Boilers Roll in Riveting CBI Opener: 81-67

While Purdue fans seem to have a disagreement about the importance of this game, I think none of us disagreed on one thing: Losing to Western Illinois would have been unacceptable...but for about 15:00, it looked like that outcome was a very real possibility.

Purdue was flat on offense, lethargic on defense and generally apathetic. Switches were even slower than they had been during the season...and the recurring lapses left Leathernecks open time and again. Western Illinois was having their way with Purdue around the 10:00 mark in the first half. With a seven point lead, Purdue seemed to be OK with the idea of bowing out of the CBI...at home versus a Summit League foe; a league in which Purdue was 12-0 against coming into the game.

I really believe this: Purdue should have been able to dress 7 scholarship players and beat WIU soundly. The talent of the two programs is simply not on the same level. But, the eyeball test and what was happening on the court didn't match up. Hammons was allowing a shorter, weaker and less-skilled PF grab boards and get open. Byrd allowed his man to get lost with just one screen, RonJohn wasn't using quickness to create problems...Purdue looked atrocious...but after just a few defensive stops, Purdue was back in it and at the half, the good guys had a one point lead.

Early in the second half, WIU decided it'd be a good idea to leave Byrd open, time, and time and time again...and he made them pay. His three early second half threes were his only points. Then they thought they'd double team him, and RayDay, Hammons and TJohn got open looks. Purdue's athleticism and effort took a potentially disastrous game for the Boilers and made it a blowout loss for the visiting Leathernecks.

Cornell v. WIU
in '99

RonJohn finished with 14 pts, 4 assists...but a couple early turnovers tarnished his day a bit. That said, as the game wore on, it was clear that he was the fastest guy on the court and could do whatever he wanted to do with the ball...he hit a few open jumpers as well.

RayDay had 12 points and 5 rebounds and went 4 for 5 from the field. Hammons, in spite of a frustrating effort on the glass, finished with 15 points and 4 rebounds. He missed a few bunnies too; probably could have easily had 20 points and 8 rebounds; but he had no physical match.

TJohn had 10 points and 5 assists, but turned the ball over too much early. Sandi had 8 points in 13 minutes of action and went 4/4 from the FT line.

The only guy that played hard in the first ten minutes of the game for Purdue was Anthrop...he was hustling after loose balls and selling out. As J Money said to me via text, he kind of had a Senior night of his own tonight...and was the only guy on the team to fill the stat sheet (so to speak).  He only had 4pts, but added 6reb, 4ast and 3 steals in 24 minutes of action.  His game earned him a very awkward exchange with AXStv's color commentator (who I can't remember, and had never heard of).  He called #14 "his kinda guy" as he rubbed his back during a quick post-game interview; it was pretty odd. A Dru could do was respond by saying, "Thanks." Anthrop played hard and deserved the attention of a pretty co-ed, not a middle-aged man.

At the end of the game, Matty emptied the benches and played a guy that I didn't even know was on the roster.  The line-up looked like this: Beshears, Hale, Lawson, Toyra and Mckeeman. If you knew who John Mckeeman was before tonight's game, you're a better fan than I.  Mckeeman's one official minute was his only of the season.

Purdue's lead was over 20 points with around 4:00 before the dogs were officially called off. Our on-site reporter, Mr. Evens said the atmosphere was comparable to that of an IHSAA 1A women's sectional game...but 5,000 (or so) whimpering fans were the difference maker in this one*.  The lowlight of the game wasn't Purdue being down in the first half...It was an ad for a pre-con game next season on Purdue's press LED board between aOSU and UND. I have no idea why that was allowed or at whom in the audience they were marketing. I can tell you who won't be watching it though.

Purdue will play Santa Clara on Monday at 7:00, I believe in God's country. If they win, they'll be in the semi-finals and the remaining field will be re-seeded according who has the most-handsome coach.

Western Illinois was without their leading scorer and lost their hottest hand to an ankle injury during this one...but they were very motivated and Purdue simply wasn't. Santa Clara's RPI is about 30 spots better than Purdue's...and their 21 wins overshadow's Purdue's as well.  Their win over NCAA dark horse, St. Louis was their best win of the year; so clearly, Purdue is the underdog...hopefully they'll act like it as they prepare.


*not really

Boilermaker Basketball: Freshmen Drive the Train

The Purdue Boilermakers faced the Penn State Nittany Lions who were riding a 13 game conference losing streak tonight at The Bryce Jordan Library Center.  The Boilermakers were able to pull off a victory after a strong second half effort winning 58 to 49. If you didn't watch the game you would say, a nine point win to Penn State? How is that a strong second half?

Well in the first half, our Boilermakers were down 9 with 5 minutes to play but after a strong last three minutes, the Boilers were able to get on a roll at the end of the half and carried that through half-time to take over the game.  Let's make one thing clear though, this Penn State team is AWFUL. They really miss Frazier and would be a completely different team with him.

The highlight of the night was the performance of the Boilermaker freshman.  The group of Ronnie Johnson, Donnie Hale, Raphael Davis and A.J. Hammons were a combined 54 percent from the field and amounted for 49 of the Boilers 58 points, pretty impressive.  Hale had a double double off the bench and Hammons had one as well.  Pretty impressive for a rather low scoring game.

Ronnie Johnson was impressive tonight. At times he looked unstoppable driving even going right a lot of the time, something we didn't see a lot out of him at the beginning of the season, and with only one turnover some progress is being made.  The free throw shot still needs some improvement.  At the end of the game he missed five in a row, ouch.

Davis had just a solid performance tonight but nothing special. He took a limited amount of shots and shot 50 percent from the field.

One thing that was concerning was the lack of 3-point offense again.  Once again the team was blanked again from beyond the arc for the second time this season.  DJ struggled and even looked hesitant in the second half.  Good news for the Boilermakers, Penn State wasn't good enough to capitalize.

DJ and TJ were still MIA tonight.  A combined 3-18 is impressive for two upperclassmen.  It is unacceptable really.  These two are what this team is missing right now.  I understand that you cannot be hot every night, but that is just awful.  Terone was taking bad shots and DJ just wasn't hitting good attempts, but hopefully they will start to click soon.

Overall it was good to see the Boilermakers battle back and get a victory, even if they were playing an awful team.

Here are a few of the Penn State stats that stick out, 19-62 from the field and 2-20 from beyond the arc. That says it all right there.  I didn't know if there was a worse shooting team in the conference than the Boilers, but Penn State takes that one, hands down.

A road victory isn't the easiest thing to come by in the Big Ten and it's nice to come out and get a win tonight, especially after such an awful week.  Now that the paper lions are in the record book it's time to refocus onto the Spartans coming into town on Saturday.  If you are doing nothing, you might as well get out to Mackey for this one, even if it's for no other reason than giving Brandon Dawson hell.

Choo Choo Muthas.

Boilers Beat Up Kitties in Snoozer 60-42

If you would have told me in December that Purdue could miss 11 free throws, get out-rebounded in a half and turn the ball over 14 times and still win by double-digits, I'd tell you that you're crazy.  Purdue played like crap today, honestly.  They did a good job getting into the lane and drawing fouls...but had a ton of one-point possessions...especially in the second half.  But it didn't matter. PSU made Purdue pay for none of its transgressions as the Frazier-less Lions are worse than either of the MAC teams that Purdue has played this season. They're undersized, have no transition game, are out of position all the time on defense, can't shoot and have no one that can beat anybody off the dribble.

I had tix to this one, thanks to our pal Ed...but a really crappy forecast between Indy and God's Country made me not want to drive with LBD up to the game.  I don't usually say this, but it was nice being inside, away from the crap, watching this one on the couch with my family.

Ugly outside.

Purdue's play was as sloppy as the conditions outside- a wintry mix (that always sounds like a delicious Christmas snack to me) fell from the sky in the second half, but not many jumpers were raining inside of Mackey...especially for PSU. They finished somewhat strong on offense, and still shot 25.9% from the field...they were below 24% for much of the second half.

Ugly inside.

I'd love to tell you that Purdue's stifling defense made that happen...but it didn't.  Purdue's effort was very good though.  Painter played a lot of guys and there were tons of bright spots...here are a few.

Carroll's effort was noteworthy and effective.  His post defense denied PSU goons the ball and frustrated them. Only three rebounds and no points...but he was good today in limited action (7min), and the beard was STRONG! Fear the beard, dagnabbit.

AJ had a solid, high effort game...Only 5 rebounds and 4 points in 21 minutes, but I felt he was playing smarter than the last few games and his attitude was very good.  He's one of those guys whose body language says a lot...today, he got after it a bit.

Lawson and Hale were both pretty quiet.

RayDay started and his physicality made it difficult on PSU.  He drove into the teeth of their defense forcing them to foul time and again. If he'd hit his freethrows, like he did v. UND, he'd be more dangerous...but he was still effective.  He finished with 10 points and 5 rebounds.

Hammons was a force and PSU didn't really have an answer to his size and strength.  They'd either foul him or double team him...and he was excellent passing the ball today.  His footwork looks better to me as the season goes on, and his hands are very soft.  He'll be a mother next year and is already a mother-in-training.  Teams without legit centers will struggle against 20 for the rest of the way.  He finished with 12 points, 10 rebounds, 2 assists and 5 blocks. One chink in the armor was he brought the ball down a few times and had it ripped...pretty fixable.

Byrd kind of patiently waited for his opportunity to get open looks and shot 3-4 from distance. He finished with 12 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists in 30 solid minutes. Like most of his teammates, he shot 50% from the FT line, sadly.

Ronnie Johnson's quickness was noteworthy today.  No one on PSU was as fast as him...and this enabled him to get way too deep into their defense.  When give the opportunity, he would slice up their D, draw a foul and miss a free throw shortly after. He was 1-4 from the FT line...but better from the field.  He finished with 13 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. He had a couple turnovers, one was awful...but also played good-enough.

His brother, Terone played his worst game in recent memory. He got himself into trouble a couple times in the corner and just wasn't flowing really. He started strong with a 3-pointer very early...but only finished with 5 points, 3 rebounds, 3 assists...and 3 TOs as well.

TJohn was a bit of a microcosm for the Boiler squad- they can and will play better...but today they just didn't need to to get the W.  Next up, Purdue will make the long flight to Nebraska for a 9:00 tip-off on Wednesday.

Purdue improved to .500 (again) and really needs to win the next two games to keep hopes of any post-season play alive.  After that, they play another tough three-game stretch (@UM, Iowa and IU) before going to Northwestern and PSU.

Boilers Beat Ball 66-56

Mackey was the most-empty that I remember in years last night...and hardly anyone tuned into the game's tele-webcast on EsPN3...and it's a good thing.  This game wasn't for fans of college basketball, per se...but that didn't stop H&R's Travis and I to stay for the entire contest- we sat near each other up in the vast expanse that was upper Mackey Arena on Tuesday night.

It started out promising as Purdue raced out to a 6-0 lead in the first three minutes...but quickly, Purdue's sloppy defense and inability to consistently shoot caught up with them and the game became a back-and-fourth contest.  Purdue kind of kept the Cardinals at an arm's length for much of the game, but with just eight minutes left, Purdue had lost the lead as Ball State's guards hit three after three to change the complexion of the game.

As BSU sunk threes, Purdue refused to shoot from the outside.  In fact, Byrd's three 3-pointers were the only shots hit by the Boilers from long distance all game...and Purdue only shot eight of them.  While it was great to see Byrd with a mini-streak of made shots from distance, it was very easy to see that Purdue had no intention, or ability for that matter, to shoot from the outside.

Purdue ran early, but seemed to be unable to stick with that idea...and what ended up winning the game for the Boilers was Ball State's porous defense that allowed Purdue to drive and score from around 5-7 feet time and again.  In fact, I'm convinced that had BSU simply played a tightly-packed zone, Purdue would have been in serious trouble...but one thing BSU didn't seem to do is think the game well.  They didn't react to Purdue's unwillingness to shoot outside...and they weren't any smarter on offense.

Time and again BSU's bigs would make a move to get around their defender only to lose the ball on the way to the basket or throw it against the bottom of the rim.

The repeated mistakes in the lane and sloppy turnovers away from the basket by Ball State coupled with Purdue's offense, that probably set college basketball back 30 years, made this one tough to watch.

It was uglier than this photo.

Sarcastic cheering throughout the small crowd was the norm during the game.  Plus an odd disagreement between the officials on a charge/block call led to a dead ball, all three on-court officials and the table official to discuss the matter made this game even uglier.

Hammons took advantage of the Cardinals very un-skilled bigs, scoring 15, and adding five rebounds and three blocks.  RonJohn had 11 points, two rebounds, five assists and two steals...but added three TOs. His defense was what was most-noteworthy for me though- he made life pretty difficult for whoever ran the point for Ball State, especially as the game was close around the 7/8 minute mark of the second half. TJohn had 14 points, three rebounds, four assists and a steal...and while he struggled from outside the lane, he willed in a few shots in traffic, with contact, that were important. Byrd's 11 points and three rebounds were solid- he didn't force the issue. Lawson cleaned and shined the glass to the tune of 11 boards to go along with a couple rebounds and blocks.

The Davis magic wasn't there as he went 0-3 from the court...badly missing a three from the corner to start his game...playing only nine minutes in the game. Hale came back from injury and looked rusty, missing shots on three-straight possessions.  AJ's 18 minutes were extremely quiet...and Carroll was steady in the 10 minutes he played.

On message boards and Twitter, some Purdue fans hoped/wished that the second half of the UND game was a turning point of sorts for this Purdue team.  Davis would become the key cog for the Boilers, the tempo would be up and Purdue would get back to its roots of playing hard defense and simply winning.  Well, our Boilers beat BSU...but after that, there's not a ton of evidence that this team took a big step forward.

By the way- that generally doesn't happen in sports...especially for really young teams.  They grow up slowly and sometimes painfully.  But, Matty had his pups take what was given to them Tuesday night as they forced the issue in the lane ad nauseaum and Ball State just refused to do anything about.

This game had all of the MACtion I could take for a season...mercifully, there will be no more.  When Purdue lost the lead, I wondered aloud when the last time a Purdue team had lost twice to MAC foes in one season...thankfully, I didn't have to look that up before posting this.

And after Purdue's third six day or longer break of the season, the Boilers will welcome the Tribe of William and Mary to Mackey on December 29th.  Despite what some are saying, William and Mary isn't very good...they have no quality wins and a really bad loss.  So Purdue should be able to pull back to .500 before welcoming the new-look (read as very good) Illini to Mackey to start conference play.

Distant Replay: Purdue v. Marshall

"...Purdue is good in spite of itself, it seems, at this point."

After spending 5 total days in the state of Indiana during the month of September, I'm back home in the Boiler state.  As a result, I'll get back to doing what I do- watching Purdue in person and on TV and over-analyzing what's happening on the field of play and around the program for our Boilers.

I welcomed myself home last night by eating dinner with my kids and reviewing the Marshall game via DVR...as I type, I'm watching the game again on BTN.  "Watching" the game via gamecast didn't really tell me anything other than the score.  In fact, I thought Purdue might have gone into a sort-of victory formation for the second half based on the lack of success the team was having- prevent defenses, second-team and third-team players, uber-conservative play calling...etc.

But, watching the game, I got a different feel...and here are my thoughts.

The first half was as J already said in his post- The super-stars shined and made a definite impact.  TerBush looked sharp, for the most part, and played the way I thought he was capable of playing in the wake of last season.  The offense though, still does not have the pace of a Marve-led offense, especially in the hurry-up...something I hope can be improved upon.

Akeem Hunt, Akeem Shavers, OJ Ross, Gary Bush and Antavian Edison played like veterans should play.  When production was needed in the first half, they all delivered.  Bush and Ross specifically looked like B1G players playing agains mid-major talent.  Their speed and ability to make defenders miss was large...I don't think they'll be able to produce YAC v. B1G opponents like they did v. Marshall...but they were both opportunistic; which is all you can ask for.

Defensively, Short, Gaston, Russell and the emerging players, Jelani Phillips and the DB pups all were flying around the ball and making plays...but the combo of Allen and Johnson's pick sixes were something that I, nor any Purdue fan has ever seen before.  While Allen gets the publicity, Josh Johnson continues to make a case for himself as an all-con player.  He breaks up a ton of passes is a sure tackler and a ball hawk to boot.  These two, when healthy, create the best corner tandem in the B1G...and they take advantage of that monster front that makes their jobs easier and frees them up to take risks.

All of this said, the second half was deplorable in a lot of ways.

Marshall moved the ball easily, shut down Purdue's offense and controlled the pace of the game.

Sure, it might be tough to keep your edge when up by a bunch of points...but that's what good teams are supposed do.  Perhaps Purdue is still learning how to play with a lead and what it means to really step on a team's throat when ahead...but whatever the reason may be, this squad is still a work in progress.

They show flashes of greatness and potency...then they'll back it up with ineptitude and huge mistakes. Costly penalties, poor adjustments and a lack of killer instinct plague this team at this point...and as a result, Purdue is good in spite of itself, it seems, at this point.

As I said above, the veterans are bearing the brunt of the workload, as they should, but the gaping holes, in the Oline depth chart, middle of the defense and key parts of special teams show themselves each game.

Tim Tibesar's defense has been good when it's needed to be, but consistency is still tough to come by...and Gary Nord's play calling has either been sparkly-good or as dull and uninventive as an old chalkboard.  And Gibboney's special teams haven't been all that special.

In other words, at 3-1, Purdue is in a pretty damned good position.  They have a ton to work on in practice, lots of fixable issues...and a ceiling that is much higher than what we've already seen.

Players on the Rise
Brandon Cottom continues to impress me with his ability to make people miss and finish runs.  He's the perfect change up to Purdue's smaller backs in the second half.

Gabe Holmes still hasn't put together a complete game...and I still think he's a headache for DCs.  I look for him to have a big game in this killer stretch that's ahead.

Frankie Williams made a couple plays on Saturday that had me kinda giddy...under the watchful eye of Josh Johnson, I think Williams is going to grow up fast.

Phase 2 of the Season
Hope's squad got through the early season without a bad loss.  They put up points in bigger chunks than we saw last season.  But the competition ratchets up three or four rungs in the next few games...and Purdue's overall success for '12 will be defined by how they play against the traditional powers of the conference.

Sure, neither Michigan nor Wisconsin are ranked at this point...but that doesn't change anything.  If they can win one or two games in the next three and compete in all three, this season could be a step forward for the program.  If they can protect Ross-Ade and keep it unblemished, it'll a giant leap.

Boilers Survive in Evanston and Advance to Bye Week

People seem to have a short memory...but mine is differently.  Whereas many Purdue fans saw this game as a slam dunk, all I could think of was how Evanston was a house of horrors for Matty's teams...and this year would be no different. Hell, even when the forces of good prevail in their shortest roadtrip in the conference, it's never easy...and shocker, this one wasn't easy.

The preparation for the Wildcats must be torture for Painter...it forces him to put Purdue defenders in *gasp* a zone...and I'm sure it's a pretty crappy one. Painter seems as opposed to zone defenses as I am to diets formal attire.

So as Purdue came off of a few days of practice versus what is surely one of the worst zone defenses in America, they had to play Northwestern's extended 1-3-1...and their confusion and lack of ability to attack it showed.

Let me take that back, LewJack and TJohn did a pretty good job at attacking the gut of the defense, but the opportunities were few...and Purdue, predictably, shot like rubber dog doo for much of the contest.  The half time score was a painful 22-26, with the good guys holding the lead because of AJ's last-second three.  But Hummel, Smith, Byrd and pretty much everyone was struggling to put the ball into the orange ring.

Before I get into any details any further, lemme say a few things about some unimportant things.

First, I've heard people call the Welch-Ryan Arena a glorified high school arena.  Let's be honest, there's nothing glorified about that place. The site lines are bad, it's got some sort of black pipe hanging across the court, it's tiny and their recently stain job to the court is nasty-bad.  I liked it in renderings...and throw up a bit in my mouth each time I see it on the television now. It makes a HD picture look like bleached out video from the 80s or before.  None of this changes the fact that it's a tough place to win.  It's a lot like Cameron Indoor Stadium...without any of that pesky history to get in the way of outsider's opinion of it.

"Another Bang-up job, B1G officials!"

Next up, the fact that Davide (David-ay) Curletti was still in the game when the clock hit triple-zero is a huge indictment on the crappy job the B1G officials do.  Sure, Curletti got sick of spelling and pronouncing his name during his childhood over and over...so he developed a chip on his shoulder, but he was flat-out playing like a douche today.  He threw a high elboy into Smith's chin, threw elbows at Hummel and Carroll and grabbed Hummel, TJohn and others over and over.  I always gave the guy a pass since I figured he didn't speak English...he looks European, his name is Euro...but no, he's from Michigan...and his jerk style of play has everything to do with him being a punk on the court and nothing to do with his pseudo-Euroness.  I'm sure he's the salt of the earth when he leaves the violet-stained court, but he's unlikable when in purple...and will make it easier for me to root against NU as they continue their tourney 0-fer this season.

Not everyone on that squad is a jackface though...I kind of like Crawford; and the dude just killed Purdue today.  And Shurna looks like a 7th grader, but can fill it up...but this team, with its lack of depth and un-Big Ten-like athleticism, should be beaten a lot in the conference...and it turns out they are.

They had a running start coming into conference play- 10-2...but since they entered their own house of horrors, the B1G, they're 2-6...but they almost stole one today.  Carmody called this a must-win for the 'Cats...and Curletti, Shurna, Crawford and Marcitullio all played like it was.  At the same time Purdue played drowsy and struggled.

One of the tri-captains in particular, Hummel continued to grind and struggle to score. But for the second-straight game, he was the center of a small line-up.  The end result is he's not getting the opportunity to get after as many loose balls as usual...he finished with only 3 rebounds. Marcius and Lawson didn't take off their warm-ups...and Carroll only played 11 minutes; so this was a small Purdue team.  Byrd is back to playing the power forward role on defense- which I think is a pretty natural place for him.  But the story on the day was TJohn's ability to get to the middle of the zone and stay under control.

Boilers Hold on to victory -58-56, in Evanston.
(serious question- is back part of the ball?)

TJohn finished with 14 points on 60% shooting (only 25% from the stripe, of course).  He also had 2 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks and just one turnover.  He continues to raise his level of play...and make ignorant Purdue fans eat their words- bite by tasty bite.  For some reason, many thought he should've come into God's Country and averaged 10-15 pts/gm...but like almost everyone, it's taken him time to get comfortable.  And also, he WASN'T HEALTHY AT THE BEGINNING OF THIS SEASON! He looks healthy and nearly in shape now.

LewJack gutted out 8 points, 4 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 steals...Byrd had 12 & 4...and both Barlow and AJ were pretty productive in limited minutes.  Smith had an un-Smith like day, not only shooting poorly, but not getting many rebounds (2) and only registerring 1 assist.  Hummel's play was tough to watch at times...but his sizable shot in the closing seconds over Curletti was the dagger, possibly on the Wildcats NCAA tourney-seeking heart.

It wasn't pretty...in fact, it was damned ugly...but a digit in the left column is something this team desperately needed.  And Big Shot Rob returning right before a bye week might be exactly what this team needed to see to remind them that they belong in the NCAA tournament this spring.

I hope this game can be viewed as a turning point of sorts for a team that still has no defensive identity...but we won't know that for at least another month.  What we do know is that the shiny tan Forehead and his minions will be bringing their stench squad to Mackey one week from today. After that, they travel to Columbus for a tough one, then back to Mackey to play these Wildcats once again.

Boilers Nearly Fall to Low Point v. High Point (67-65)

Note:
I have no full box score to refer to in this game...so I'm writing this via memory and a patchwork of the few stats that are out there floating in the ethos.

Three-licious

Perhaps it was the fact that Purdue was coming off of an astounding weekend of sports...perhaps everyone was anxious since BTN cameras actually were in Mackey (thanks, network)...or maybe it just wasn't Purdue's night. Regardless of the reason, Purdue deserved to lose versus High Point tonight in the arena where they went undefeated last season, but stole a victory in front of an unusually-anemic home crowd.

The game started out the way the entire contest played out- Purdue played lazy defense on one end, accepted the three pointer too easily on the other end and missed a ton of free throws in between.

Purdue didn't pressure the ball full court, LewJack, Barlow and Smith struggled against Barbour and Smith (High Point's two offensive leaders) and High Point's zone defense seemed to perplex Purdue.  There's really not much more to say than that...oh, I guess there's one more thing- Ryne Smith's legs and back must be tired, because he simply carried his teammates in this one.

Smith finished with eight (8) three pointers and 26 points (and 3 reb)...and he didn't shoot that well in the first half.  But, as his teammates struggled to find space against the zone, Smith caught the ball in rhythm time and time again to keep Purdue barely in the lead.

Rob played well at times too.  But, late in the second half, Hummel missed three consecutive free throws (on two separate fouls) that would have given Purdue a touch of breathing room.  Hummel led the team by shooting over 90% from the line a few seasons ago, and is usually flat-out clutch...but not tonight.  He had one big three in which he side stepped a defender on the right side of the court and hit a 22 footer that gave Purdue a lead, but he looked clearly gassed in this one.  But a gassed Rob Hummel still scores 18 points, has 5 rebounds and 4 assists.  Hummel played all but a few minutes, and looked like a guy who hadn't played in that manner in a long time.

Bad Kelsey Barlow showed up in this one, especially in the first half shooting a few ill-advised three pointers...But, he made two free throws in a row- something NO OTHER Boiler did all night.  A few years ago, a pal of mine called Purdue 1-for-2 U...today Purdue would have been stoked to have done that.  As a team Purdue finished 6 of 19 from the stripe while High Point was 11 of 12.

Leaving 10 points on the floor is always bad...but doing so while allowing two of your opponents to light you up is worse.  Every time High Point needed a bucket, their guard tandem would get it done...they combined for 31 of High Point's 65 points.

Anthony Johnson played a solid game again tonight, especially in the first half.  He finished with 13 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists in just over a half of play.

Versus Northern Illinois, Purdue looked like a team that was unstoppable...v. High Point, they looked extremely vulnerable.  Last game they also seemed to have a glut of players that couldn't be kept off of the court, but tonight, Marcius, Carroll, LewJack, TJohn and Barlow all played (at times) with a malaise that made it seem like they had other things to do.  Marcius had a three second violation, Carroll looked sluggish (but had some big boards down the stretch), LewJack didn't look like the quickest guy on the court and TJohn still is trying to get his legs.

Macho

Jacob Lawson looks very raw as a player, there's no doubt about it.  He seems to be thinking non-stop and not just playing the game.  But, in each game he'll show flashes of what will make him great at Purdue.  Like last game, he had two blocked shots...one was a thing of beauty...and almost had a nasty dunk in traffic; Almost.

DJ Byrd didn't play as he was injured in the game on Friday v. NIU.  He did dress and I expect him to play in PR...His energy was greatly missed.

I'm pretty sure most of the team had taken Dimetap and Benadryl along with their dinners of turkey and crusty rolls tonight because they looked sluggish...hell, even the usually-energetic Paint Crew was pretty quiet and Mackey as a whole seemed like it does during a Christmas break game.

The real positive out of this is a Senior-led team that nearly loses understands they need to improve ALOT before the next contest and play they way they're capable of playing.  I think this one will play like a loss in the lockerroom tonight and into practice tonight...and I expect a different Purdue team on Thursday v. Iona in sunny Puerto Rico.  The tip-off is at 1:00 and the game will be televised on EsPNU.

Duke struggled at home versus Belmont to start the season...UConn hasn't really blown either of their opponents out of the water...and both of these teams are considered the nation's elite.  The important thing tonight is Purdue is 2-0...and since no one was really covering this game, no one outside of the Purdue family cares too much about anything but the end result.

If lousy basketball becomes a trend, then you can be worried...for now, we can chalk this up to a hangover of a big weekend, I guess.