What is the story about?
It was the worst of halves.
It was the best of halves.
Folks, I can’t figure this out. For most of the first half Purdue was terrible. It looked like the 15th best team in the Missouri Valley instead of hte 15th best in the country. We’ve seen bad Purdue this eyar. We saw it against Iowa State. We saw it at Indiana. We saw it Sunday in Columbus.
That was nothing compared to the game’s first 10 minutes.
I am not sure what Matt Painter said at halftime, but it worked. Purdue finally went out and got aggressive
towards the basket again. That loosened things up and CJ Cox took over from there.
My thoughts:
- Holy shit, CJ Cox. I have been evangelizing that Cox and Harris play better away from mackey for whatever reason, but he had 11 points during the recent three-game homestand that came with two losses. During the good stretch for Purdue early in Columbus he had three triples, then there is tonight. This was like an extension of his game at UCLA, where he had 16 points (his previous season high), but missed the potential game-winner. Tonight he wasn’t missing. He had that midrange game working for some key baskets, and he was absolutely lethal from his spot in the corner.
- It was nice to see Purdue busting ass again on defense. Those final few possessions were some of the best defense we have seen Purdue play (with the Jordan Clayton three being one of those “Oh fuck off with that” threes with 1:03 left). The late turnovers were the kind of turnovers that come from just getting woked on defensively for so long.
- We still give up way too many open threes.
- Braden was an ice cold killer from the line. He was calm enough to perform surgery with five huge free throws.
- Angry, raging bull Trey Kaufman-Renn going downhill is a fun TKR.
- Purdue owned the glass again tonight. That is part of the formula. We have to out-tough our opponents and own the glass so players like Cox, Benter, Harris, and Mayer can hit open looks. Oscar Cluff and TKR outrebounded all of Northwestern combined.
- The assists counter is down to 56 to catch Bobby Hurley. Purdue has anywhere between 2 and 12 games left. At Barden’s current pace Purdue owuld need seven additional games for him to get there. I guess the bonus of the recent losses dropping Purdue to a 5 seed in Chicago is that he picks up a potential extra game, especially considering he already lost one with the FDU loss.
- Are we a little concerned about the bench lately? The starters have been mostly good when that five is on the floor, but anyone else coming in? Something is off. Remember: Painter threw Liam Murphy out there for major minutes in Columbus. He’s looking for answers there. Daniel Jacobsen and Omer Mayer didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory tonight. Benter and Harris each hit a three, but that’s it.
- I don’t want to ever play Nick Martinelli in Welsh-Ryan Arena again.
- The bad news is with the win tonight, Braden, Fletcher Loyer, and TKR will finish 17 of 18 when it comes to the Delaney Dozen. Will Tschetter also became the first to go 18 for 18 when Michigan won at Purdue a few weeks ago. Now that the road portion of the seaosn is done, we can see that Cox and Harris have made great headway through two years. They will enter next year needing wins at Indiana, Illinois, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan State, Michigan, and UCLA. They probably have one shot left at each.
- The biggest thing I can take away from this? That second half was a real, “Okay boys, gut check time.” They knew they hadn’t played well of late. Maybe the expectations were getting them. Who knows. Purdue went into that locker room really up against and came out with an empahtic answer. Maybe it is just good that they had a half ofrensively of, “Oh yeah, we can still do that.”
Matt Painter
CJ Cox
