5 Days to Purdue Basketball: Brandon Newman

Yes, I know we’re late on this one because of yesterday’s football, but I am getting to this now and then doing day 4 (today) in a separate post next:

Brandon Newman - Fr. (RS)

Valparaiso, IN (Valparaiso HS)

6’5”, 195 pounds

Guard

2020-21 Projection: Reserve at guard

It will be interesting to see what Newman does this year. I was very surprised he ended up not playing last season because of his scoring ability, but the one-year hired gun that was Jahaad Proctor allowed coach Painter to try and steal a year on the back end for Newman.

I only saw Newman play once in high school, and it was against Isaiah Thompson and Zionsville. He admittedly had an off night shooting that night, but he showed some good athleticism in getting to the basket against Zionsville’s 2-3 zone.

Another reason I was surprised he redshirted is because he was a top 100 player in his recruiting cycle. He left Valparaiso as their all-time leading scorer, outscoring Scott Martin, Robbie Hummel, and Bryce Drew with 1,577 points. As a junior he averaged over 25 points per game and 9.5 rebounds. As a senior he was over 27 ppg and was runner-up for Mr. Basketball to Trayce Jackson-Davis.

Newman has great size for a guard, but from what I have been told he needed to work on his defense. As we know, if you don’t play defense at Purdue you don’t play. He is an excellent shooter, however, and should find minutes early with Eric Hunter Jr. out.