What if...

With the headline, you might think I'm asking the question "what if" in reference to what if Hummel was healthy...but instead, I'm asking, what if Hummel hadn't recovered quickly and was deemed unable to play this season before this morning's injury had occurred? Our perspective would be different, no doubt.

For one thing, we wouldn't have had to experience the punch in the gut that we all felt in the early afternoon and might feel right now. Morgan Burke summed it up best, I think.

"As soon as it happened my stomach, it's still upset. I've got a knot in my stomach that I haven't had in a long time and that's just because I love the kid and hate to see it happen."

Precisely. I've met Rob a few times quickly...no real connection to him other than I really like him and the way he plays...and like so many other Purdue athletes, he was really nice to my son last spring. That's always endearing for a Dad. So I was as excited for him as anything else as he prepared to play with his pals one last season before heading to the next level. But plans seldomly go the way they're supposed to go.

So back to an alternate perspective.

Hypothetically, if my alma mater was heading into any other season returning TWO Wooden Award candidates, two former all-Frosh team players who were both starters, an instant-impact true Freshman and more frontcourt size and talent than they've had in five seasons and some guys who are much-improved (according to rumors), my outlook might not be too bleak.

Universally, people that have seen Johnson play in the last month-or-so say he's a different guy...a better player. A guy who averages over 15 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocks/game wants more out of his game. He took the criticism given to him by the NBA scouts and didn't whine, but decided to get stronger and use it constructively. How many more points, rebounds, blocks per game will his workmanlike summer yield? How much does it help a guy to guard and face NBA all-stars day-in/day-out for over a month? We'll see soon.

The other big time talent...the forgotten guy on this year's Boilers has done OK, I guess. He was All-Big Ten First team, All-American third team and Academic All-American second team last season. He led the Boilers in scoring, has become a defensive force in the last two seasons...and some of the media think he's one of the top defensive players in the nation. He's not sexy to the media...but feared by his opponents. And he just quietly does his job- whatever's needed, he seems to do.

Patrick Bade, D.J. Byrd, Lewis Jackson, Ryne Smith and Kelsey Barlow all dedicated themselves to getting better months ago...their offseason work has just become more-important as their responsibilities will all likely increase in the wake of today's news. I always say sports are a microcosm for life. As we've seen with Rob Henry's emergence on the football field and what will be expected from Barlow, Bade and others this coming basketball season- like the boy scouts tell us, we simply must always be prepared. No one knows what's coming next.

I'll also say that Matty is a damned-good coach who seems to be able to squeeze a lot out of teams who look tapped-out from time-to-time. Remember, our pals in the media left Purdue for dead last season coming into the NCAA tourney...Purdue only went to the sweet 16 after most heads predicted Purdue to bow out in the opening round to Siena. Some of those same schmoes in the media have already dropped Purdue in their worthless pre-season polls from a top-3 team to an also-ran that's barely in the top-25. All that matters little at this point.

So, it seems our Boilers are once-again a team that few believe in...an underdog. This isn't a role that many of us thought our Boilers would be playing this season...but it's one that Purdue fans and players alike know well.

I think big things are still coming this season for our Boilers. I'll detail what I think can and will happen to make this season something to remember in the weeks leading up to the season. Here's to the forces of good making believers out of everybody.

Time to Regroup

30% from the field.

16 points in the second half.

44 points overall.

Outrebounded 44-16.

A terrible loss, 53-44.

This one stings. It stings for a lot of reasons and not just the obvious ones. It drops the Boilers into a three-way tie for first place in the Big Ten. Assuming everyone wins out, it's a co-championship at best. But it's time to worry about more than that.

Purdue has somehow lost their identity, it seems. We never doubted or argued that Rob Hummel wasn't important. However, there's no reason for E'Twaun Moore or JaJuan Johnson to suddenly become a poor shooters (3-13 and 4-14, respectively, from the field). Or for Chris Kramer to turn the ball over five times. Or for the entire team to get outrebounded by such a ridiculous margin.

The only good I take from this game was that the Boilers can still play defense. They induced 22 turnovers by the Spartans and held them to just 40% shooting and 53 points, which, obviously were enough today.

The bench contributed absolutely nothing and Keaton Grant dipped back to single-digit scoring. All the talk about being #1 was indeed premature, though it is absolutely gut-wrenching that it lined up this way -- is there any doubt that a fully-healthy Boilermaker team doesn't go out and win today and at least get into the discussion for number 1? Painful.

It's time to regroup. The first goal was a Big Ten regular season championship. When the Boilers were 2-3 in conference and had lost three straight, and MSU was 5-0, that looked comically unattainable. Talking about it was verboten and we all said we should move on to other things. Then our boys reeled off ten straight wins to take control of the conference. That win streak allowed them the leeway to lose one game down the stretch and still at least tie for the conference title. That's still within their grasp, with games vs. IU and @PSU this final week. If OSU and MSU can both trip up and the Boilers take care of business, that Big Ten championship will be awfully tasty.

The second goal now needs to be intertwined with the first, and that is to learn how to play without Rob Hummel. Maybe it IS that big a deal and something that requires a complete overhaul of their approach and game plan. It looked like it today, as the Boilers started four guards.

All hope is not lost. The Boilers have their last two regular season games, plus whatever amount of B10 Tourney play they have to sort this out and figure out how the rotation will work and how they will get JJ and Smooge the looks they need to carry the bulk of the scoring. And if they can figure that out at least somewhat, this team is not in dire straits. They can still play defense and you can advance a couple of rounds in the NCAA tourney based on your defense alone. This is not a team that's going to be outworked or outhustled -- if the scoring adjustments can be made, this is still a dangerous team. A wounded, dangerous team.

I'll admit, today was unnerving. But this team just lost for the first time since January 16. They're 24-4. All of their ability did not evaporate with Rob Hummel's ACL.

Keep the faith, let's get two wins to close the season and see where things stand in a week.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• Congrats to Chris Kramer for becoming the all-time steals leader at Purdue, doing so on a nifty steal and breakaway dunk that made the crowd think things could go the Boilers way today.
  


• Big ups to the Purdue faithful. The students and other fans represented all of us Boilermakers very well, displaying heart and emotion and an undeniable, unwavering loyalty to their boys. Great support, everyone. Please keep it up.
  


• Congrats to Team USA Hockey, the only thing that could make me channel-flip from a Purdue game, narrowly losing in OT to Team Canada. I finally gave up when the USA-Canada game went to overtime and simply set up two TVs next to one another. Neither gave me the outcome I was looking for.

Derailed?

Is the train off the tracks? Hold on a second...

If you're reading this, then you probably already know. And if not.... where the hell have you been?? It's anarchy! Blood running through the streets! Fire and brimstone hailing from the sky!! Dogs and cats..... LIVING TOGETHER!! Mass hysteria!

Alright, have we all calmed down a bit?

We know that Rob Hummel is done for the year and likely the beginning of next year. But he's going to be okay. He's a smart kid, he's a hard worker, and he's come back from fractured vertebrae. His future is actually in fine shape if he rehabs as he should and none of us have any reason to believe he won't.

But let's get back to being selfish and ask what this means for this season.

There seem to be two camps as of right now. In one, there are people who basically feel the season is essentially over. They're not quitting as fans, mind you, but they just feel destroyed and punched in the gut and think that advancing a round or two is all we can hope for.

The other camp is the group that seems to be pulling themselves up by the bootstraps and saying, "No, we're good. We will persevere!" But you almost feel like these people are trying to convince themselves.

Let's state it clearly here -- this is a bad blow, yes, but the season is not ruined. We assure you. The Boiled Sports guarantee (it's worth so very much).

Losing Rob Hummel is a huge blow to this team. However, his injury and absence can be dealt with and this team still can still win the Big Ten and make the deep NCAA tourney run we all want.

What does it mean for playing time, starting spots and expectations? Glad you asked.

Playing Time

Mr. Bade, get limbered up, son. Because you're going to need to give us some minutes. No, we can't count on young Bade to replace Rob Hummel, but as Boilerdowd said on our show last night, Bade is the one who most resembles Hummel in the physical sense. His length is similar, he can do some of the curling and he can rebound. If Bade gives us 8-10 minutes a game of this and stops looking like a scared kitten, that's a nice start.

Keaton Grant is alive. We've seen it the past few games and we saw an incredibly promising sign last night. KG hit three yooooge shots late in last night's game, including the game-winning with seven seconds left. And if you watch the replay, you see the level of confidence with which he fired that shot. This very well may be the KG of old, or at least a reasonable facsimile of him.

LewJack and Barlow should see their minutes increase as well, which does not worry us one bit.

Starting Spots

How monumentally fortunate are we that Keaton Grant was bounced from the starting lineup in favor of Kelsey Barlow earlier this season? Had that not happened, Barlow would not have the experience or confidence he now has. Yes, it's terrible to lose Rob Hummel out of the starting lineup. But when you're able to take a senior off the bench who is used to starting (KG) and plug him back into the starting lineup, well, that's about as good a scenario as you could ask for, right?

Replacing a junior leader with a senior leader with skills is not a bad thing. In addition, it might be time to have LewJack start the games and use Kelsey off the bench. Your starting five would then look like this:

Johnson (Jr), Moore (Jr), Kramer (Sr), Grant (Sr), Jackson (So)

I'll go to battle with that starting lineup any time.

Expectations

Do we need 20 ppg from Keaton? No, we do not. If we can get 10-15 out of him consistently, that would go a long, LONG way to helping fill the void. Lewis Jackson is ready and is all the way back. JJ is capable of taking over games, as we have seen, and is truly indispensable. And E'Twaun Moore will step up his game to whatever level the Boilermakers need. I have never been so confident in a guy's ability to respond as I am in Smooge's.

Chris Kramer has to play defense as Chris Kramer can. The guys need to stay out of foul trouble and understand they have a slightly shorter bench. Is this the kind of group that can understand this and rise to the occasion? I think so, and I say that without hesitation.

Are any of these things that I have put forth crazytalk? Am I asking JJ to score 30 a game? Are we talking about Smooge shooting the lights out all the time? No.

Here's a big one: Are we asking guys to do things they have never done before?

No, we are not.

So when you begin to believe again (if you haven't already), do so with confidence. No, losing the Ostrich is not a good thing and we'd never pretend it was. But he's going to be present and spurring these guys on. And we have Coach Matty who knows how to prepare his guys. They will not look shell-shocked any longer on Sunday. And if they beat Michigan State, the train is fully back on the tracks again.

Keep the faith, everyone.

With Hummel's situation, it might be time for a change

Robbie Hummel's back has been bothering him most of the season...but we didn't know until just recently that the back problem is a cracked vertebrae in his lower back. Watching him versus Michigan, you could see that it was little more than will that was keeping him walking, let alone playing basketball.

But now, according to the J&C, Hummel and Painter might be addressing the back problem in a much more cautious manner. With Hummel out of every other contest, might it be time for a change in tactic for Painter's team?

What I'm referring to is not a major change, just a shift in playing time. I believe this shift will help everyone involved and might lay a foundation for next season. What I think needs to happen is we need to see Ryne Smith/Bobby Riddell for at least 6 minutes/game. Not a ton of playing time, but these minutes might take the added strain off of Kramer, Jackson and Grant. Furthermore, we simply must see more production from Green and/or Calasan. Both of these players have shown at times that they are more than capable of playing a sizeable amount of minutes, but what Painter really needs from both is not points, but rebounds and solid defense. It seems Johnson has become a bit of a weapon offensively...and a shift to using the twin towers a bit more might help Purdue late in the game as well...as clearly, our Boilers' lack of depth has killed them time and time again this season. A Big Ten team (especially one that plays Purdue's style of defense) needs AT LEAST 8 players in its rotation as the physical nature of this conference's games are too much for to spread out over 2 subs.

I also think it might be imperative to employ these substitutions even during the games that Hummel's playing. During the Michigan game, he was forced to play too many minutes...the lingering effects of this seem to last days.

One thing was very clear last night- poor shot selection sets up the opponent for easy buckets...so smart offensive sets become an aspect of Purdue's defense, if each player can effectively play his role, Purdue might still finish in the top-3 in the conference and get a solid seed for the NCAA tournament. But what are those roles? At times it seems even the players don't understand what's needed from on the offensive side of the court. Purdue must re-learn how to play without relying on Hummel night-in, night-out; undoubtedly, this will be a tough task for Painter's team as March fast approaches.