Michigan Basketball: Potential explanations for the Nojel Eastern silence

Nojel won’t play college ball again

This is coming from a Purdue reporter, so take from it that he knows a lot about the interworkings of Purdue basketball while also considering potential ulterior motives.

Tom Brew from Sports Illustrated wrote, in his article Don’t Be Surprised if Nojel Eastern Never Plays at Michigan, that Nojel isn’t a patient kid and neither are those who surround him. Sitting out a year won’t seem like a viable option for Eastern and Co.

“Nojel Eastern is an impatient kid. He’s got people in his ear telling him that he’s a surefire NBA player,” Brew opined. “He’d turn pro right now if someone would have him, and that’s where the bad advice comes in. He’s not an NBA player. Not right now, and it’s not even close.”

Tom later said that Nojel might instead choose a year overseas if told he’s not immediately eligible because, “When you don’t play for a year, no one can tell you how great you are.”

Of course, these remarks come on the heels of those from Purdue’s head coach Matt Painter and are painting a vile picture of the current atmosphere in West Lafayette. A location that doesn’t seem friendly considering the head man enjoys trashing his players publicly.

“Matt Haarms is a good guy and Nojel Eastern is a good guy,” Painter said. “They want something else out there, and it’s not magical. Sometimes it’s effort and it’s results. I don’t doubt effort, but you’ve got to have results. If you can’t, I feel you. Because I wasn’t better than a lot of guards that I had to play against … but I don’t run around blaming Gene Keady because I couldn’t guard Calbert Cheaney and Jim Jackson.”

Rude remarks aside, it’s true that Eastern isn’t ready for the NBA, at least offensively. However, Nojel is elite on defense, which earned him back-to-back Big Ten All-Defensive Team honors and he will be looking for a third in Ann Arbor when/if he plays for coach Howard.