Do you know why JJ gets coffee this morning? Because coffee is for closers.
Yes, I realize some of you are too young for a Glengarry Glen Ross but it amuses me nonetheless and we all know that's what is important around here.
JaJuan got the ball on the game's critical final play last night (well, the final scoring play anyway) and he drained a jumper in calm, assassin-like fashion. It seems to me that the entire team is getting more icy-veined by the game. We used to feel that way about E'Twaun primarily... and then, I think we began to feel that Ryne Smith was capability of similar assassin-like calmness. And now here is JJ draining jumpers after he jukes away from his man. See his complete performance against PSU here, courtesy of the Paint Crew. (Nice work, guys.)
One thing I did want to mention that I was a bit concerned about was something that has been an issue in years' past. And that is the Boilers being horridly outrebounded. It was 26-14 last night, in favor of the Kittens. That's just... weak. And it will be Purdue's undoing if they continue to be so lax on the boards. JJ and DJ tied for the team lead with....3. Three? Seriously? JJ should accidentally get three rebounds -- per half! I was concerned about this last year, but had recently begun to actually think Purdue had solved their rebounding woes, as there hadn't been many (if any) complete lopsided rebounding battles like this one so far this season. Ah, but here it is, back again. Are they not working on it in practice? Are they somewhat....soft? I surely hope not. We'll learn more in the coming weeks...about every aspect of Purdue basketball you could ever want to learn about.
Other observations from last night....
Tim Doyle is a putz. I mean, seriously, I think we all knew that but what a doofus. In the opening, he and Collins are talking and Doyle is gazing lovingly at Collins and someone must say something in his earpiece to look at the camera...and Doyle's head snaps towards the camera hard enough to strain a muscle. Check it out if you've got the game on DVR. Other Doyle-isms included him referring to Jackson of PSU as "pretty young thing," and saying "Jeff Brooks has been Brooks Brothers tonight...fantastic!" I guess we know where Tim gets his sport coats.
Travis Carroll Isn't Advancing. I know the guy has potential and he must impress in practice because Patrick Bade has basically been buried on the bench. But it's not translating. He had one shot attempt last night and I remember it clearly because it was so awful. The PSU defense was collapsing down on JJ and JaJuan dished to Carroll...it reminded me of when you'd let the really bad guy at the co-rec have a shot at an easy layup. Carroll proceeded to hammer it off the bottom of the rim, or so it looked like. Just a terrible, rushed, nervous shot. Maybe I'm reading into things and am way off (wouldn't be the first time), but I think Travis just needs to settle down. Maybe the Big Ten games are moving fast for him...I don't know. But having two rebounds and two fouls (and a turnover) in 11 minutes (and no points) is just not cutting it. Bench production is needed.
E'Twaun Moore is Back...Sort of. Smooge got back into the groove it seemed, scoring 16 on nearly 50% shooting, BUT....still no free throws. E'Twaun is now at five games since he got to the line. That is, frankly, astonishing to me. How can a guy this good not get to the line at all? Like, literally, at all? His last free throw was December 31 against Northwestern. Goodness. No attempts in 2011. I'll be brutally honest, as we try to be here: This is not what a potential All-American does. You must get to the line, as that is where many of these games are won. If Smooge is getting to the line at all, he's easily averaging 20+ PPG...but he's not. In other 33 news, his three-point percentage has dropped below 40% for the season. If three-pointers aren't falling and free throws aren't happening, that's not a good combo. But you know that. Let's hope last night's mini-resurgence is an indicator of things to come.
Speaking of Free Throws... The Boilers actually had the free throw advantage last night...at 10-8. That's just...silly. But hey, whatever. At least it was called evenly.
Next up, as Boilerdowd very calmly mentioned, is a big Saturday night game against Sparty. The ESPN GameDay crew will be in Mackey all day. We'll have more about this event later today.
11 comments:
I think Carroll's doing just fine. I don't really expect him to be a scoring threat this year. There are at least 7 other guys that can do that and should be doing that. And he plays hard, which us Boilers love.
No, you're spot on about Carroll. At one point he missed an easy defensive rotation and let a guy cruise the baseline untouched. Just awful.
On Carroll, I think we realized the game was too fast for him last game when he got the past wide open on his way to the basket and had to lay it in. I was honestly thinking dunk. What was I thinking? As John said though we do love that he plays hard as evidenced by falling on the PSU player for a tie up.
I also think Carroll looked fine. He shouldn't star, but he should get minutes when a team is getting to the bucket on us.
As for rebounding, part of our problem is the kind of defense Painter employs. We extend and extend on D, getting in every passing lane and overplaying on the perimeter, and that naturally translates into poor positioning on rebounds. The offensive guy often sees to ball go up before the defender, and makes the move to the bucket quicker.
The same can be said for our offense. Because everyone is moving at once we are often too busy making the next cut to be in good position for an offensive rebound.
But of course we gain a ton of positives from this style to hopefully make up for the rebounding woes. I don't think we'll ever outrebound teams consistently because of our style of play, and that's fine. But we need to be around 80% of the other teams total rather than 50%.
Oh, and Tim Doyle is a doofus.
Please remember how God Awful JuJuan was his freshman year, he was getting minutes because we needed a body out there. Let Carroll grow into it.
E'Twaun SHOULD have been to the line this last game at least once but no call was given. The crowd booed an entire tv timeout after his arm got smacked on a 3 pointer and all 14123 in attendance saw it...except the refs.
There were a lot of bad defensive plays last night on our part. Barlow had at least one, Smith had quite a few.
I think Carroll will get more minutes. JJ is proving to be unstoppable at the 4 spot when he's 6+ feet away from the basket. Someone has to play 5.
Have you actually been watching Carrol in the other games or are you basing your entire assessment on one shot and his box score? People who think Carrol has been awful obviously don't know anything about basketball and their opinions are pretty worthless to me. And really you think Bade has looked better than Carrol? I enjoy reading this site but come on.
Good call Jimmy, he missed that shot by 2 or 3 feet left and also short. Even in his slump he was not that bad. Ref stood right by that play.
Smooge also got fouled on his final drive, no call, as he turned the corner at the top of the paint. Now the other games he just didn't get in traffic enough.
Actually, the official stats have PSU with 30 rebounds and Purdue with 19.
Doyle keeps called Moore "Smooch", instead of "Smooge". I don't think it just an accent thing. Real lame.
Post a Comment