GoldandBlack.com Saturday Simulcast: The latest on Purdue hoops

In our May 2, 2026 edition, GoldandBlack.com’s Brian Neubert and host Alan Karpick talk about Purdue hoops, including the spring recruiting schedule, NBA prospects for Purdue’s 2025-26 seniors, and what the possible expansion of the CFP and NCAA men’s basketball tournaments means to Purdue.

https://youtu.be/YnZvIqv-ohc

Audio Only

ON PURDUE AND THE NBA (excerpt from Neubert’s Weekly Word column)

Say what you will about producing seniors and NBA viability, but also understand what success means at the professional level.

Forget the guaranteed money and second contract and such; “success” again is relative.

Three years of service time gets you vested in the NBA retirement program, and that considerable long-term security can be just as important to big-picture-thinking people as short-term money. That means two years at the end of a bench and one 10-day contract in separate seasons, and you’re set.

Also, understand that the minimum-contract corner shooter might be the second-most valuable commodity in the league, behind only the expiring contract. But it’s a franchise player’s world; everyone else is just living in it.

If you’re writing off Fletcher Loyer‘s ability to get a real opportunity in a league he’s deeply connected to personally, tell me what you might have thought about Sam Merrill when he was the last pick in the draft coming out of Utah State. He’s a rotation player for the Cavs right now. Cleveland, by the way, starts undrafted free agent Dean Wade and relies heavily on fellow UDFA Max Strus. Because they can shoot and took advantages of opportunities made possible by the fact they don’t cost nothin’.

Now, they earned it. Loyer will get that same opportunity.

As for Trey Kaufman-Renn, he showed you what he can do this season when he gives everything he has to the glass. The NBA is full of minimum-contract grinders like that. If he can show three-point potential, that’s some real role-player value in a stars-and-scrubs-oriented leaugue.

All Purdue’s guys have experience not being the best players on their teams and having to complement others.

That’s how you write your ticket in the NBA when you aren’t on the path of least resistance.

(I am not mentioning Braden Smith here, because I consider him the most-known commodity from a professional-outlook perspective, though he too will have much to prove.)

RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK

• Here’s a half-baked take on NCAA Tournament expansion: Maybe the NCAA could rebrand the play-in portion as something of a separate event, maybe diluting the semantics around what will be a wildly unpopular change. “March Madness” is already a protected copyright; maybe “Play Your Way In” or some such thing can be the same.

Maybe subject all the play-in teams to full-access, behind-the-scenes television coverage and make a reality-TV enterprise out of it. Make it part of the cost of being bracket filler. The story-telling is part of what people have loved about the NCAA Tournament as it has long existed. Ramp that up, but in more authentic ways than performative press conferences and carefully crafted, PR-driven storylines. More original broadcast content; more media access, etc. The NCAA Tournament isn’t going to be ruined, but if it’s going to be over-extended, keeping it interesting longer has to be a priority. If added revenue comes from it, great.

• You know, the Saudi Public Investment Fund is reportedly puling out on LIV Golf. Don’t tell me that if they called Louisville or Mississippi State or Texas A&M or Florida State or like the whole Big 12 that it wouldn’t start some hard conversations. Just saying.

Looking back, as I now understand things, that private-investment opportunity the Big Ten pursued, only to be nixed by Michigan and USC, was really a missed boon for most of the league. But when you can play the heavy as those two schools can, why should you agree to anything that might help anyone else or limit your own options or leverage down the line?