Hazell's Double Duty and Gumbo

This is a pretty slow time for Purdue sports...but things are going on behind the scenes.

Our underdog Boiler football team is preparing for a bowl with a skeleton crew of coaches, the basketball team is in the midst of a much-needed bye week, of sorts, and Purdue's new football coach is splitting time between his current/former job and his new/current job...and seems to be doing OK at it.

The NCAA issued him the waiver that Morgan Burke talked about during the press conference that officially announced his hiring...and right away, Hazell was on the road seeking to hold on to the verbal commitments to the program and possibly get a few more.

His top two priorities were Rivals 4-star QB Danny Etling and 3-star RB David Yancey.  Both will be mid-year enrollees, both were impressed with Purdue's new HC, and both are sticking to their commitments to wear the metallic beige gold and black.

If Hazell's living room presence is anything like his press conference presence, we can all understand why these guys both recommitted. He's got ten more in-home visits to make to verbals, a couple to make to guys who de-committed and a few to try to pick up to round out the class.

Before he even made a visit, he picked up a verbal from a Florida DB with offers from Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Florida and others.  Hope and his staff clearly did the ground work on Leroy Clark, but the hire of Hazell got the deal done.

While our Boilers will lose some Seniors in key positions, Danny Hope left the cupboard far from bare...and the focus on speed during the recruiting process is something that Hazell and his yet-to-be-named coaching staff should be able to utilize.

Hazell said he loves road trips because driving gives him a chance to think through everything that's going on in life...he'll have plenty of time to get his mind right as he drives hundreds, if not thousands of miles in the month and one-half...with a built-in no-contact period smack dab in the center of that timespan along with Christmas and Kent State's bowl.  Busy bee.

Basketball
On Saturday, Purdue will look to get their biggest win of the season thus far as they make the short trip South to Indy to play the hated Irish and Scott Martin.  It's too bad that Hummel didn't get a 15th year like his childhood pal so he could pistol whip ole scott, but it didn't work out that way...so the suddenly-sloppy Boilers will have the daunting task of beating an experienced and large UND team that is fundamentally-sound and has a bunch of scorers.

I'm hoping Byrd becomes the sixth man off of the bench as he was last season and Purdue begins to run a lot more.  With their shooting woes, multiple slashers and trouble with full-court presses, it seems the best thing to do for this squad would be to not let opposing defenses get set up...and as the Eastern Michigan game showed, this team's halfcourt game leaves a lot to be desired.  On top of that, the usually hard-nosed defense has been replaced with inconsistent effort as some of the young guys simply look gassed with regularity.

Whether it's running or gutting out victories, Purdue has to change in a hurry in order to simply be respectable, let-alone get to the NIT...not NCAA tournament. Matty and his capable staff have their work cut out for them...and I have faith in these guys. BUT, it's gonna feel like it's them against the world as Mackey will continue to have thousands of empties (sadly, mind you) as Purdue's Pups seek cohesion and identity.

Less-Important Basketball
There's no doubt this season has been disappointing so far.  A loss to a MAC team is pretty awful...and the loss to Villanova (who lost 4 of their next 5) looks pretty damned bad too. But surprises, both good and bad aren't limited to God's country right now.

Kentucky's always star-studded cast has three losses, UNC's four and five-star studded lineup can't manage to get a quality win...and the B1G is loaded to the gills.

If you're like me, it's tough to swallow the idea of Purdue being in the bottom of the conference...but this medicine might be what we all have to swallow this season.  Penn State, the Gasser-less Badgers our Boilers, Nebraska and the always mild (come March) Cats might be fighting amongst themselves for the bottom third of the conference crown in the coming months.  The rest of the conference seems to be monstrous...and all power ranking polls agree.  If nothing else, Purdue will have opportunities for quality wins this season...the question is, will they get them?  (And will Mackey become a tough place to play again this season?)

Humbling
One of my favorite things to do, in relation to this site, is talk to fellow Boiler alums and sports fans and then see if they know/visit the site.  I got to do that last night at my wife's work Christmas party. It is always motivating and humbling for me to talk to people that make BS part of their daily ritual, whether on here, Twitter or FB. Thanks to everyone who reads the site and the other outlets. It's appreciated.

Boilers Make it Tougher on Themselves by Losing to Wisconsin at Mackey

To win at home is a must in college basketball.  Purdue needs ever victory it can get, especially this season, as March gets closer and closer. Coming in, the Forces of Good had won 26-straight at Mackey...and I expected the place to be fired up and ready.  BUT, I also expected Wisconsin to be playing like they had to win.  My expectations became reality, but that's where it stopped.  Once again, Matty's club found creative ways to lose this one.

Coming into the game, Wisconsin had pretty much only died by the three, at least during the B1G schedule...but Painter and everyone else knew that wouldn't stop them from shooting it.  So they came out with guns blazing...and Purdue responded by not defending the three; makes a ton of sense.  At the same time, our Boilers couldn't buy a basket- they were driving, getting good looks and missing lay-ups and shots from 12 feet and in time and again.  At the 12:43 mark, Wisconsin had staked its claim that Mackey would be their home court as they effectively quieted the crowd by jumping out to an 18 point lead.

Against PSU, that's all it took- a sizable lead, and the spirit of the Boilers seemingly was broken.  Tonight that wasn't the case, but the end result was still a loss.  The Paint Crew was thunderous as the defense turned up the pressure and forced Wisconsin into bad shots or no shot at all, and at just under the 9 minute mark, it looked like the game might turn- Purdue had cut the lead to 12 and Byrd was fouled on a three pointer; the always animated, if not whiny Bo Ryan took umbrage with the call and was teched up- the result would be Byrd would get 5 free throws.  In typical 2012 Purdue fashion, Byrd, Purdue's second-leading free throw shooter by percentage, hit 2 of 5.  And that disgusting free throw shooting monster wouldn't die there.

At the end of the day, Purdue had left 10 points on the floor in the form of missed FTs.  On top of that, they missed five or six lay-ups...and to me, that's the game...plain and simple.  We can over-analyze this team until we're depressed or numb, but the fundamentals just are nowhere to be found with any consistency on this squad- and that's with everybody- from Senior leaders to newbies...and that's maddening.

There were some good things tonight- Terone Johnson hit 6-of-8 of his free attempts, and it helped him score a team high 16 points...along with 5 rebound, 4 assists and just one TO, that's a pretty damned good game.  He didn't shoot great from the floor...but unlike many of his teammates he seemed willing to take the big shot; and that said a lot to me.  Granted, a couple of the shots were way out of the rhythm of the offense and resulted in easy buckets off of long rebounds, but I'm glad he's looking to score.

Barlow had a solid game, both offensively and defensively.  He was frustrating the Wisconsin guards, after making the decision to play defense (like the rest of his team), took pretty good shots, hit his free throws and passed the ball well.  He finished with 9 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists. Hummel had an OK game and ended with 13 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists and a steal...but never seemed to assert himself.

Travis Carroll had 8 boards, while leading the team in that category...Smith was rushed at times, but had a couple of shots that looked like they might help bring the Boilers back into the game...and Byrd had an effective game at times, but didn't get a lot of open looks. I'm not quite sure what happened to Jackson, but after scoring the initial points for Purdue in the opening minutes, he didn't score again and only played 20 minutes.

Wisconsin played like a team with their backs against the wall...and unlike Purdue, they don't seem prone to giving away 20 point leads; which is good for them, and was bad for Purdue on the night.  Purdue made runs, would get it down to three or five points, but then Wisconsin would go on a run and make it as tough as possible on the Boilers.

A ton of people predicted Wisconsin to be in the top-3 of the conference, and I just assumed that with Taylor returning and Bo Ryan's painful to watch, yet effective system, the Badgers would be up among the elite.  But, watching them in person, it makes sense that they have three early losses.  Purdue allowed them to shoot over 80% from three in the first half; that's good, if you're into that sort of thing...but as a team they seem to accept the three way too often as they don't have a Jon Leuer-type of guy to go to on the team...but that didn't stop Berggren from looking exactly like him from the upper ring in Mackey.

Sidenote: I'm pretty sure Berggren is really just another guy from that white goon guy cloning machine that Wisconsin has been using for the last 15 years.  The problem with clones, as the movie Multiplicity reminds us, is they get less and less like the original as time goes on...and Berggren is no Brian Butch.

But, as unimpressed as I was with the Wisconsin team as individual players, Ryan did what he usually does and had them playing well-enough to win...this time knocking Purdue down another rung by beating them 67-62.

Defending homecourt was of the utmost importance for this team that needs as many quality wins as it can get...but like they've done all season, they seem unwilling to take advantage of situations that present themselves and just love the struggle.  Matty's squad only played one of the teams in the conference with 14 or more wins on the season...in the final 12 games, they'll play 7 games against the conference elite.  At 13-5, you can decide for yourself what the forecast for the post-season looks like, but I'd say it's pretty bleak. This Purdue team still has no offensive identity and sadly, doesn't know what it wants to be on defense either.

After a weekend off, Purdue welcomes Iowa to to Mackey next Tuesday at 8:00.

Blah.

I was at Mackey for this afternoon's contest versus the 1-win ISU Sycamores. Unimpressive.

If you just saw the score and ESPN's ticker, a 14-point victory with Hummel pouring in 25 sounds pretty respectable...Don't ruin your image by watching highlights. While I'm always happy to see a win versus a loss (of course), this game was lousy. The emotion seemed non-existent and the killer instinct was absent as well.

Between Kramer and Grant being unwilling to shoot and not playing the defense that made them nightmarish for opponents in '07/'08 to Smooge not looking to create shots, but instead wait for a double-team to make decisions; this game was pretty sad. Lew Jack's energy was good as he pushed the ball well...but he made some Frosh mistakes- understandable. But, he also had 4 rebounds...just one shy of the tallest player on Purdue's roster, JJ, who seems to have lost the grasp on what the strengths of his game really are.

If you're like me, you waited to see what happened v. OK and Duke before making a call on these Boilers. Well, since losing the former in heart-breaking fashion, and not showing up for the latter, this squad looks to be a shell of itself. The ball movement isn't fluid and as a result, they aren't getting open looks from outside the arch. Calasan (who might be injured) & JJ don't flash to the top of lane and call for ball, instead, they just kind of move aimlessly. Moore, who looked like a world-beater versus OK (as well as some weaker foes too), has looked fair-to-poor in four straight games. All this is bothersome, but Keaton Grant is the worst story of all, up to this point in the young season. I've been giving Grant a stack of "get out of jail free" cards so far in '08...but after watching tonight's game, I think there's a reason to believe he's not going to be the player of last year, but instead the guy from two seasons ago. Perhaps the knee has ruined his confidence, whatever the case, he is making a bunch of mistakes that simply can't be chalked up solely to conditioning.

So do we worry? Not yet, in my opinion.

But, without a win versus Davidson next Saturday, I'd make the argument that this team isn't a ton better than last season's heading into the Big Ten season. Not bad, right? Near the top of the league...beating good teams on the road...getting better each week. The difference is, this year, everyone wants to beat Purdue...last year, no one saw them as formidable. The target on their back seems to be large and weighing down this team dominated by underclassmen. Another big difference is everyone, including Purdue's players and coaches, are expecting much more than last season. Unless the pulse of this team is found in a hurry, there will be no BT title...nothing more than a mid-seed in the tourney, a second, or first round loss...and finally, all of us simply looking to get this season behind us and to move on to next season.

On the brighter side of things, the Ostrich looked like the Ostrich for about the final 15 minutes by scoring 22 (of his final 25) and hoisting his team mates on his back as they (with the exception of the sole starting Freshman) floundered around pitifully, at home no less. My only question was- Robbie, why'd you wait so long? No matter...perhaps Hummel reminding himself why he's the BT pre-season POY is exactly what this team needs to get back on track...they sure need something. This is another chance for Painter to show us how good of a coach he really is and how good his team can be- I don't know if we've seen that this season.

The sky is not falling...but it's not nearly as high as it seemed a few weeks ago.