this year are transfers

Again, not blaming him, it's just impossible to build purely through recruiting anymore, because the current structure doesn't allow you to build up.

[betarhoalphadelta]

Well it is either that they don't get them or that they successfully develop them into quality players.  Those two are great examples of guys who had the height but simply weren't decent BB players.  Purdue's guys have the height AND the ability.  That is a tribute to Painter because he is doing some combination of recruiting the right ginormous guys and developing the ginormous guys into quality BB players. 

Yes. For a number of those guys, they didn't just come in on day 1 and dominate. AJ Hammons was very polished coming in, and Zach Edey was just a monster. But it's not like every 7-footer that ever wore the uniform has been the same.  

Isaac Haas was VERY raw early. And he never had or developed all that much athleticism. He never left the post. And there's a reason he went undrafted and ended up playing in China. I'm not going to say he wasn't a great Purdue Boilermaker; he was. He was a matchup nightmare at the collegiate level that most people probably thought they'd not see again for a long time--until Edey showed up and was even more of a matchup challenge lol. But he had some pretty significant limits to his game. 

Arguably, Matt Haarms never really panned out. He was good enough to play, but he was never a dominant big. He was kinda like a 7'3" forward, not someone who dominated in the paint--although he was a hell of a shot blocker. Isaac Haas, followed by Trevion Williams, were the guys banging down low. And he left Purdue to transfer [down IMHO] to BYU.

And nobody is talking about Will Berg. While nobody expected him to do anything behind Edey as a freshman, he was a sophomore last year and even after the Jacobsen injury, barely cracked 6 minutes per game. And has now transferred down to Wichita State. 

So it's not like there haven't been misses. 

[betarhoalphadelta]

That's the problem, how do you establish that?

He started 4 transfers last year.  2 of his 3 2024 recruits transferred out.

6 of his top 7 players in terms of minutes this year are transfers

Again, not blaming him, it's just impossible to build purely through recruiting anymore, because the current structure doesn't allow you to build up.

You wait and watch. We won't be able to determine if he's pulled it off for another 2-3 years. But it's not like he isn't recruiting. 

I'm sure 2024 recruiting was a bit of a wash being new to the program. But one of his recruits transferred down to CMU, so perhaps he wasn't good enough to be a Wolverine. And Pippin's kid went back to California; maybe Ann Arbor or May wasn't the right fit.

But now he's got 5 incoming 2025 HS recruits. 3 of them seem to be consensus 4-star guys. He's listed (per wiki) as already having 4 recruits for the 2026 class. 

If the core of his roster is built around those recruits come 2027 or 2028, then you can say he's pulled it off. But it's too early now. 

[medinabuckeye1]

I think the Portal/NIL era also means that there will be some highly variable years for two reasons:

• Sometimes the transfers just aren't going to work out or aren't going to mesh well together, and
• It is difficult even for the bluest of blue bloods to maintain quality depth because guys who aren't getting PT and aren't getting paid are going to leave for more PT and more cash.  

So there are going to be years where the new QB doesn't live up to expectations and the transfer LBer doesn't fit well in your system and a couple O-linemen get injured and pretty soon your year-after-year NC Contender is struggling to find six wins to go bowling.  Same thing in BB (since this is a BB thread), there are going to be transfers that just don't work out like the ones Ohio State got last year.  

[847badgerfan]

UW has done a pretty solid job mixing in a few transfers with the home-grown kids that they pay to retain.

They went from Storr to Tonje, and Tonje to Boyd. That's not bad.