Versus Buffalo, everything was falling in the second half...It was one of those games in which the rim's opening looked wider than the backboard...but not really for the starters. Purdue's starting five had been ratcheting up the defense in the last few contests, but hadn't had the shooting touch in quite a while. That trend has been broken.
Smooge and the Ostrich lit it up behind the arch in the first half and put the game nearly out of reach. By the time the Junior duo was done playing for the evening, they were 8-of-9 from three. On top of that, JJ simply couldn't miss from about twenty feet. His range softened the lane up nicely and created opportunities. He was clearly a tough match-up for the Crusaders who gave up about 4 inches, no matter whom they threw at 25.
Some games it's easy to see who was the player of the game, this one, not so much. Kramer was relentless on defense...and had 3 steals for his effort. Atop that, he scored 7, had 7 ast. and 4 rebounds. Smooge had 19pts while shooting 70% and had 3ast. JJ also had 19, with 7ast...they gave him credit for two blocks, I think he actually had 3.
It was a solid team effort that led to an easy 86-62 victory.
One step up...
Barlow and Bade made a few Frosh mistakes. Both seemed to get a bit ahead of themselves at times...and got into trouble because of it. But both rebounded pretty well. Although Byrd's stat line wasn't impressive, he backed up a solid effort v. Buffalo with another smart game v. Valpo. He played 15 minutes, Barlow played 17.
Come rain or shine...
The Paint Crew had a solid showing...but much of Mackey was empty. Lousy weather from Indy up to Chicago kept a lot of people off of the roads. The good news is the noise level in Mackey probably was about what it would have been had many of those people showed (yes, I'm ripping on the old people who are horrible fans).
Scary
Not much in this game was concerning. This team does what veteran-led teams do- they beat the teams they're supposed to.
But, there was a scary moment in the second half. The Ostrich went up for a rebound and was undercut in the process. He came down on his right hip/lowerback. I'm pretty sure the Purdue nation held its collective breath as we all awaited Robbie's reaction. He got up and hit his free throws...but that near-disaster signaled the end of the evening for most of the starters as Purdue's bench cleared just a moment later.
Good Test
Next up Purdue travels to Alabama on Saturday. Alabama is 6-2 with notable wins over Michigan, Providence and Baylor...their two losses coming at the hands of a solid Cornell team (seriously) and FSU. The good news is Purdue won't be looking ahead as the two following games aren't anything to write home about.
24 comments:
Alabama lost to Cornell at home...
That being said, this game frightens me. Alabama has no pressure and everything to gain by winning. They've had a week off to prepare. They're at home. Their finals are over.
Purdue will be playing an unranked opponent on the road two days before finals start. Not a good combo.
Ug...another dreadful night for the big ten minus Purdue. Wisco loses to UW-Green Bay in OT. Mich loses by 16 to Utah.
So lets review, Wisconsin can't decide what type of team they are, and Michigan is appearing more overrated by the hour.
The Big 10 is definitely failing. It's only a matter of time before OSU loses a few games without Turner, which will leave us with TWO ranked teams. Wow.
I'm excited for the game this weekend. Hope they handle a tougher team and road game well.
I dream of the day the rest of the crowd can reach just one fifth the excitement level as the paint crew. Its bad enough at the football games, but at least now they have the number 5 ranked team in the country to get excited about...
Agree about old fans sucking. They sit on their hands the entire game.
Bade had 4 fouls in his limited minutes, is that right? Hasn't he gotten himself into some foul trouble at least 1 other time (that I think you guys mentioned)? Hopefully he can get over this before the B11 sked starts...
It wasn't too long ago that Mackey was "OLD" all the time. The student section was forced into the upper bowl and no one made a peep except to excuse themselves to the bathroom to change their depends. I love the modified seating and enthusiasm of the Paint Crew. If only we could move all the gray hairs up a ring and surround the floor with rowdiness. That would be fun to watch and damning for every opponent.
I just about crapped myself when Robbie came down. I didn't expect to have that feeling until age 87 minimum.
ATL, both JJ and Bade fouled out with several minutes left to play in the Tennessee game.
Is anyone else appalled by the frequency that Barlow's jersey is untucked? There were at least five minutes last night. He looks like a complete hoodlum out there. Hopefully Painter puts a stop to that.
I don't know if an untucked jersey makes a kid look like a hoodlum...and I think it's really the refs call if that's a problem or not.
The Freshman fouls are the growing pains of figuring the speed of the game out.
I heard this on the radio the other day- rookies/Freshman tend to do everything too quickly because of their panic due to the speed the game's being played. Some vets play the game too slowly because they understand too well what's going on and will probably happen.
This year's Freshman are more typical in their development than the big 3 and even LewJack (although he had a tendency to rush shots).
I think we'll have at least two in next year's class who get "it" right away next year.
Joe and Ben - the problem with the older fans has been there since I was a kid. When I and the staff of Boiled Sports attened Purdue, the student section had a sliver of space behind the baskets and a lot up by the rafters. We could get pretty loud, and we would pretty much stand the entire game. The rest of the crowd - not so much. The sad thing is that the old folks are part of the donor crowd that gets better seats and they will raise holy hell if they get shoved up higher in the stadium. They would probably pull their donations as well. I wish they would. That would leave room for folks like the Boiled Sports staff to be able to get decent seats and make some noise. You know, because the guys make so much money from this blog that they could be sitting courtside if there was space available...
All of you that read this blog and go to the games: Keep up the good work in the Paint Crew! Be as loud as possible and don't sit down!
I was watching the game in a bar and we were openly wondering why the entire starting five was in the game with 6-7 minutes left and up about 30. A minute later Rob fell hard on his back. I saw the whole season flash before my eyes.
Chops1221 -- They take finals at Alabama?
Bade does not impress me. It is always a joke to bet on how long he will be in before committing a foul- usually averages about 30-60 seconds.
Byrd seems pretty comfortable and doesn't force things.
JJ seemed to be playing a bit sloppy last night. Fighting over rebounds with teammates and not taking the ball strongly to the hoop. Sure he drew quite a few fouls, but before facing tough competition, I would like to see him play strong in the middle.
During the Cal-State Northridge and Wake game, I was impressed with the old-timers. Perhaps they were excited about basketball in the first game and the 2nd was a close game vs. a big opponent. The old-timers were standing and cheering quite often. As far as this game and Buffalo... even the Paint Crew wasn't that into it. Sorry, but even I, a die-hard Purdue basketball fan, can't get that excited about a 30 point blowout vs. crappy competition. Sure, I still cheer, but not with the same energy as during big games or when the team needs it. Give the old-timers a break, because what I have witnessed during important moments of games, they have been loud and with it.
Oh, and Michigan can't be that good because they lost to a very young and mediocre Utah team. Utah tends to get up for bigger games but them poops themselves when they play teams like Idaho.
That said, Utah has a chance to be like Purdue was 2 years ago if their freshman step up. That's a big IF.
Gal, I'm usually with you...not today.
I'm not going to take it easy on the old Purdue fans. Sure, there are exceptions, but most of them would rather complain about others cheering than cheer themselves. Until they prove me wrong, I'm going to remind them how lousy they are. I've been yelled at too many times simply for cheering by those clowns. If any of you visit the site, please give me reason to believe I'm wrong. And no, I'm not just talking about any fan who's older than 35 who attends the games. I'm talking about lower-level fans who get the good seats year-in, year-out but think it's A-OK to sit in silence for the majority of the contest. Standing during timeouts? Halftime? Great, just great.
Also, if you had the chance to watch Bade in HS, you might not be as down on the guy...he'll be fine.
i think that fall is why hummel will always were that brace he wears
I'm down on him, I was just concerned about the fouls in limited minutes. The explanation on the speed makes sense and wasn't something that I had thought about (obviously).
At least 75-80% of the lower bowl are horrible 'fans' (and that is from someone watching on TV in the ATL, no less. However, this is still way better than the late 90s/00s when I gave up on going to games becase the student section was a joke and 100% of the lower bowl didn't care. It was always interesting watching the cheerleaders try to get this crowd excited (the only thing that worked was the fight song).
I'm **NOT** down on him - nice proof reading by the English Teacher...
I usually agree about the fans in the good seats. Note my comment to the guy that yelled at me for cheering in 50-yard line seats. The fans at football games have been very pathetic and I would also say that about basketball. However, this season feels different. I don't know if it is the high expectations/ranking coupled with the poor football seasons recently, but the lower bowl has been much louder when needed. Standing ovations going into timeouts, standing and cheering to encourage during the Wake game, things you usually see only in the student section and portions of the upper section. Obviously the Buffalo and Valpo game aren't going to inspire the same response, but I am looking forward to seeing if this continues during the WVU and Big Ten games. Yes, this has occurred seldomly this season, but it has occurred when absolutely needed. Maybe it is not seen on TV as some occurs going into a timeout after a big play/stop, but it seems better this season.
The Paint Crew needs, and deserves, at least half of the lower bowl at Mackey. The Paint Crew does as much as it can, but if you've ever been to a place like the Breslin Center for a big game...it doesn't even compare. The Izzone has at least half of the lower bowl, and the atmosphere is just so much better. I truly believe that giving the Paint Crew more lower bowl space is a step that needs to be taken on the road to making Purdue an elite basketball program.
I also like how MSU decides where the students get their seats - freshmen and first-year ticket buyers sit in the upper bowl. If you attend every game (they scan ID cards instead of tickets) for a season (or two? Not sure) you get lower bowl tickets after that. Really rewards the dedicated fans.
Your comment about the crowd for this game youve got to remember this week is dead week. I would have been at the game if I didn't have 4 exams coming up next week. I think maybe not a lot of students are in the same case but Im sure it kept a large amount from coming to the game.
I remember having tickets way, way up (I think we were actually in the last row) and then later in the lower bowl. At the time it sure felt like we were the only ones making noise, but then again that (the season I had lower-level tickets) was 1988-89, and a sub-.500 team isn't going to get quite the same level of support pretty much anywhere.
What I liked about this game was that Purdue basically put it away in the first couple of minutes. I think top teams are much more likely to do that; good teams sometimes let weaker ones hang around for a while, maybe the whole game. As long as the Boilers keep building large first-half leads, the younger guys will continue to get valuable playing time and the older guys will get valuable rest time. If another starter gets hurt (let's hope it doesn't happen, but if), the guy behind him will have a lot more experience than, say, Evan Turner's backup did.
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