Jason Delaney may have some valuable insight into Purdue's future, having coached two of the Boilermakers' most important pieces moving forward.
The head coach at Cathedral High School in Indianapolis doubles as coach of the Indy Heat grassroots program's 17-and-under EYBL team, with which he coached current Purdue freshman Jaden Ivey and 2021 commitment Caleb Furst last season. Furst, a senior-to-be, remains with the program, though this has been an atypical grassroots season.
GoldandBlack.com recently caught up with the Lafayette native for some of his thoughts on the two players.
Excerpts below
A few excerpts
On Jaden Ivey's demeanor
"You can tell he's a coach's son, because he's looking for that kind of acceptance. Like he wants to please the coach, wants to do things the right way. And you can tell his mom (Notre Dame women's basketball coach Niele Ivey) has done an absolutely fantastic job of raising him. And that was one of the neat things too is when she would be able to join us. She was so supportive of everything that we were doing, and that's that was pretty neat to see. But Jaden wanted to do things the right way. And so the way he carried himself he had that drive, that determination, that motivation, he wanted to play against the top guys and that's One of the reasons you know, he chose to play on the EYBL. And why when we played these big time teams, the Team Why Nots, and the Mac Irvins and the Knight Ryders, you really saw him step up because he enjoyed playing against that high-level competition."
On Jaden Ivey's offensive skill set ...
"I think he can score a variety of ways, all three levels. He can knock down the three and and makes it look effortless. He can drive the basketball, he can shoot off the dribble, but he can also have that explosive move where he gets to the basket and dunks it. He's a three-level scorer to go along with his playmaking ability."
On Caleb Furst ...
"You see people select a college sometimes and you're like, 'That's a good fit or that may not be a good fit' for that guy, but you talk about the perfect fit and that's how I felt when I saw Caleb chose Purdue. That's the perfect fit. I'm from Lafayette, we're going to Purdue basketball games when I was a kid. And he's that blue-collar, get-your-lunchpail, go-to-work, bang-on-some-guys sort of player, and he just really, really works hard. That's Caleb Furst.
"And coaching him last weekend compared to last year, like he looks better too and that's maturity. He looks like stronger and more athletic, and he's able to do things off the dribble.You know, he really took the challenge last year — and not every guy in high school gets that opportunity to switch or to play ball screens a certain way, and that's up to the system you're in — ... but his willingness last year to switch onto Zion Harmon or one of these big-time guards, he never said, 'Hey, Coach, I don't think I can do this.' He was willing to do anything you asked him to do. And I think in the long run that makes him a better player."
On Caleb Furst's competitiveness last year playing 17-and-under EYBL as a 16-year-old ...
"I learned Game 1 what type of competitor he was. We played BABC (from Boston). And they had a lot of returning pieces. I mean, older guys. And you wondered what that learning curve would be for Caleb because he didn't play (16-and-under) he played the majority 15s (before) and so that's a big jump, you know from the 15s all the way to the 17s. And he started for us first game, and he did his thing. Very first game, he had a great, great game.
"And from there, the second game was Boo Williams, which had two 7-footers, and we ended up beating them. And so from the very first game, he showed that this was the stage that he belonged on, and again, from how he carries himself and his demeanor, to his work ethic, he blended right in with this group of guys. And it was such a great group chemistry-wise of guys, who some of them had chips on their shoulder, and then a lot of them wanted to prove themselves, because they weren't the guys that they always talked about. Right and so and you love that as a competitor and Caleb is like that. You tell him, 'Hey, this guy's ranked whatever,' he's gonna go at it. And and that's why I think Caleb is going to be so successful and is so successful right now."
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