Neither ice nor snow, streaky shooting nor illegal picks can keep this Purdue team from beating Wisconsin. Matty Painter's club has now beaten Bucky four straight times.
Purdue went up to Madison and played a simply desperate team in the Kohl Center. Wisconsin tried to beat Purdue up early, literally, but thuggish tactics by Krabbenhoft and Co. fell short in the end. Bo Ryan wisely guided his Badgers into playing their old-school, slow-down, beat-em-up style of basketball that I've grown to detest over the past seven seasons, but the tactic that's earned Wisky so many BT titles wasn't enough this evening, and hasn't been enough this season.
Dead-eye shooting by Smooge, Grant, Hummel and even Kramer helped resurrect Purdue back from a 5 point deficit with about thee minutes remaining...but Johnson's two free throws put the game on ice. Is this guy growing up before our eyes or what? After missing the opportunity to end the Illinois game at the free throw line earlier this season, Johnson's been mentally tough enough to clinch two wins at the charity strip. I can't wait until this guy puts on a bit more weight...the rest of the league isn't looking forward to it as much. But even without the extra bulk, JJ has been able to flex his muscles for much of the season.
My favorite moment of this game was a small detail- with around three and one half minutes remaining, there was a dead ball under Wisconsin's bucket...the camera focused in on Moore- Smooge didn't look flustered or panicked as Purdue was staring a possible 7 or 8 point deficit in the face, he looked cool, no icy. This team showed this last year- an unflappability that you can't teach. Not everybody on the squad naturally has it, but two guys definitely do- and when they're in the groove, everyone else feeds off of it. It's official now; Purdue is once again a threat to the top of the league. If they come out of the next two games unscathed, they'll undoubtedly be re-considered as a contender.
Purdue's signature defense, and specifically, Kramer's pressure on the ball are the foundation of what makes this team tick...But, our Boilers have found the offensive rhythm that they so desperately sought just weeks ago. In fact, none of Purdue's 8 players who played shot less than 50% on the night...that's tough for an opponent to overcome.
Next up, both J and I will be in attendance at Mackey as our Boilers seek to make it a half-dozen wins in a row. Purdue plays Michigan on Saturday at 1:00 with the nation watching on CBS. Tune in and listen for me to be the only person in the arena louder than Chris Kramer's Mom.
Addendum
Is anything more annoying than the team of Lavin and Mussberger? Those two mouth-breathers almost make it not worth having Erin Andrews on the TV...almost.
Smooge's line- 17pts., 7/9, 6 ast. 1 stl, 1 TO...not bad, if you're into that sort of thing.
24 comments:
Who is laughing now Barry Alvarez....
Musberger's more tolerable for basketball than he is for football. (Of course, that's about like saying arsenic is less toxic than polonium.)
Great post! I really like listening to Lavin. He knows the game very well. I can take or leave Musburger. That being said, he is much better than Vitale, Digger, Rafferty and Packer.
As much as it pains me to say it, I really enjoyed listening to Bob Knight when the Boilers played at Minn.
Enjoy the tickets on Saturday. The Mrs. and I are actually going to see some hockey in Columbus on a delayed anniversary trip.
Man do I have a lot to say about this game..
I'll get my one Wiskey point out of the way first - I was really impressed with Nankivil. Granted, we were focusing primarily on Landry and Hughes, but there's still no reason that a player who had previously made one career trey goes 5 for 5 wide open from downtown.
Now for the good stuff..
We shot 60 (it rounds up..) freaking percent from the field last night. And you can't say anything about Wiskey's streak to affect the significance of that number, because they are still a Bo Ryan team that has the talent to show up any night of the week.
JJ made me smile last night. He may have only scored 7 points but those two free throws at the end were worth at least 10 points IMO. At least we have one true big man on this team, rather than being 6'9 245 and trying to be LeBron's stunt double from the perimeter (coughCalasancough).
Finally, did anyone else start jumping up and down screaming when Kramer finally decided to pull the trigger instead of looking to pass, with the game on the line to boot? I honestly thought I had tears forming, but maybe that was all the beer I spilled on myself during said jumping and screaming..
-Mike
Oh, and it took me long enough to sign up on here after reading religiously for well over a year..
Oh and Dowd, I forgot to ask one thing from you - Can we pleeeeaaasse have an Erin Andrews themed SBF this week, to commemorate her apparently being a very real good luck charm to our boys?
I know it wouldn't really be in true SBF fashion, seeing as I doubt there is even a picture in existence of her in anything without so much as sleeves on, but she is so gorgeous I really wouldn't care.
You know you want to..
Hey guys, if you are using T-Mill's tix you will be 2 seats over from me! I met him during that horrible Duke game. I will be the one yelling that I WANT Chris Kramer!!! My prediction of a 10 point win yesterday... I guess I was dislexic, I meant 1. Loved seeing my boy hit that 3!!! Great game Boilers! Keep the streak alive!
-The girl that reads these blogs
I personally like Lav and Mus. They are such Big Ten nuthuggers! I love Lavin's cheeseball comments.
Which girl yelling that she wants Chris Kramer? There's going to be 1.8 women per square yard in that place doing the same exact thing.
Krabbenhoft is a thug. That was a football play.
No one is louder than Kramer's mom!
I agree Lavin and Musberger are brutal. They like to talk about current events and rely on ridiculous hyberbole instead of doing their homework about who is actually playing right in front of them. The ESPN360 guy is 10 times better. So is Bob Knight.
I was just about to get into my car and drive to Wisconsin to head-rattle a few refs. Wisky was getting away with some pretty physical stuff while we were getting called for touching a badger. Not as much fun as touching a beaver, and getting called for a foul at the same time is worse.
Dowd - I think my wife posted on your Facebook page last night that my head was going to pop off.
Lavin is okay, Mussberger needs to retire. He knows all the names, but not who is on the court.
BoilerUpCincy, welcome to the family!
J and I honestly thought our little site was a tiny community...turns out, we've averaged about 500 visits/day the last 4 days and 350 of you guys are new visiors...Thanks to all the lurkers and all of you who respond!
Man, you guys love you some Lavin...He's knowledgeable, no doubt about that. But the way he slurps on the BT officials garbage gets old, for me. He almost always thinks the officials are right...and they're simply not. It's like he's perpetually interviewing for a job with the BT.
Plus, he and Muss acted like they were about to have a make-out session with the mutual verbal petting at one point. Not that I don't want to see Brent sans shirt, but only in my dreams.
For anyone who wants to meet J and I, look for the bald three-foot tall and devilishly handsome chap (me) and the tall, dark-haired and lovely young man in glasses...we'll both surely be talking about our opinions and how right we are...and we'll be doing it loudly. J can't help it, he's from the Northeast; I don't have an excuse.
Also, we'll be wearing Purdue paraphernelia. You won't be able to miss us.
And also:
BoilerUpCincy: Thanks for finally de-lurking! We love -- LOVE -- getting comments and arguments on here... anonymous posters who tell us we're "worthless" are idiots. But anyone who wants to disagree and form an argument is more than welcome. You should hear some of our discussions when we're together! As for your EA request for Friday, we'll see what we can do... we've definitely featured her here a lot in the past and she's kind of overexposed on meat-headed blogs like ours already... but, like I said, we'll see.
Anonymous Kramer-Loving Girlie: Time for you to create an account and chime in more often.
I have one, it's Boilergirl or Boilergal- something like that, but for some reason I can only reply via anonymous at work. I guess they get the monitoring stuff half-right here!
No love for Keaton Grant? He had 10 points, 2 steals and only one turnover in 30 minutes. I thought he had a huge play when they were down by 5 and hit that looong three. FYI, Musberger was just saying how Purdue still had a run left in them....and he hit that three!
Also, Kramer is an amazing defender. There was one play where wisco got behind the zone and looked headed for a sure thing dunk. Kramer came from nowhere and knocked the ball from the player and out of bounds, without fouling.
Just a few plays that I think were very pivotal in the game.
I've got mad props for E'Twaun, and it all began with a putback about 3:50 before the half.
Coming out of the 4:00 TV timeout, Purdue was up 3. Calasan put up a decent shot from the top of the key but it rattled out. Smooge was right there for a quick rebound and score to stretch the lead to 5.
Had that rebound been picked up by a Badger there's a good possibility that Wisconsin cuts the lead to one or even, the crowd goes apeshit, and Purdue may or may not lead by 6 at half.
Of course this revisionism holds true for any shot - not just Calasan threes - but when you consider the emphasis Painter puts on winning the final minutes of the first half, Smooge's play was crucial last night.
One could only imagine the momentum swing going into the half had Purdue not maintained the lead with Wisconsin coming out swinging like they did. Aggressive plays like this help maintain that confidence-from-the-couch that has me buying our shot at a Big Ten title this year.
The first half was enjoyable to watch... Muss really messed up with some of his calls (the kicking call v. foul comes to mind). I don't mind him and it could be worse...
Unfortunately, on a rather clear and precipiation free night in the ATL my cable went out at half time... along with my internet. Lovely. It sounds like it was a rather exciting finish.
I will trade the cable outage for the snow and ice eveyone in Cincy/Indy is dealing with right now.
Cincy, Indy, Chicago, Dallas, New York, NJ.... it's dangerous everywhere, it seems.
Musburger also called a Wis foul a charge at first on that 2-on-1 break and then realized his mistake... but not before I'd already cursed loudly at my TV.
That said, Muss doesn't annoy me like others do.
E, you're right about Keaton... solid game, clutch shots, and I believe he had a nasty dunk in there at one point, too. That jungle gym swinging one...
Also, FYI everyone, we've added a MattyCounter to the right. We watch and listen as much as we can but if we miss any, please be our ears.
Moore's stellar line also included 5 rebounds. He may have played the best overall game of anyone this year. Seems like many of his baskets came when we needed a basket to stem a Wisco rush. The beauty is despite his great game it was 4 other players who each made a clutch hoop or 2 freebies to win it.
Ignoring the meaningless 3 at the end we both had 6 possessions inside the last 4 minutes. They went 1-8 from the field, 2-2 free throws and got 4 points. We went 3-3 from the field (all 3's), 4-5 from the line, 13 points. We scored on 5 of 6 possessions, they scored on 2 of 6. Game over.
Krabbenhoft sucks it all over the floor.
Also, a point that hasn't really been made yet:
If Nankivil isn't unconsciously shooting the lights out, this game isn't even close.
Seriously, make him 2 of 5 instead of 5/5 (which would still be reasonable for him) and suddenly it's a ten point game.
Happily, the better squad won.
Love the "Matty Counter"! There were actually more, but they were not all referencing Matt Painter.
Great game last night! I loved seeing the Boilers bring it home and responding to the Badger run.
As a side note, I don't think E'Twaun gets enough props in the press. Hummel is clearly a good player, and when he's not hurt he's a great player, but Moore never gets the headline treatment (see Ee spunk pee en) even though he's the guy that goes the distance on offense. Keep your head up, E'Twaun. You're The Man, and we all know it.
Also, hat's off to Bob Knight. He has been the best announcer I've heard this year. His coverage of the Minnesota game was a treat - he really exposes the finer points of the game and makes it more enjoyable to watch.
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