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GoldandBlack.com Saturday Simulcast--Purdue portal talk, spring football and more

Karpick_headshot500x500by: Alan Karpick04/04/26AlanKarpick


In our April 4, 2026 edition, GoldandBlack.com’s Brian Neubert talks all things Purdue hoops, including his thoughts on the transfer portal, Braden Smith’s place in history, and much more. In our second segment, GoldandBlack.com’s football experts Tom Dienhart and Dub Jellison tackle all things Purdue spring football and more.

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RETOOLING THE PURDUE OFFENSE (excerpt from Neubert’s recent column)

Everything here has to be couched in the context of roster fluidity from here on out. But provided Omer Mayer is back, I think your starting point next season is to build around him as a scoring guard who can also facilitate.

I think you can run much of the same ball-screen offense with Mayer that you did with Braden Smith, but the distinction matters: Mayer profiles as a scorer who can facilitate, whereas Smith was a facilitator who could score. That shift changes the pressure points of the offense. With Mayer, you’re trying to leverage his ability to collapse a defense first, then make reads off that. With Smith, it was often about manipulating coverage and creating for others as the primary objective.

There are differences between scoring lead guards and traditional point guards, but functionally they still dominate possession and decision-making. The usage just tilts differently.

Purdue is going to need weapons around Mayer, and he’s going to need to identify his primary pick-and-roll partners. That chemistry — timing, spacing, screening angles — becomes foundational. But that’s the purpose of the offseason.

It’s also worth exploring keeping Mayer off the ball at times when Luke Ertel or Antione West initiates offense. That gives Purdue a different look — potentially more movement, more stress on the defense, and opportunities to deploy Mayer as a scorer coming off actions rather than always creating from a standstill.

Putting Mayer in as many scoring contexts as possible — on-ball, off-ball, in transition, out of secondary actions — is a logical Step 1 in rebuilding the offense. Purdue has all off-season for post scoring threat to emerge and next season could conceivably be one in which the offense skews a bit more toward organic motion. It’s way too early to tell. But CJ Cox and Gicarri Harris each made real progress this season playing off closeouts and angles.

My guess is they’ll also tinker this offseason with Jack Benter in a variety of roles, as a guy whose hands you can put the ball in and trust to make things happen offensively — whether that’s shooting from the perimeter, passing inside-out, or even posting up smaller defenders. That can be done at the 4 or the 3, depending on the lineup.

But in terms of Benter playing on the wing, that would be a big ask defensively and would come at the cost of somebody else you’d want out there for big minutes.

Once Purdue gets Caden Pierce on campus, it can start figuring out how to best use what might be a really important offensive asset. The inside-outside 4 man can shoot threes and showed at Princeton to be a fine pick-and-roll finisher. He immediately makes Purdue more athletic and more versatile at both ends of the floor.

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