If you’re Ed DeChellis and you went into tonight’s game with the goal of not letting E’Twaun Moore beat you, well, mission accomplished, my friend. However, listening to the media when drawing up game plans isn’t always the best idea. Because for yet another game, Purdue shows that they’re not a two-man team, nor are they hapless without Rob Hummel.
Ryne Smith poured in 20 before fouling out to lead the Boilers in scoring (yes, you read that right) while JJ had a nifty 15 and 15, which is a pretty damn good stat line itself, as the Boilers beat Penn State 83-68 in front of almost nobody.
The story of this game was the way that the three biggest names – Moore, Johnson, and Battle – were all nearly silent in the first half. Smooge remained that way as he just never seemed to get the feel of the rattling rims of Bryce Jordan tonight. A number of people noticed the sound of the rims in Happy Valley, but I’ve noticed that before. I don’t know if it’s the acoustics or where they have mics placed…or if they’re really wonky rims. Regardless, the Boilermakers managed to overcome E’Twaun Moore only scoring 4 points – by dumping in 79 more besides his.
Ah, but people already are saying we should temper this because PSU is one of the worst teams in the conference. And to that I say, don’t worry, as you should know if you read us, we have a healthy dose of skepticism in us. However, I don’t think Penn State is that bad a team right now. Jermaine Marshall was a beast tonight with 18 points and Taylor Battle still had 18 points despite horrendous (6-22) shooting. Penn State is 1-2 and yes, the Big Ten is tough to navigate, but they’ll score some upsets this year.
I remain amazed at the deplorable fan support the Nittany Kittens get at home. One of their bloggers responded to me on Twitter and said that if the football team was perpetually 3-9 or 4-8 that Beaver Stadium would be sparse, too. I’m not sure about that, but even so, the basketball team hasn’t been the equivalent of a 3-9 or 4-8 football team recently – they’ve been competitive and entertaining in recent years. And it’s not like they play in a decrepit arena, either. I know there are complaints about the Bryce Jordan Center and, yes, it’s not perfect, but few arenas are. It’s new, modern and comfortable, though, and I just can’t find any excuses for the pathetic turnout we saw tonight and on most nights. Yes, I know the students are on break, but where are the locals? What the hell else are you going to do on a Wednesday night in central PA?
But I digress. Some other tidbits from the game…
LewJack turned up the scoring needle tonight, cashing in for 17 points and getting to the line an impressive 13 times. Of course, had he not missed six of those freebies, he would have been up in the 20s, too.
Back to good ol’ Ryne, he was 5 for 5 from three tonight, making him 12 of 18 over his last three games (three consecutive games scoring in double figures). That’s 67% from three land in Big Ten play so far. I imagine teams will begin covering him soon.
Kelsey Barlow chipped in with ten points, giving the Boilers four guys – FOUR – in double figures. The Boilers even outrebounded PSU by 15 and the only negative of the night (aside from Smooge’s 20% shooting) was the poor free throw shooting. 61% won’t get it done at crunch time, but the Boilers still won by 15 so that shows how out of hand this game COULD have gotten. Purdue also followed up a 31 point first half with a 52 point second frame. Deduce from that what you will. They gave up a lot more in the second half, too.
Next up for the Boilers is a tilt this Sunday against Iowa at Mackey. While Iowa is playing hard and competitively under Fran McCaffery, this is still a game that truly should be a walkover at home for the Boilers.
12 comments:
My favorite part of JJ's line is that it was an, "Oh by the way" 15 and 15. You didn't realize he was doing that and it was almost effortless.
Hard to believe that arena can be so empty when they are only 2 years removed from a national championship season.
very encouraging game from so many aspects. Have to stay hot!
When I saw how empty the arena was, I jumped in my car and drove an hour from Chicago to the Hoffman Estates Sears Centre, figuring the Boilers were there again.
Lesson learned.
Word verification: bonging
I have no idea what that means.
It felt like we were watching a practice on TV.
throw in 5 blocks for JJ on that stat line. I had no idea he had 15 boards by just watching but I did notice a few times he did go hard for some of those. I've always wondered how he can't nab around 10+ every game. I also thought the FT% would have been a little higher just from watching as LewJack and Barlow have improved their touch from the line. T.Johnson needs to work on his FT's. Barlow needs to stop shot putting the ball on his attempts in the lane. Can't wait for Hart to return. Boiler UP!
Also can't wait to watch the Rick Mount Big Ten Icon show on Sunday. Not sure why since I'm only in my early 30's but I think the history is pretty cool.
I think in this game it was all about rebounding, specifically offensive rebounds, and scoring off of defense. I really don't mind LewJack taking it hard to the rim.
Teams will probably start to pay more attention to Smith, but that will just open up JJ a little bit more.
Positives:
1. Purdue showed that we are more than a two man team.
2. We are hitting outside shots when JJ is doubled.
3. We are also penetrating well.
4. Our defense can be amazing at times...even better than last year in spurts.
Negatives:
1. This game was an absolutely dominating performance by Purdue that was negated by very poor FT shooting. It should've been a 20+ pt. win with 10 minutes to go.
2. This game was never truly "put away". It seemed like we had our foot on their throats a few times, and let them have open threes. We need to finish and kill the life of home teams when we have the lead. We never did that last night.
3. While our defense has proven to be awesome (again!), it is not as consistent as it should be. We'll go from lock down to giving wide open shots. More consistency will be criticial against MSU, OSU, Wiscy, Illini.
Overall: Purdue is definitely a top-10 team. Great game last night.
I did like the 1-armed ripping rebound T. Johnson had after one of his missed free throws! He was not going to be denied!
I'd guess central PA isn't that different than north-central IN, so what you'd do on a Wednesday night is drink and play video games ... b-ball (men's, that is: the women draw fairly well) just isn't a priority there.
From what I understand, Pennsylvania is football country, so I would guess PSU isn't going to have big crowds unless they've got a really good team, the same way that Ross-Ade doesn't come close to selling out unless the team is really good or the opposing team buys a lot of tickets.
It's good to see double-digit road wins in the Big Ten, no matter how ugly they may be at times. Every W is another step closer to a nice path in the NCAA tournament ... and of course if we see Purdue win a regular-season or tournament conference title (or both), so much the better.
I love all the additional scorers we have this year and how every game we get 75-80pts. I think we have way more people looking for their shot, so we don't have as many liabilities on offense. Ryno, DJ, LewJack, Barlow and Hart all improved offense and (in my opinion) TJ is an upgrade on offense over Keaton (no disrespect intended) last year. TC is an upgrade over Bade (no disrespect intended). I love our team rebounding! We average over 6 more rebounds per game this year! The one thing I miss the most about Kramer and last years team is the scoring droughts we used to impose holding numerous teams without scoring for 4 plus minutes. That was amazing and I think it says something for how awesome Kramer and Hummel were at shutting down key scorers. If we can get back to that level of defense with Carrol playing big minutes we will go far.
Post a Comment