EXPRESS Weekly Word: Leadership and Legacy
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VOL. 29, ISSUE 36. FEB. 7. 2019 EXPRESS Weekly Word: Leadership and Legacy EMERGING LEADERSHIP As Purdue's grown into being a pretty good team right now, you're also seeing the seeds sewn for some pretty good teams to follow, what with the play of Trevion Williams and Matt Haarms and Nojel East- ern and on down the line lately, players who'll be centerpieces of the next two Boilermaker teams after this one. But a couple other examples brought it to mind in the past 24 hours or so. But you're also seeing some knowns for those teams being established where there were unknowns First, Haarms. for this team. Look, no one is — or should be — required to Namely, leadership. play the media dog-and-pony show game if they don't want to, but it is an opportunity, not only to If you want to give Matt Painter and his staff reflect things as positively on yourself and your team credit for something, give them credit for this: This as possible when given the opportunity, but to lead. was a season Purdue entered into with significant unknowns, and I'd go so far as to say concerns, re- What people don't always realize when athletes garding leadership, with a small and understated or coaches speak to the media is that they're not just senior class moving now into the most prominent talking to the rank-and-file observer, but also to ev- roles of their careers, a ton of newcomers and the eryone they share a locker room with. reality that its most leadership-driven players were young. Here's a golden example of doing it the right way. That said, leadership may have been required Eastern, a guard, was asked a question about from the sideline more than it has in years, after guard play, and answered. Then, Haarms raised an Painter has had a few teams prior to this one that es- index finger and chimed in about Carsen Edwards, sentially were able to coach themselves to a certain fresh off a 6-of-20 shooting game. extent. "I wanted to say this, as well," he said. "I was re- But Purdue is quickly transitioning from having ally proud of Carsen's maturity today. He struggled unknowns in the leadership column to the opposite in the first half, and some guys would let themselves extreme. get taken out of the game by that, but he was out there in the second half leading us. He was going at Nojel Eastern and Matt Haarms are going to be a them, one of the guys out there really showing us great leaders for Purdue, if you ask me. I'm not sure we had to go at these dudes. I'm really proud of him I can properly articulate why, aside from both hav- for that." ing the charisma, personalities and consciences for it, not to mention them being solid example-setters That's Haarms going out of his way to make from work ethic and effort perspectives best I can mention of his team's best player, praising in public, tell. understanding of the gravity Edwards carries on this GoldandBlack.com 1 team, seemingly aware of the importance of a mes- agers do for the programs they help make run, and sage being sent that teammates have his back, so to very rarely is light shown on those contributions. speak, no matter what. Hours after a big win, during a stretch in which Press conferences are golden opportunities for Eastern has much to beat his own chest over, for such things, but nowadays, every hour of every day him to use his platform to shine some of that light, can be a press conference, because of social media. it really tells you what you should know about Nojel Eastern. Matt Painter didn't ban his players from Twitter for several years because he didn't trust them, but Ultimately, what is leadership? because he wanted to protect them from the barbs of either degenerates or smart people who turn into Leadership is thinking beyond oneself. degenerates during basketball games, and in turn, protect them from themselves. No good can come Some have to. from online fisticuffs with unknown and irrelevant adversaries. But some want to, or just know to, like Haarms and Eastern did on Sunday, giving pretty strong rea- But there's opportunity in Twitter same as there son to believe that Purdue's going to be in capable is in press conferences, only without the intellectu- hands for the foreseeable future. ally stimulating questions. J5bhqllqdtt4ysmmx7sx USA Today Sports A few hours after Haarms used one platform to ENDURING LEADERSHIP publicly praise his team's most important player af- ter an uneven game, Eastern used another to praise On that note, it has come to mind lately how team manager Jacob Rossman for the time he's put leadership and selflessness begets leadership and in helping him improve his foul shooting, but big- selflessness. ger than that, how much he cares. And while some of that is something people ei- People have no idea, generally, how much man- ther have or they don't, there's been an excellent ex- Gold and Black LIVE featuring the staff of GoldandBlack.com Interactive live video-stream sports talk show — ask questions, chat with other fans! For schedule visit the college page on WLFI.com. 2 P.M. FRIDAYS At a computer or mobile device near you! Special guests, analysis and more Trent Johnson, Agent GoldandBlack.com 2 ample laid in place at Purdue. making bad shooting teams good, but not enough to be the sole cause. Namely in the leadership of past captains Vin- cent Edwards, Dakota Mathias and P.J. Thompson. The Michigan State-Indiana game illuninated the real reason, as the Spartans missed all their free Consider how their careers played out. All were throws and Hoosiers made seemingly all their (im- excellent players and winners in their Boilermaker portant) threes: It's the luck of the draw. careers, but all played nice with others. Jump-shooting is like pitching in baseball, the Does Caleb Swanigan's career at Purdue play randomness that makes the game fun and all the cli- out as successfully if the Boilermakers' established chés — anyone can beat anyone on any ... — true. players don't accommodate him so smoothly? Hell, Vincent Edwards changed positions for him after a Especially in the college game, where things are terrific freshman season of his own. so much rougher around the edges, a good shooting team can be awful and an awful shooting team can Does Carsen Edwards' career at Purdue play out be good. as successfully had Mathias or Vincent Edwards not been understanding of him getting 120-some more If Penn State just shoots its pedestrian average shots than any other Boilermaker as a sophomore vs. Purdue, Purdue doesn't need overtime to beat the on a team full of seniors? I don't know if people ever worst team in the league and we all go to bed a little understood how good those guys were and what earlier. they might have been capable of had they ever been The Man, at Purdue or anywhere. If Purdue shoots its average vs. Minnesota, then it rolls over the Gophers, then we have so much less Purdue added starpower on the fly to a team with to talk about afterward, don't we? a great foundation in place, but that foundation be- ing comfortable in its foundation-ness was such an Funny business, these coaches and players are in, important part of those teams' success, and laid a preparing to play opponents armed only with infor- hell of a, well, foundation for years to come. mation culled from results of the past, when all that will matter will be results in the moments, results In the big picture of Purdue's surprising success that can fall any number of ways. this season, don't lose sight of that mattering. --Brian Neubert COINCIDENCE OR CAUSATION? So it's sort of being a running joke for Purdue, yet no laughing matter, that it has this funny way of pinning 20 percentage points onto opponents' It’s All On GoldandBlack.com three-point percentages as if it's the tail on the don- key. The Best Purdue Sports Texas, Notre Dame, Penn State, whoever, the Information numbers go right out the window as the ball goes On The Web right through the net. • Real-time There is some sound reasoning involved. recruiting • Game stories, analysis and blogs Purdue does prioritize keeping the ball out of • Premium message the paint — it's almost poetic that the Boilermak- boards • Video, audio, live stream Free trials ers' coach puts such emphasis on the, uh, lane — events and more available! whether that's in helping against the dribble or • Exclusive access to premium double-teaming against post-ups. There is some an- information Part of the Rivals.com network ecdotal evidence of Purdue's systematic priorities Note: GoldandBlack.com is a separate subscription than your subscription to Gold & Black Illustrated/Gold and Black EXPRESS. GoldandBlack.com 3 Why is Purdue's offense of whom has probably won games for Purdue with so good? hot-shooting performances. 3. Matt Painter and specifically Greg Gary have QUESTION: What have been the biggest reasons done an excellent job — an excellent job — coach- for Purdue not dropping off on offense after losing ing offense this year, building around Edwards, put- last year's seniors? ting him in lots of different positions to score and those around him in positions to score around him.