Purdue came into this game looking to avoid their first 0-3 start since the 1950-1951 season. A season in which they finished 8-14 and 4-10 in conference play. Standing in their way was an Illinois State team from The Valley. Purdue changes up the starting lineup as you would expect with Antione West Jr. and Jack Benter being slotted in place of Omer Mayer and Gicarri Harris. The writing was on the wall with that one given the substitution pattern you saw in the two overtimes from the game against
Valparaiso.
John Wooden Memorial Player of the Game (JWMPOTG): Giving this one to Antione West Jr. in what I hope is his coming out party. The redshirt freshman went 7-11 from the floor including 3-4 from three and helped spark the run that put this game out of reach.
Purdue needed to do a number of things to return a little bit of hope to the fanbase. First and foremost they needed to win. That’s always number one. Second though, they needed to shoot the ball better, show better effort on defense, and maybe, just maybe, play a full 40 minutes.
If Buddy the Elf can recharge in just 40 minutes there’s no reason that this Purdue men’s basketball team can’t play a good 40 minutes of basketball.
While Purdue looked better in the first half than they did the last 30 minutes we saw them play, the second half and double overtime against Valparaiso, they still had plenty of problems. Purdue’s offense too often resulted in clumps of players around the perimeter just sort of standing there. That’s no way to run an offense. Purdue was also incredibly streaky in the first half. At one point they hit seven shots in a row. Then, toward the end of the half they went 1-9. I won’t say it was feast or famine because what we watched was no feast.
Purdue did shoot the three better in the first half but that might be partly because they shot far fewer. In the first half they went 4/10 from three. West hit two threes while Benter and Jacobsen added one a piece. Yes, Jacobsen. He was again Purdue’s leading scorer heading into halftime as the only Boilermaker in double figures with 10. On defense the Boilermakers did a good job handling the Redbirds three point shooting. They came into this game shooting just over 50% from three in their first two games. In the first half of this one Purdue held them to 3-16 from three with one of those made threes being a bank in off the glass.
Despite these good numbers on defense Illinois State continued to chip away at the lead. Purdue never looked comfortable out there and went into half with a smaller lead than they had against Valparaiso on Friday. In that one Purdue went into halftime up 12 while here in Mackey Arena on Monday night Purdue headed to the locker room up just eight points at 36-28. Purdue got to 36 after West hit a nice three at the end of the first half.
The second half played out much like the second half against Valparaiso with Illinois State chipping away at the Purdue lead until it got down to two points at 50-48 with 8:55 to go. At that point I think everyone in the arena and everyone watching at home got that puckering feeling and some PTSD from Friday’s game. If Purdue let this one slip away that 0-3 record would begin to weigh very heavy on this team. Then, Purdue ratcheted up the intensity on both ends of the floor. You might wonder who was on the court at that moment and I’ll tell you. It was CJ Cox, Antione West Jr., Luke Ertel, Jack Benter, and Daniel Jacobsen. Purdue would go on a 26-11 run to end the game but a number of those Illinois State points came in garbage time. The real meat of the run happened from 8:55 to 2:33 when Purdue ballooned the lead from 50-48 to 71-50 at the 2:33 mark. That’s a 21-2 run. Maybe Purdue unlocked something over that 6:22 span in the second half. Could those five be the starters for the next game of the season?
Some things that stand out in the box score here:
- Omer Mayer played just 14 minutes. He was 1-3 from the floor.
- Daniel Jacobsen led the Boilermakers with 20 points but took only 8 shots. I love the efficiency but the guy has to have more opportunities.
- Could this be the Antione West Jr. coming out party? 7-11 from the floor and 3-4 from three.
- Purdue was 8-19 from three for a much better 42%.
- Purdue was 16-18 at the FT line.
- Purdue outrebounded the Redbirds 30-17. Those extra possessions made a huge difference when Purdue was struggling.
Look, it wasn’t pretty, winning isn’t always, but Purdue did what they needed to do and for six minutes in the second half Purdue looked like the team we all hoped they could be coming into this season. It’s not going to be easy to replicate that intensity and that focus but it’s what Purdue is going to have to do night in and night out if they want to compete this season. The margin for error is much smaller for this team than in year’s past. Tonight was an good moment, but also a proof of concept of what this team can be.
