As the closing minutes wound down in regulation, Lil' Boilerdowd assured me, "They're gonna win...they won't lose two in a row." The wisdom of a four year old proved correct as he and JJ seemingly willed them to victory in a hostile environment in the BT/ACC challenge. This was only Painter's second victory in overtime while at Purdue.
Once the clock hit 0:00 for the third time of the night, the Big Ten had a commanding 6-3 lead with only the Duke/MSU game left on the docket. Northwestern, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, aOSU and Purdue are all victors, at this point. For those keeping score at home (disregard this, EsPN), the BT has won two-straight of these made for TV extravaganzas.
But Purdue's portion of the pie was made difficult by lousy shooting. JJ made more field goals than the rest of the entire team...and shot at a higher percentage as well. He went 11/24...everybody else, 10/34.
T. Johnson and Smooge both fed the beast and finished with four assists. Moore finished with 14 points as well, but was struggling all night to find rhythm. VaTech's guard-heavy line-up and zone defense proved difficult for Purdue to counter...and the fact that Purdue players who weren't wearing #25 simply couldn't shoot only compounded Matty's squad's usual problems v. zone defense.
This game was similar to the Richmond game in the fact that Purdue struggled scoring the basketball. But, it was much different in the way Purdue played defensively. But, our Boilers were once again out-rebounded handily...tonight by 13.
But this game might be easier to figure out than Richmond. While JJ was dominant, finishing with 29 points in 44 minutes, Purdue's other bigs only totaled 6 minutes- Bade and Marcius played 3 each, Carroll didn't play. The good news of course, is that JJ scored at will, especially in the first half when he decided to post up. The bad news is he went away from that for minutes at a time and forced 18-plus footers regularly...he went 1/4 from behind the arc.
Byrd who finished with 8 rebounds, led our Boilers on the glass. He played tough defense and played through a stinger of some sort after taking a moving screen to the shoulder late in the second half. Knight (who was doing color for the game) spoke of how the shoulder injury took Byrd completely out of the offensive flow...but he didn't think that hurt Purdue as DJ was 0-5 from the field.
Barlow played great on defense and helped to hold Delaney, VT's lead scorer 12 points below his average. Jackson had an efficient day offensively going 2/2 and finishing with 5 points. But, unlike in the previous game, he looked sound defensively and made very good decisions with the ball.
This game felt a bit like the Alabama game last season...but, unlike the 'Bama team, VaTech had a crew of clowns on their bench that acted like they were playing their way into the Final Four tonight...on multiple occasions, the ref had to get them in their seats and off of the court. Atop of the exuberant bench, the crowd was lathered up. In fact, it felt like a fight might break out in the second half and VaTech really wanted it and things got a bit chippy a couple of times. The Hokies needed to avoid their third loss of the season, but couldn't because JJ was so dominant.
While I was glad Johnson was back to playing with a purpose, I'm still bothered by Moore's lack of production...but even moreso, at this point, the overall lack of shot-making ability by the rest of Matty's squad is just painful. Purdue's offense versus zone defenses has been shaky even going back to Keady's era...but these Boilers seem to settle for the three pointer waaaaay too often. And that's especially bad since they don't shoot it well.
This win was important for a number of reasons, but this team is clearly a work in progress and needed it. The depth we saw in the early seasons has all but evaporated- Painter doesn't seem to have enough faith in the big men to play them except in tiny spurts. And the backcourt, outside of Moore, can't score when they face solid defense.
Terone Johnson, John Hart and DJ Byrd have to score for Purdue to have a chance to stay near the top of the league. And more than just one guy has to rebound with a purpose. Let's Hope Purdue doesn't keep listening to the media's perpetual reminders that Hummel is the only person on the roster capable of doing these things...but it kinda seems like that's exactly what they believe. By the way, unlike scoring, rebounding is a choice...the scoring will come, in my opinion, if Purdue starts banging a bit more.
Next up, Alabama comes to Mackey on Saturday afternoon.
14 comments:
Winning in overtime is so bush league!
CUT BAIT!!!
Overall, I thought it was an entertaining game, because I enjoy gritty basketball, but it always comes with a price.. like seemingly feeling your blood pressure climb drastically. Well done, Boilers. Now get the rest of the offense caught up to JJ. You have one month.
Having moved to NH in September and not getting BTN this was the first Purdue game I could watch this season. That's probably a good thing or I'd be forced back on to my lisinopril.
Didn't E'Twaun guard Delaney (who reminded me of Manny Harris) in the first half? Is that what took him so far out of the offensive rhythm? It was nice to see JJ so dominant, but after he made the 3, I told my wife that wasn't his shot and we didn't want him taking it. It didn't seem like VT could guard him on the block...why did he ever leave it?
Is there anything more embarrassing that getting a 3-point shot attempt blocked? Not tipped...blocked right back into your face.
It was nice to see LewJack drive towards the end of the game. If his free-throw shooting was better, it'd be nice to see him do that more often.
I loved how Knight and Musberger called the first half, but in the second half it seemed like they wanted to talk about anything but the game...VT football, Duke v MSU, etc. Once they remembered they were at a basketball game and started calling it, they were good again. Watching Knight draw up the play VT should have ran for their last shot of the 2nd half was really cool. No other color guy in the business would give you that.
Anyone see Marcius go in for one defensive possession and look completely lost... like a kid in gym class or playground. Painter immediately took him out. Bade is still not coordinated enough to get a rebound. This team HAS to rebound better. You can usually get away with less than average shooting if you are rebounding; just as you can get away with poor rebounding if you are shooting well. But this team is proving that it can't do either.. Scary.
In any case, good tough emotional win last night.. proud of the guys.
Boiler up.
you can bet Marcuis will continue to look lost if Painter doesn't bite the bullet and just play him for long stretches - lost looking or not.
Also, as far a Smooge goes I think the real problem was that Vtech was allowed to put their hands all over him. Don't know if Painter pointed this out to the refs, but it was something we weren't allowed to do to the degree Vtech did on Moore, and that's what took him out of the game. He simply couldn't turn the corner...
"Once the clock hit 0:00 for the third time of the night, the Big Ten had a commanding 6-3 lead with only the Duke/MSU game left on the docket."
Don't know if you meant to do this, considering Penn State did forget to show up against Maryland! :)
I think Knight does a great job: he's not afraid to say anything that's on his mind (as we all know), so he'll point out when highly-touted players and teams aren't playing well, unlike certain bald-headed "analysts". I guess the downside is that he does tend to wander from time to time, although IMHO Musberger brings that out.
At least one, possibly two of the three-point shots JJ took were shot-clock beaters ... not that that excuses the shot selection, just explains it. (Why is your center on the perimeter with 3 seconds on the shot clock? I don't know.) Why isn't the PG moving the offense, at least trying to make something happen?
The offense didn't look good as a whole - I definitely agree that zones are still a problem for Purdue - but it's a road win in ACC country, and those are not easy to get. Playing poorly on offense and winning is a good sign, and there are few things nicer than watching the defense salt the win away.
Freudian slip, GaBoiler.
Wow, yeah - VTech bench was comical. They put together two or three buckets in the first half and went into a timeout. Some 4th-stringer was out there doing his snoopy dance like they had just won the game. And I'm thinking...."that's real nice and all, but you're still down by two there, buddy". Maybe was his first time in the arena?
Remember when Nate Minnoy used to dance around the huddle during timeouts? That worked out well for everyone involved.
That guy was 10 times more goofy than Minnoy and was nearly-spastic after each defensive stop or bucket.
Old Dominion 77
Richmond 70
The Boilers officially have a "bad loss." The win at VT was vital.
Zlions- Good cal on JJ's 3's. I forgot about that but he did fire up 2 long range jumpers just to get the ball on the rim, one very late in the game that led to an offensive rebound. That said, he wandered way too far from the rim for a long stretch in the second half and you could tell it hurt the offense. The downside of having Bade/Marcius/Carroll in at the same time as JJ is that it gives him too much area to roam. If JJ works the high/low post and the other big can crash the backside board, it's a much more productive offense than JJ screening and catching beyond the arc.
Actually dozer8589, Old Dominion is pretty good they have beat Xavier (who I know is down this year) and Clemson and got beat by 3 against Georgetown. I don't really think the Richmond game is a bad loss, if anything it's a realization that Purdue has to get ready to play these teams more then in the past b/c Purdue has been good the last 3 years and "smaller" teams are getting more jacked up to play them then they are to play teams like Richmond. Plus, Richmond's guard play is good and as everyone knows if you have a good guard play in college, you can be pretty good. Thats my two sense
What will it take to motivate the players to rebound? We are so soft on the boards it is so frustrating. We can't keep this up like we did last year. Our offense can only take us so far in games, we have to get rebounds. Does Painter ignore that the great teams we play get significantly more rebounds? Tell me why hasn't this been fixed? Don't give me that Hummel is out and he was our dominant rebounder... we have others who can step up.
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