Costly Win.

For 12 minutes-or-so, we saw the Purdue team that tore into WVU, beat up on MSU for the first half and definitely-deserves to be a #1 seed. After that, things took a turn.

As Hummel drove from the left side of the arc to the right toward the rim he fell awkwardly and painfully...The wake of the fall left the Ostrich in a heap...and his teammates in a similar state emotionally. The levity of Hummel's injury seemed to take a few minutes to sink in...but Purdue ended the half poorly as Minny cut the lead down to single-digits on the back of a 6-0 run.

College Basketball

Our Boilers were literally flat-lined following Hummel's injury

After what was surely a bit of a somber halftime in the locker room, Matty's boys came out with a thud. Purdue's lead shrunk to nothing, then turned into a 7-point deficit as Minnesota started the last 20 minutes of the contest with a 12-0 run. Purdue looked flat and shell-shocked. In fact, the only player that seemed to take it upon himself to play with reckless abandon, at least initially, was, get this, Chris Kramer. He guarded 7-footers, played the high post offensively, looked to shoot and drew a charge. CK's effort eventually started rubbing off on his teammates. Fellow senior, KG made some big shots and drove the ball with purpose and had his third-straight double-digit scoring output. But make no mistake, without the KG being reminded of who he really is as a player during the last two games, we might not have seen the stone-cold, monster KG that helped pull our Boilers out of the muck they had created in Minneapolis. Is it possible that 5 is finding his old MVP self as we speak?

In the closing minutes, Matty's club did what great teams do- they made shots, made stops, rebounded well and simply closed the game out. Prior to this strong finish, Goldy kept Purdue at an arm's length with a single-digit lead that felt like a 15-point lead as nothing was working offensively and Minny's bigs were unconscious.

But in the end, the maginally-talented Boilers, with two-thirds of the Big Three available beat Tubby's talented team.

JJ hit some big shots as he finished with 14, 10 and 3 blocks...but he was visibly gassed as he played the entire game. LewJack had 4 assists...two were HUGE. John Hart hit a big shot that kept the game in striking distance, Moore had 11 points and 3 assists, but his biggest contribution might have been shutting down Westbrook. And while the forces of good didn't win the rebounding battle, they did tie it...and a few big rebounds, especially down the stretch, helped Purdue win by the slimmest of margins...59-58.

Matty called Hummel's injury a small setback after the game, let's hope his optimism is rooted in the knowledge of the situation that very few have right now. Until we the rest of us do know more, probably tomorrow around midday, Purdue fans everywhere will be holding their collective breath.

Thinking Big Time??? (and other notes)

GBI reported earlier today that Morgan Burke might be moving off of the benchmarks he sat years ago for the upper deck seats in Ross Ade Stadium. Back in the early 00s, Purdue's AD set a goal that season tickets needed to be consistently near 52K to allow the expansion of Phase II of RA. Now, he's saying if ticket sales can hover above 43K, the next phase will be warranted, and might happen during the off season in the next three seasons. This expansion would also contract the lousy bleacher seats in the South Endzone...and only make the stadium size increase about 3,500 seats. Phase III might not be necessary unless Purdue football experiences another ticket surge a la '99-'04. Even without Phase III, the stadium would have more seats with great sight lines and would look better on TV.

But there are two interesting sub-stories to this. First, does this change in Burke's rhetoric signal the end of his time at Purdue? It's been widely talked about that Burke has contemplated leaving his alma mater a few times in the past 5 years...and what would be a better capping of his tenure than the opening of the revamped Mackey Arena and final renovation of RA?

The second part of the story that's noteworthy is the business side of it. Some of the buzz on the message boards reflects alums believing this shouldn't be completed until benchmarks are reached. But, those benchmarks were set before the current boxes were in us in Ross Ade. An Athletic Department insider told me a few years ago that Purdue's luxury box sales have been very profitable, and at that time, had a five-year waiting list before there was any availability. Granted, that was before the three seasons of sub-par football, but these boxes make the expansion have some economic momentum.

Shifts in Position
Royce Adams, who's had a bit of a backsliding career following a ton of playing time during his Freshman year has been moved to the offense for his Senior season. DB Tommie Thomas is also moving to WR. Both player have good speed, which seems to jive with Hope's idea of getting the fastest possible 22 players on the field...and Adams propensity to shy away (a bit) from hard hitting might indicate that he's mentally better-suited for the offensive side of the ball. Hopefully, they can both contribute on what seems to be Purdue's weakest unit heading into the '09 season.

Big Jon
If you don't like curse words and racist/sexist concepts coupled with weak, poorly produce beats, don't click here.

Jon Uchendu, former Purdue player has now found a new career path as a big time MC. Chendu, represent Ark-LR!!!

Chendu clearly has landed on his feet and is counting stacks and stacks of cheddah and things are only going to get bettah...Dollah, dollah bill, y'all.

So, Everything's Fine?
The on-again, off-again saga of the Ostrich's fractured L5 vertebrae seems to have taken a turn for the better in the last 10 days (despite reports of his condition worsening). But prior to that, reports of his condition might have been exagerated due to his Mom's assessment of what was going on. Who would blame a Mother for wanting her child to get healthy? No one...but my Mom, while well-intentioned, shouldn't be giving medical prognostic indicators to a team of capable doctors either.

Mom usually knows best, but might not have in this case.

Moore, Moore, Moore!!! How Do you like it, how do you like it?

-Smooge has 18 First half points and a 4-4 start (before missing) from behind the three point line.

-Ostrich playing, surprisingly quite a few minutes; but seems to be stapled to the floor. Earlier in the season, he talked about how when his back hurts, he feels unathletic and can't really jump.

-Purdue up by 9 points inspite of three players having 2 fouls (including Kramer and LewJack) and JJ has yet to get on track (offensively)...Seems like a game in which Purdue might blow it open in the first 7 minutes of the second half.

-JJ has 5 blocks...in one half!

Talk amongst yourselves...