A rare occurrence happened earlier this evening- no, I'm not talking about Penn State nearly beating our Boilers at Mackey. What happened is astonishing and a little sad actually. J and I both missed watching our Boilers live. I am in SLC on business and couldn't find the BTN and J had a family engagement. But have no fear, you'll get to savor our delicious analysis...just a few hours late.
Based on stats and a tiny highlight clip I saw, here's what I gather:
-JJ's been torching Purdue's opponents...and they all know it's coming. But, they can do little about it. Kinda like the end of tonight's game. OK, well maybe not exactly. How PSU neglected to stay with 25 on that out of bounds play is beyond me. But they didn't and because of Johnson's 19 footer, Purdue escaped a third-straight loss. He finished with a ho-hum night- 25 points...But, he was well off his rebounding average and ended with just three boards. He continues to hit very important free throws as he went 7-8...but he missed a key freebie in the closing minutes. But, he made up for it, obviously.
-Smooge is back...kinda. His 16 points are still off of his average, but he shot better from the floor and had a couple drives including a strong finish in traffic that seemed to be out of frustration. He also had 5 assists and only 1 turnover.
-After that, there's not a ton to write home about. No other player had more than Barlow's 6 points. LewJack only finished with 3 assists...but had 0 turnovers and the game-sealing steal as he intercepted a long pass in PSU's final possession. Maybe the most-noteworthy stat to me is from Ryne Smith. Last time v. PSU, Smith went 5-5 from the three point line and finished with 20. Tonight, he was only 1-2 from deep and finished with 5 points. But, he had 5 assists and only one turnover.
Matty's teams have been resilient and had short memories since he came to Purdue. But, tonight's game might turn out to be one of the most-important of the season...a turning point of sorts. I think they really needed this win especially going into the sizable MSU game on Saturday with EsPN's gameday in town and Sparty needing a win after their loss to Illinois.
While Penn State at home is a game Purdue should win in my opinion, but sweeping PSU this season is no small feat- ask MSU and Illinois. Purdue plays the Spartans at 9:00 on Saturday night.
10 comments:
You guys definitely missed one of the best analogies ever made during a game...
One of the announcers started talking about how watching Moore come alive again was like Mario getting a mushroom (after his first couple shots went in). Then when he drained a 3 right after that the announcer says "OOOHH He got the flower now!!!"
So. Awesome.
A few more tidbits:
Yes, the color announcer was a train wreck. He kept trying to be a mix of Vitale and Raftery, and doing neither well.
Moore looks to be finding his way.
Byrd missed an epic dunk that would've put the game out of reach.
What was that foolishness at the end of the game? PSU had no time outs. JJ hit the jumper, leaving 2 seconds on the clock. The officials STOPPED THE CLOCK and conferred for close to a minute on whether or not JJ's shot was a three-pointer (he was a foot inside the arc). They then put an extra 1.4 seconds on the clock. The result? They gave PSU an extra timeout and almost doubled the time on the game clock.
Good, gutsy win.
Smith hit the first two baskets of the game for Purdue. I don't know what happened the rest of the game.
It was a weird game. It didn't seem like we played poorly. Shooting percentage of 44%, 40% from behind the arc, 90% from the foul line, only 3 turnovers.Penn State just kept hitting shots to stay in the game.
PSU's rebounding advantage was in part due to them getting to play rugby in the paint. They were all over people for rebounds and rarely called on it.
Yes, Tim Doyle is a cornball. "Somebody ate the FLOWER". Another time he said Purdue is taking better care of the ball than I do my hair. Wow, only three turnovers. One was a push off offensive foul by Moore. One was an offensive foul on a screen by Carrol and it was weak. The thrid by Smith and I don't remember what happened. That is really impressive and they were 9-9 on FT's until JJ's miss on the last one. I have a good feeling about a win on Sat. despite the result of the last few games. And where did Byrd get the confidence from to take that 10 ft. jumper from the baseline late to take the lead?
I was coming directly to the comments section to let you guys know about how unlucky you were to miss out on Tim Doyle's commentary, but it appears a few others already beat me to it. There were countless times when my wife and I looked at each other and just said, "What the hell is he talking about?". There was some crappy thing about the year of the rabbit at the beginning of the game and comparing E'Twaun to a rabbit then of course the Mario thing as mentioned above. I live in North Carolina now (after 9 years and two degrees from Purdue) but I had three brothers at the game and I kept texting all of them to go kick him in the teeth but none of them would do it. He is absolutely terrible.
As far as the end of the game, the refs were not checking on whether it was a three or not (despite Doyle saying exactly that), they were just checking the time. I agree it is not fair and shouldn't have to be done, but the Purdue clock operator did let 1.4 extra seconds run off. I would have demanded the extra time if I was Ed DeChellis. They just happened to get a free timeout out of the whole thing.
As far as the game, it was great to see E'Twaun back in form. I think he'll be even better Saturday night. JJ has officially put his name right near the top of the BT POY race with Sullinger. The rest of the guys need to step up. No one was particularly great and no one was really terrible. Just an average performance by our collective "third scorer" which includes about 7 guys. Someone in that group needs to stand out each night, and no one really did last night. Hopefully that will change in the brutal upcoming stretch. Also, as a team, the rebounding was horrible, as it was vs. WV. They have to improve there.
Anyway, I'll take the W against one of the hottest shooting teams in the league when the Boilers didn't play their best.
Also, Doyle has no idea how to pronounce E'Twaun's nickname. It is not exactly like the word "smudge", but closer to that than Smooge.
Doyle might be the worst at his trade in the nation. That says a ton since there are so many clowns in his industry. I've been doing an impersonation of him since last year that goes something like this...it comes from deep in th throat: 'uhhhhhhhhh dehhhhhhrrrrrrr'
Every time I see his goofy mug I do it with feeling...it's catching on too. Not only is he awful, but he's loud at the same time. If he's reppin' what NU has to offer, they should be ashamed and go back to the drawing board.
Make no mistake about Byrd- he doesn't lack confidence and he knows how to shoot. But my theory is playing as a PF on defense simply wears him out and Painter tells him his most-important role right now is on the other end...Just a theory though.
The last :18 was awful via one of the sports applications on my phone...The timeouts and officials TOs were stupid-long. I think this one is a big win.
Tim Doyle rules!!! (sorry, am I dating myself with the Billy Madison reference?) Glad I was at the game so I didn't have to hear him! What an exciting game to see in person! The early lead kinda lulled Mackey to sleep in the first half. But, I have to say that I was very proud of the old fogies and their energy throughout the 2nd half of this game. JJ continues to be unstoppable, Moore seems to be back (they were all over him after his spurt), and everyone else did just what they needed to do to get the W. The refs were horrible and I can't believe that the few times correct calls were made in favor of Purdue, it was old-man Hillary making them. PSU could not miss and the refs refused to let the lead grow for Purdue. Either way, Purdue needs to go out and take the win and they finally did it! Now, on to MSU, I really have a good feeling about Sat. night's game. What a difference a W can make in a fan's perspective!
Go Boilers!
Boilergal
I don't which remember which of the announcers said it, but my family got a good laugh out of Keady being referred to as the 'The Slick Haired One.'
Maybe it is my sick sense of humor, but I actually did like Tim Doyle's announcing. I mean referring to mario brothers mushroom and flower....priceless! I just wish he hit a few more to get the racoon! I would much prefer Doyle to a boring color commentator like Billas. And anything but Vital is good in my book.
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