Hey, Purdue basketball is good again!
A week ago we watched Purdue slog through an ugly home win against a very bad Oregon team in West Lafayette. It did not look good as the team prepared to head out on a two-game road trip. Nebraska was a top 10 team and Iowa had pushed Purdue earlier this year in West Lafayette.
Well, after 85 minutes of basketball, the Boilermakers were mostly dominant for about 75 of those minutes and it gets the prize of two Tier 1 NET road victories.
This is the Purdue team we
expected. Tonight it had virtually no problems as it jumped out to a 19-7 lead and never looked back. Unlike Tuesday, Purdue did trail in regulation. It was down 5-4 for about 16 seconds, so we can technically call this a come-from-behind win.
Some quick thoughts.
- Congrats to Matt Painter for his 250th career Big Ten win as a head coach. He is only the 4th such coach to reach that mark, joining Hall of Famers Tom Izzo, Bob Knight, and Gene Keady. He is well on track to pass Keady next season.
- Braden Smith gets back on track for the assists record with 10 on Tuesday and 12 tonight. He’d probably have a few more too if opn shots were hit. Tonight he passed Steve Blake for 6th on the all-time NCAA list and he has 980 for his career. Next up is Keith Jennings of East Tennessee State, who has 983. With three straight home games he is likely to become just the fifth Division I player with 1,000 career assists sometime in the next three games. He is averging just under 8.9 per game this season, and if he maintains that average Purdue will need to play five postseason games between the two tournaments to get the record. The FDU game is sitting there like a bomb, as it cost him at least one more game.
- How about the game by Gicarri Harris! He was the main driver in opening up Purdue’s big early lead with three threes and an impressive dunk that led to an and-1.
- Similar game for CJ Cox. Cox and Harris are the complimentary guys that, when they are hitting, Purdue is awfully difficult to beat. Tonight they combined for 28 points and 7 of 15 from three. Cox especially has played well in the second half on this road trip.
- Trey Kaufman-Renn as a rebounding machine these last two games have been huge. He had more scoring tonight with 12 points, but he grabbed 31 rebounds in two games. When he is a rebounding demon and Braden is dishing out 10+ assists this team is awfully good.
- Much better night at the line going 16 of 20, though it is really 16 of 22 since the front end of two one-and-ones were missed.
- Purdue looked like it learned a bit from Tuesday. It kept the foot on the gas and actually worked clock while attacking the basket in the final three minutes.
- What we saw tonight is the exact formula Purdue needs if it is going to achieves all its goals this year. It needs to shoot 35-40% from three. It needs TKR to rebound like a mad bastard. It needs to continue challenging threes. It needs Cox and Harris to be great complimentary scorers. Do all those and we’re going to be very tough to beat.
- Absolutely zero complaints in this one. We beat a solid NCAA Tournament team on its home floor by 21 points. Flawless.
We’re now in the home stretch. We have six regular season games left, and four of them are in the friendly confines of Mackey Arena. More importantly, we’re rounding into form right as the presumed No. 1 team in the country comes to West Lafayette. Tuesday is going to be a madhouse. It is why we love college basketball. A win, and Purdue is very much alive for its 27th Big Ten championship. Lose, and it is far from a bad loss, but at that point it likely becomes a scenario where we need to finish strong for a 2 seed.
The impressive thing is that Purdue passed this very tough two-game road trip with flying colors. Let’s get this one Tuesday night and make this a race.
Matt Painter
CJ Cox
