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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 10 • 5 L et's talk about "culture" for a second. What is it, that buzzword that we know describes what Darrell Hazell's trying to build with Purdue football and Matt Painter's trying to rebuild in basketball? "I always thought culture referred to yogurt," Wisconsin basketball coach Bo Ryan said. Thanks, jerk. I kid. So was he. But seriously, what's culture? I asked a bunch of basketball coaches, because … well, they were all sitting there at Big Ten media day. "Culture is going to win over talent," Michigan's John Beilein said. "We teach it, preach it and live it every day we're out on the floor and we recruit to it. … "There's so much going on in life, so many distractions now, you have to have it, almost like a family. You have to have that togetherness and universal belief system within that locker room." It's hard to establish, even harder to maintain. Take it from the last person on the face of the earth you want to hear from right now. "If your culture drags in any one area or there's any loose ends, that's what you have to be attacking daily," Indiana coach Tom Crean said. "Any business is the same way and the best, most successful businesses get that. There's a chain of command but also everybody has a role and it's to support one another and not enable one another. It's harder to do, especially in big-time college sports." Crean now knows the fleeting na - ture of culture better than anyone. It wasn't all that long ago that his team was No. 1 in the country and per- ceived to be rolling, with a strong cul- ture in place. Now, chaos, a basketball team running around campus behaving like Delta house. In a tragic accident, one Hoosier just hit another one with his car. Both underage players had been drinking. Two other Hoosiers are sus- pended for flunking drug tests. Salt-of-the-earth Cody Zeller and beyond-reproach Victor Oladipo would be rolling over in their graves if they were, you know, dead, same way Robbie Hummel and Chris Kramer probably gagged watching the past two Purdue basketball teams, ravaged by basketball stupidity and get-yours thinking. Fortunately at Purdue, no- body went to the hospital because of ill-advised shots, but it's the same at its most basic levels: Erosion of culture. It's hard nowadays. These kids are BMOC everywhere they go, magnets for yes men and back-patters. "We've always had a third-party sport," Painter said. "You want to see bees on a pop can? Find me a good 17-year-old basketball player." It's a lot to cut through in recruit- ing in determining cultural fit. "Yeah, it's hard," Painter said, "but that's what they pay you $2 million to do, right?" It's hard for coaches to get to know players. It's harder to know all that comes with those kids. They're being pulled all directions, their spheres of influence overcrowded. "This day and age, it's so easy to find somebody to tell you what you want to hear," Crean said. In recruiting, you get players but you also get their inner circles, friends and Twitter following. Cultural land mines abound. "I'm always concerned for (players') welfare," Ryan said, "and you're always hoping deep down inside that you've got the right voices directing traffic." You never know. You've seen signs this year of Pur - due's football culture being fixed. Yes, it needed to be fixed. You're seeing signs now of Purdue basketball's culture turning, happening with the overhaul of its roster. You're starting to see now at Purdue something more like Ryan's definition of "culture." "It's that band of brothers, stealing from Stephen Ambrose, that camara- derie, how I look at you as a teammate, how you look at me," Ryan said. "Do you respect me? If you respect me, you bet- ter get after me in practice and make me work really hard. And I'll show you I respect you by making you the most miserable person in practice to make you the best players I can. "When I have that with players, I know I'm going to have a good team." j Neubert can be contacted at BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com F R O M E D I T O R B R I A N N E U B E R T Culture Critical