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Homeless people in Seattle getting a place to live. Wow!

Rules need to be changed when the Democrats don’t get their way!! Bunch of hypocrites

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But still supporting the Boilers today!

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Question for all the athletes on the board… While Jaden’s block was an incredible play, how difficult would it have been for him to control the ball instead of swatting it out of bounds and allowing Illinois another 30 seconds to try again? And do you think CMP ever coaches shot blocking to create turnovers, especially with his more vertically-gifted players?

Stole this from the national board.

Only teams that have at least 1 vote in BOTH the AP and Coaches poll are eligible.
From there, you are ranked for your AP, Coaches, KenPom, Sagarin, NET, and BPI ranking.

Blended average aggregate ranking.

1. Gonzaga (1.2)
2. Arizona (4.3)
3. Purdue (4.7)
4. Baylor (4.8)
5. Villanova (5.8)
6. Auburn (6.5)
7. Houston (6.7)
8. Kansas (7.0)
9. Duke (8.9)
9. Kentucky (8.9)
11. LSU (11.2)
12. UCLA (13.2)
13. Illinois (13.3)
14. Tennessee (16.8)
15. Texas Tech (17.3)
16. Texas (17.5)
17. Wisconsin (18.0)
18. Michigan State (19.2)
18. Xavier (19.2)
20. Connecticut (19.8)
21. Iowa (21.5)
22. Ohio State (21.7)
23. USC (21.8)
24. Iowa State (22.3)
25. Alabama (22.8)

And to think some people were saying Purdue's chances at a 1 seed were on life support as recently as last week.

Any info on how the visit went - timeline - ASU, SMU, Vandy or Purdue?

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Quite a few empty seats for UM-Maryland. Is that due to more to COVID restrictions or that their fans just don't care already?

I had an opportunity at Bryce-Jordan to sit in the 2nd row at center court right behind the scorer's table. It's a fascinating place to watch a game, with the ability to see the interaction between coaches and players, coaches and refs, and see the players' at eye level. IMO, this affords an opportunity to see things I don't normally see from TV and elsewhere in the venue. It also doesn't hurt that it was at PSU, where it doesn't get too loud for 90% of the game.

So with that, a few random musings (because maybe you'll like my musings like you like Brian's musings):

Coach/Player interactions

• It was pretty clear that the guy that Painter was communicating with the most was Ivey. He was quite often reminding him to square up defensively and get into a defensive stance. You can tell they are working on getting Ivey to be more sound defensively. Also interesting (at least to me) is that Painter calls him J.I. rather than Jaden or Ivey. Hadn't heard that nickname for him
• When I realized Newman hadn't played late in the first half, I made it a point to watch him during breaks the remainder of the game. He didn't look happy (frankly, you don't want someone happy in that situation) but he was still engaged with his teammates. Coach Lusk even pulled him aside coming out of a timeout early in the second half and was giving him instruction and he was engaged.
• It was fun to watch the interaction between Ivey and Painter after Jaden made the boneheaded steal attempt when we went up 13 and gave up a three. Painter's head just dropped with a "I can't believe you forgot what we've talked about 27 times this week" look and Jaden didn't want to make eye contact with him coming up the court because he knew he had made a mistake.
• On the other side, you can tell that Shrews has his guys' ear and they are learning from him. They had a great chemistry for a team with so many new (albeit older) pieces.

Player Evaluations:

• As Brian mentioned, it was good to see Ivey much more engaged defensively. You can tell it was a point of emphasis in practices leading up to the game. That said, Jaden still isn't great at getting into a proper defensive stance. My amateur view is that he stands with his legs too close together and it allows opponents to get him off balance and even fall at times. I'm sure he's relied for so long on his athleticism to bail him out defensively that it's still a work in progress.
• Speaking of defense, those on the board that claim Sasha is a poor defender don't know what they are talking about IMO. He certainly has some athleticism challenges but he works hard and is in the right position the vast majority of the time. He almost single handedly shut down a good player in Seth Lundy Saturday.
• Watching Harrar and Tre/Zach go at it up close is great theater. Sucks that the officials were so inconsistent in their calls. They let them bang at times and at times call fouls. It has to be frustrating for a player to navigate.

Miscellaneous musings:

• It's cool to see how friendly and cordial the players and coaches are with the officials during stoppages in play. Refs get a lot of vitriol from us and also from players and coaches but you can tell there is also a level of respect for the tough job they have to do.
• I will never understand how a university that can get 107K people to consistently show up for football can't get 1/10 that to show up for basketball. I get that some travel from Pittsburgh/Philly and beyond but many (including students) are close enough to watch their team play the #3 team in the country. What the hell else is there to do in Happy Valley?

I did ask around for my own personal knowledge about the topic of Purdue going over ball screens against Andre Curbelo, who's not a great three-point shooter, and the short answer was that they weren't supposed to, but the more in-depth answer came with qualifiers that suggested to me it wasn't the end of the world that they did.

Curbelo is excellent at flipping ball screens when a defense goes under, changing directions to re-set the screen and then taking off, and that was something Purdue was wary of even though it didn't really meaningfully prepare for Curbelo to play. Will be interesting to see what they do during the next game with Illinois.

FYI.

He may literally play his butt off tomorrow.

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We want Iowa to win, yes?

The documentary is about the NCAA scandal of Christian Dawkins (agent) and Pitino/Miller. More stupidity out of our FBI

Surprised there is not more discussion on the board, how Eric came thru in crunch today and was one of the main reasons we came out of Illini with a W. Most on the board have been calling for him to be benched and saying we could not win big with him, he kinda proved you wrong today.

He shot a 3 with confidence and made it, executed 2 cuts to basket for easy buckets, only time he got ball against full court press he took it up quick and got us in our offense. And lastly and most important, he hit 4 FTs in the clutch to put game away.

Made me a believer he can be a point on a big time team.

I know he has had a huge post-pro career helping in youth camps, Coaching in various organizations. Would love to see a great guy and talent reinvolved with the program? I know there is going to be some shuffling on the defensive side but have to think a mentor like Rod ( with his background and Skill) would make a great backfield coach for the corners and safties.

I love seeing him beat Duke. I’ve always enjoyed watching him coach and watching his teams guard. When he has the right guys, his defenses make teams work for points more than almost any coach in the country. I’ll never forget FSU handing ND their a$&es at the United Center in the tourney in ‘11 (the same night and place that Shaka and VCU handed us ours). FSU put on a defensive clinic. The guy is a great coach, very underrated. And, just learned, he’s won 13 straight overtime games?! Wow, that’s way past a coincidence. Good win last night for LH & FSU.

Great video. On point. Lefties here will surely not agree, but that's what you get when you're brainwashed.

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Does anyone know which team is testing positive? We play Minnie in about 10 days and I'm wondering, if we can potentially be impacted?
TIA

Topics ...

• Jaden Ivey and Zach Edey are getting better, and Purdue is because of it.
• Some positives from the Illinois game
• A real jerk of a sportswriter rips the NCAA for its generosity

Thoughts?

_

Sorry, have to go an hour earlier today due to basketball practice.

Post your questions, comments, complaints whatever it may be here now or at the time of the chat and I'll sort through them at 12.

Purdue -3.5 tomorrow at IU.

I just hope that win at Illinois didn’t take it out of Purdue. That Illinois game was an absolute war!