It’s time for Inside the Hall’s team-by-team breakdown of the Big Ten Conference. Today: The Purdue Boilermakers.

Travis Carroll, and Patrick Bade. Purdue fans, let me introduce your new best friends.

It would be folly to say that Purdue’s season is doomed without Robbie Hummel, who re-injured his right anterior cruciate ligament in practice a couple weeks ago and is, yet again, lost for the season.

Purdue is filled with talent, and experience, and has the essence of reliability at both guard positions and down low. If JaJuan Johnson can play an effective four, (he’s been a five his whole career because of his shot-blocking prowess, though he hardly has the body for it) then it gives Purdue more versatility in its front court, because it moves Johnson around well. Dude doesn’t do so well exclusively as a banger, though he’s added weight.

That said, Purdue isn’t exactly busting with size either. Hello, Carroll and Bade.

First, let’s talk about Patrick Bade. The Franklin Central product is 6-foot-8 and looks about 13, and he didn’t look at all impressive against real competition late last season filling in for Hummel. He scored 17 points in the last 19 games of the regular season, including a home win over West Virginia, and even when he saw more playing time in place of Hummel looked uncomfortable and often over-matched.

One positive Purdue fans and pundits swore the Boilermakers could take from Hummel’s injury was the playing time it got freshmen like Bade and D.J. Byrd. They didn’t look good then, but maybe they would this season. Matt Painter and Co. need that to be the case with regard to Bade.

Carroll’s is a different situation, but probably not a more encouraging one. Carroll is a 6-foot-9 freshman center from Danville who plenty of Indiana fans like to remember as the player Cody Zeller owned in the state semifinals in March. According to Rivals, his only other offer was from Indiana State, but he stands to get plenty of minutes this year. Unless he was wildly undervalued during the recruiting process, it’s hard to see Purdue attaching much expectation to Carroll, beyond body minutes.

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