Crean attempts to push...his team toward victory in Mackey
J pointed this out earlier today- this was a game that Purdue's expected to win...a game that the media expects to be easy for Purdue. Honestly, it was a must-win for Purdue as the schedule gets tougher in the coming week. And the Boilers handled their business by keeping the pesky Hoosiers at an arm's length.
To illustrate the point- Prior to the game, Purdue's radio affiliate had Brent Mussberger talk about his thoughts on the game. The host said something along the lines of 'throw the records out...rivalry game...blah blah'. Ole Brent came back quickly saying that he didn't think IU really had much of a shot because of the talent and depth disparity. So like we said, it's a lose-lose situation.
Make no mistake, this isn't the mid-90s. You can't throw the records out. In the 90s it might have been the first place team versus the 5th place team. Now, it's the number two team in the conference v. the last place team. Purdue should win games like this and they did it...in unexciting fashion.
Moore played well, but still is not himself. The more I watch him, the more I think there's a nagging injury he's struggling through. He shot below 50%, yet again and had a few shots that were way off. His on-ball defense was very good, as usual. But on the other side of the court, he still struggles selling the idea that he's being fouled when he drives. I think much of that comes from the way he finishes- he tends to fade away instead of going strong to the defender. He ended the day with 25 points 8 rebounds and two blocks.
Happy Birthday, 25!
And speaking of blocks, Purdue ended the day with eight. Not surprisingly, four of those came from JJ. Johnson, like Smooge, had some awful looking shots though. Plus, he took a few that were a bit forced as he tried to establish his perimeter game in the second half instead of taking it at Pritchard (who is pretty awful). JJ finished with 15 points, 8 rebounds, 4 blocks and shot well from the stripe as usual (7/8).
LewJack was one of the four players that guarded Hulls on the evening. Coming in, Hulls was shooting just under 50% from behind the arc. Tonight, Purdue took that away from him as he went 1-5. Atop of using his quickness on the defensive side, Jackson shredded IU on secondary fast breaks a few times and had some nifty finishes while avoiding contact. He finished with 15 points, 4 rebounds...but his pace really kept IU on its collective heels for chunks of the game.
Ryne Smith didn't shoot too much, but played a solid 26 minutes, had 3 assists and 2 steals and took a couple of big charges. I like what I saw from both Byrd and Bade. Byrd doesn't hesitate to shoot the ball when given space, he's fearless when battling larger bodies on the glass and sees the court well. Bade only had two points, but added three rebounds and set high screens well and was active without the ball in his seven minutes of playing time.
Barlow and Johnson were two of my favorite players tonight, because they both seem to play with a chip on their shoulder and tend to like sticking their noses into the middle of trouble. Neither scored a bunch, but Barlow's eight rebounds, four assists and three steals were integral in frustrating IU and keeping the lead at an uninteresting 6-9 points for much of the second half.
Granted, there were a couple noteworthy moments of the game...both involved Barlow:
-Jordy (what adult would go by Jordy) Hulls throwing a high elbow during a dead ball after Barlow had frustrated him. While no technical foul was called, the official did give Hulls a good talking-to...so hats off, BT officiating!
-Barlow had one of the best passes of the season as he fired a breaking ball between two IU defenders to Smooge, who finished with an easy dunk.
Other than that, it was kinda business-like.
ENERGY!!!!
Tom Crean was Tom Crean. He paced, he clapped, he drank, he turned around and clapped to his team, he was on the court, he paced some more. I've watched IU quite a few times and I can't get over how annoying his sideline mannerisms are. And in his defense, he finally has IU playing with some energy on defense. But without Watford for a few games, Crean turns to one of the worst D1 big men for significant minutes.
I'm always impressed with Verdell Jones, and he was once again solid versus Purdue. But, Barlow matches up with him better than a season ago, so he was wrangled a bit. Hulls is a consummate IU player- sure, he has the shooting mechanics of a girl, but his girl shot is effective. He's Steve Alford, Dane Fife, Neil Reid and any number of other scrappy (read as white) IU guards all rolled into one. But that's kinda where it stops with tradition. IU has some very good athletes- Oladipo, Rivers, Watford (injured) and Sheehy are uber-talented. And Elston, while he is used as little more than a goon at this point, was a 4-star guy out of high school.
What's my point? My point is IU should be better than they are. The excuse of attrition is tired and old. While IU's fan base is OK with Clapping-Crean rah-rah-ing his way to sub-.500 in-conference records, I'm not buying it. There are plenty of tools in Bloomington (not just in the stands) at The Forehead's disposal. If used correctly, IU would be NCAA tourney-bound this season. Let's remember, Matty led a team to the NCAA tournament in which he needed Bobby Riddell to play significant minutes. No matter. My point is I'm not really surprised IU has beaten a few respectable teams...I'm more surprised that they're a sub-.500 team overall this late in the season.
The game in Bloomington will be a lot different than that in Mackey. They won't be fighting for a post-season birth, in my opinion after falling back off the tracks. Instead, they'll be playing in their own one-team invitation for all the marbles (in their opinion). Hopefully, Matty and Co. are ready for that atmosphere.
Looking Ahead
But, in the meantime, the most-brutal three-game stretch of the season is ahead of our Boilers. The very beatable Illini host The Forces of Good on Saint Valentine's Day Eve at 1:00pm on CBS. Historically, this is a tough contest for Matty...but, Smooge plays well in Champaign, and JJ is probably due for a good game and Tisdale won't be able to do much about it.
While March isn't in sight just yet, it's not too far off...and Purdue's March, in my opinion, will be defined by their performance in February. It's time for this team to win a couple more big games.
19 comments:
Thank you for saying it! I swear I'm the only one that recognizes it, and I was giving it to John over at Crimson Quarry. I'm tired of hearing about talent disparity and "just wait till next years recruits get here" and all that. They have some really, really good basketball players on that team. Granted, there are a few who aren't good (Pritchard as one, but at least he gets some rebounds and works hard, most of the time). VJ, Hulls, Olidapo showed signs of greatness, plus if you add in Creek and Watford they have a good roster. They weren't exactly scorching the nets when those 2 were playing.
Crean uses high energy and clapping to motivate his team. I love the disparity on the sidelines. Crean running around, yelling at his players, clapping, acting a fool while Painter is just down the line, arms crossed, cool and collected watching his team execute the game plan. I swear, IU's team should be performing mid Big-10 with the players they have NOW. I'm tired of their excuses.
If it's not the players on the floor, lack of talent, etc that they blame they always go to the old reliable, blame the officiating. "Purdue's defense is too hands on, half the team should have fouled out, etc" If you think I'm lying, go read some comments over at ITH.
Look in the mirror-you should be performing better than you are IU. I think Purdue didn't play very well last night, and I almost think we played down to our competitions performance (which is a nasty trait that Painter needs to rectify ASAP).
Give it a rest IU fans, the talent on the team is not your problem. Think about it-you keep waiting for all these blue chippers to show up and save the program. Hell, I could coach 5 blue chip recruits to compete in conference. Its not the players, its the coaching.
What happened to John Hart? 4 minutes that I don't even remember?
someone needs to apologize on behalf of Purdue for Bade offering a hand to help the IU player get up from the court. you hardly ever see the opponent help someone up from the court let alone a nemises. the scrub even refused his help...now that's embarassing.
I know this isn't very important but JJ didn't even get a dunk in the game. That dissapoints me.
I would also like to annonomously say that I kinda like to listen to Dan Dakich. I didn't like him at first for obvious reasons but he really seems to know what he is talking about and like RMG seems to like the Boilers even more than Lavin did when he was announcing games.
hey Bloomington.Boiler, Hart must still be rusty and not proving himself in practice...What happened to Carroll? Must be that Bade is outhustling him in practice.
Justin- I'll admit it- I like Dakich too. The anamosity toward him on KHC isn't fair, in my opinion. Unlike most guys who do that job, he actually knows his stuff and, get this, analyses. Hart is probably like TJohn was back in mid-December- doesn't have his legs and is in the wrong place a lot because of it...hopefully he gets up to speed in the next two-three weeks.
Bade deserves to play, so he's playing. I don't care if it's Bade, Carroll or both, but the role they both provide, when playing well is paramount
They will be a tough out at Ass Hall.
Should be- but Purdue should be in rhythm too...and JJ won't be hopped up on birthday cake taking bad shots.
Sunday's game is on CBS not BTN.
Thanks...I'll make a note of it.
We had no answer for Sheehey. He's a gamer and looks like he will be good for IU.
After watching the effort put forth by the Forces of Good, methinks they were already focused on Sunday's opponent. Then again, if our first half shots go in, we get a score similar to the pasting ND gave Seton Hall last night.
This game coming up at Illinois really make me nervous.
"Hulls is a consummate IU player- sure, he has the shooting mechanics of a girl, but his girl shot is effective. He's Steve Alford, Dane Fife, Neil Reid and any number of other scrappy (read as white) IU guards all rolled into one."
"Scrappy" guards is usually the media's way of saying they're white but they hustle. Very few times have I heard black players, particularly guards been called "scrappers". They usually are called players or are so "athletic" that they make plays look easy. It's a strong misconception. I bring that up because the same "scrappy" label was placed on Purdue players such as Kramer, Cardinal, Cunningham, and now Hummel. As we all know, they weren't the only Boilers that showed true grit and hustle. Names like Martin, Roberts, W. Austin, C. Austin, and Lowe come to mind as players that played tough on D and were scrappers as well. To the same breath, players like Moye, Guyton, Henderson, and Cheaney, also hustled for IU.
It's more of a pet peeve for me that this dichotomy still persists today. Sadly I don't think it will ever be truly erased.
Nevertheless... nice win by our Boilers. And I concur with Justin and you B-dowd, I actually enjoy Dakich's radio show because he actually has a basketball brain. The same way I can listen to Knight comment on a game as well. Keep up the good work.
Precisely my point, Handel...that's why I put it in brackets. Listen to some of your friends from the Bloomington area for some more code words for race- there's another one that we haven't mentioned that's used over and over.
It's idiotic that a player like Chris Kramer's athleticism was glossed over and he was only defined by his 'scrappy' play. Let's remember his jam v. Illinois a few years ago in the teeth of Weber's defense, or that he's the guy that came from nowhere to block an OSU shot to insure victory in Columbus, and who finally cut the lane and finished above the rim to beat TA&M. But his label was simply scrappy...not athletic.
All that said, even though Hulls is quick, he's definitely scrappy...Kinda like the aforementioned Kenneth Lowe- also pretty good at creating...and with a funny shooting style.
By the way, Cardinal was absolutely scrappy...he tended to play well-below the rim in spite of his size.
B-dowd, I knew where you were going with that. I just had to air that out again, boggles my mind that nonsense is talked about so much. Oh well.
By the way, about Mr. Cardinal. He wasn't scrappy... he was dirty. Michael Lewis, now he was a scrapper!!! (tic)
Michael Lewis...another one.
Nice.
It's killing me- who was the shooting guard at IU with the drinking problem? Can't remember his name.
Coverdale.
You two are so cute together!
No but seriously, you have a good point. Sadly, this is about as far into the media as that argument will ever make it.
Paulie, you're correct...we're adorable.
Handel-correct...Hugs 'n kisses!!
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