Taking the lead at all in the game at Penn State during the second half was an impressive feat...but in the following minutes, the under-manned Boilers seemed to completely run out of gas...In fact, our Boilers couldn't manage a single point for about 7:00 following clawing back into the game; and Penn State finally sealed the win, 67-64.Make no mistake, Pringle, Battle, Jones, Morrissey and Cornley all played very well. Purdue had no answer for Cornley, especially in the first half, and both Pringle and Battle seemed to score nearly at will for large chunks of the game. So when an offensively-minded, two-loss team gets a 14-point lead, it's going to be darned-near impossible to win...and it turned out to be just that for Purdue.
The closing minutes of this game were sickeningly-similar to the Illinois loss- rebounding & loose ball opportunities weren't siezed and no one seemed willing to take the shot...EXCEPT, LewJack. He made a lot of mistakes during this game, but the mentality he showed in the closing minutes is why I like him so much. While Smooge couldn't create space between himself and his defender, Grant continually handled the ball sloppily and Johnson couldn't match the muscle of PSU's bigs, Jackson did what no one else in gold and black could or would do- put points on the board.
At this point, any thought of a Big Ten championship or a high ranking should be expunged from Purdue's collective minds. Now, the focus must be to simply get better each game and re-gain the offensive flow that has been completely lost for nearly a month. Also, I don't think it makes any sense to rush Hummel back into the line-up. Back injuries can ruin a season and even a career, so the big picture needs to be kept at the forefront right now for Painter, the Ostrich ad everyone else involved.
The Big Ten is a damned-tough basketball conference this season, regardless of what heads tell you in the media...and this Purdue team without a healthy Robbie Hummel and Chris Kramer, simply doesn't have the firepower to be in the top-half of the conference. I salute the second half effort today, and love the fact that Smith got more involved and Riddell was doing everything he could versus the talented PSU guards...but I felt like I was rooting for the Purdue team of Painter's first season as those two and Green played significant minutes- the effort was there, but the talent is not Big Ten caliber top-to-bottom. Perhaps now, regardless of whom is healthy, Purdue can once again become the hunter, since they no longer will be considered the hunted.
(read posts below if you'd like to see some stream-of-consciousness posting about tonight's loss as it unfolded)
22 comments:
As an MSU fan, it's nice to have our biggest threat fall early.
But this isn't the way I want to see it happen. I hope you guys get healthy and on track asap.
Good luck.
My main question is about Purdue athletes in general. Maybe it's because I follow Purdue's program closer than any other, but it seems to me that across the board, Purdue athletics has trouble keeping players healthy.
This year it's Hummel and Kramer. Last year Scott Martin missed time. The football team lost Taylor, C. Painter, Werner, etc. Even recently the injury bug has impacted the club sports like lady's bball.
Is there something missing from the Boiler training regimen, or is this really just an extraordinary rash of bad luck?
It just seems like so often, if Purdue could field a healthy roster in any sport, we might actually live up to our expectations.
Dozer, it's all about depth at this point...there's simply too much of a drop off from the ones to the twos...both in basketball and football.
Teams like MSU (in basketball) and PSU, aOSU (in football) have little to no drop off in much of their depth chart.
I think you went to easy on Marcus Green. I may have to watch the game a second time, but i think he played like shit. Poor shots and an inability to put two hands on the ball shouldn't get you off the bench too often once Hummel returns.
I know that's incredibly harsh, but I just didn't see that much from Green to outweigh his mistakes last night.
Then again, who wasn't making mistakes?
I loved when Keady was talking shit about Green jacking that three late in the second half.
This one hurts. Looking at it in isolation, it's not so bad... banged up Boilers, on the road, PSU is better than people realize, etc. But to go to 0-2 is tough. I don't think the Big Ten title is out of reach, actually, because I think the conference will continue to beat on one another. But it's definitely a long-shot now.
Also, cool work on our first pseudo liveblog. I've been wanting to liveblog a football or basketball game for a while but just haven't been able to plan it in advance. Hopefully soon, though.
Many problems to comment on but I'll tackle this one. How many times this year have we gone 5 minutes plus without scoring a point? We've done it in games we've won and games we've lost but one such streak against a good team makes it very hard to win. Last night we suffered a 14-0 run to start the game and a 13-0 run to lose it late.
Some of this cannot be helped by Painter but he's got to find an answer to end these streaks early. It would help if he dictated no threes attempted by Calasan and Green. That gives us a better chance of taking a makeable shot. Any bright ideas on how Painter can end these scoreless skids?
Keep going inside. At least if the shots don't fall there's a much better chance of getting to the line.
I had a bad feeling going into that game last night. Playing without Hummel and Kramer is just too tough for our team. I give them credit for fighting back though and coming close to getting a big win. I was hoping Green would step up and have a big game like he did a few times last year but he didn't do squat.
Hopefully the guys can get healthy soon. I think a Big Ten title is out of reach but I still see them bouncing back and finishing strong. I more concerned about how they will be playing in March.
A lot falls on the coaches. Offensive sets, rebounding, blocking out, shot selection - Painter should be able to teach/dictate these things to a great extent. How the team does next game will show if the coaches are adjusting and getting through to the players.
It's been a classic Purdue season... We're a few points away from being a one-loss team likely ranked in the top 5 nationally and everything would be good. Instead, E'Twaun is talking transfer, and there is little enthusiasm for the program anymore. It's popular to hate on Scott Martin (your tag, for instance), but if we had him we'd be in a much better situation. It looks to me like Painter should've guaranteed him a bigger role.
Where does the "E'Twaun is talking transfer" idea come from? I know things seem different with him, but is anything substantiated on that front?
Last night left me pretty pissed off. It's time to stop making frickin' excuses and wins some damn games.
Ross, there's a buzz on some of the boards about Smooge...something tells me there might be some heat to this rumor. Martin's transfer rumors began circulating in a similar fashion around December of last season.
Billy, I'm absolutely pissed at Martin. There are no guarantees and he didn't deserve any. If he had acted like a man instead of a boy, he'd be starting right now and Purdue would probably be a 1-loss team...unless of course he would have bellyached in the locker room, then he would have been a cancer. Either way, he made his decision. I wish for him to "fade into Bolivian". While he was a lousy defender, he was a good rebounder; something this team needs...I thought that after Moore, he'd be the pick of that class.
Paul's right on- the fact that JJ doesn't block out and Calasan takes threes at inane times can absolutely be cured by coaching.
Am I the only one who thought Painter looked confused last night late in the game?
I'm a Purdue fan before I'm a Scott Martin fan, but I understood his move and was close enough to the program to know that the "he left because he was jealous of Hummel" talk is silly sour grapes. If you were in his position and felt you had a chance to play in the NBA (whether we feel he will or not isn't the point... if he goes to ND and puts up 20 ppg he'll have a slight chance, and he himself has to believe he will make it), you have to make the best move for yourself to take advantage of it. At Purdue, he was forced to play on the interior and that might not have changed until Travis Carroll arrived. His NBA prospects lie on the perimeter. Yes, he can bang and board at the college level, but transferring was the smart move when looking at basketball as a possible career for him. It'd be great to still have him, I'm disappointed he left, but it's wrong to hate a nice kid who was pursuing his own interests and happiness.
Make no excuses for Martin. He quit on his team and therefore he is dead to me. He never existed.
Martin shot the three with poorer efficiency than Calasan or Green...indeed, he must have a future on the perimeter.
http://purdue.rivals.com/bstats.asp?Team=PURDUE&year=2007
Oh yes, and UND's pipeline into the NBA is flowing...Murphy, Carrol and Garrity. That's just like UNC.
I'm with Travis.
Rob Kurz and Chris Quinn, too.
As opposed to just Cardinal and Miller.
Not that I see how it even matters. How good their past players were will have no bearing on whether Martin makes it.
We'll see. I already knew the stats, but I heard straight from Painter's mouth that Martin was the best shooter on the team in practice. He just lacked confidence in games. I'll go by that.
Landry too*
Also (last message) no hard feelings on the disagreement I hope. I have this same debate over Martin with half my friends.
Of course not- you were just presenting your opinion...I don't mind disagreements at all...nothing personal.
But there's no argument- he didn't want to be here, so for that reason, I'm glad he's gone...and his transfer choice makes it easy for me not to wish him a successful career.
And as for Martin thinking he has a chance at the NBA, that's not a guy you want around anyway... a team is only a TEAM if you're all thinking of the good of the TEAM. If Martin really was thinking about shooting bricks in the NBA, then all the more reason to be happy he's gone.
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