Monday night's down-to-the-wire blowout loss to Gardner-Webb in Mackey Arena didn't end Purdue's season, a season that in a lot of ways is only now just beginning with the start of Big Ten play.
There's still plenty of time for the Boilermakers to do something.
But what Purdue's third collapse in as many games did do was officially turn this once-promising season on its side.
Lose at Vandy in your first road game? OK.
Give up 94 points to Notre Dame in a 31-point loss? Well, that's not ideal.
Trail by 18 on your home floor in the second half to something called a Gardner-Webb? Oh.
Remember 6-1? What the hell happened?
Well, did anything happen or did Purdue have the same flaws then that it has now only to not let them get the best of it?
Dunno. No easy answer.
I just know that I don't know - makes sense, right? - if this can be pinned on youth. This was Game 13 for a group that has showed it can play at a high level, but just stopped doing so this month for no apparent reason.
If you watched our Wrap Video - and please do because it's meant as a complement to this blog - we hit on a bunch of stuff like the trappings of playing big, condensing rotations, etc., but mostly defense.
This is Year 4 now of suspect defense at Purdue, where that stuff supposedly lives. I think it might have gotten evicted.
The Boilermakers were a sieve tonight, like they were the game before and the game before that, like they were last season and the season before that.
Purdue has physical limitations in man-to-man defense, limitations its personnel might have overachieved in the face of earlier this season, like in Maui. The bottom has dropped out as the Boilermakers have gotten lit up like the Griswold Estate in their past three outings.
Purdue's getting beaten like a piñata off the bounce, to either get to the basket or find way-too-open shooters. Even when they're not way-too-open, their shots seem to go in. A kid hit a 30-footer tonight with two minutes left and the shot clock gasping like an earthbound fish, a crushing blow to Purdue's comeback hopes. Vandy hit a shot like that, too, among the many shots it hit. Notre Dame was too busy dunking to have to.
The Boilermakers' model now is to play big when so much of its success in the past came playing small, and much of Painter's pre-Purdue success came playing mid-major ball, i.e. coaching around a dearth of size.
(Remember when Purdue went small Robbie Hummel's second senior season? It saved the season.)
Purdue is now committed to playing big, with traditional, plodding centers, has been ever since A.J. Hammons showed up as the one guy on that team's roster with a physical advantage on most people he played against.
With Isaac Haas now, Purdue has doubled down.
(I know what you're saying: Carl Landry and JaJuan Johnson. Those guys are different.)
It's not been a seamless translation and now Purdue finds itself generating a lot of offense through the post but right now at the cost of a lot of turnovers, foul problems, missed free throws and missed four-foot hook shots. So much has to go right on offense for Purdue to get the shot it wants and when Hammons misses a clean three-footer or Haas gets fouled and misses the free throws, it's a gut-punch.
Opponents have figured out how to score on Haas: Face up and drive. Could have told you in Maui that was going to happen. That's how K-State held off the Boilermakers at the end and that's what Vandy went to right off the bat, with success. Hammons is a great shot-blocker but just an OK defensive player otherwise, and he's that after getting better from last season.
And to best leverage the value of that size, Purdue has recruited a bunch of shooters who are not good man defenders and not shooting particularly well right now, so it's kind of a jackpot situation here.
Purdue's model is clearly defined but to be as effective as it needs to be, the Boilermakers need Hammons and Kendall Stephens functioning at high levels. They're not and that's putting Purdue in really tough spots given its defensive problems.
A lot of stuff has gone into Purdue's struggles lately - bad defense, certain players struggling, bad shots and turnovers, the latter of which has led to 44 opponent points the past two games, by the way - and based off the past 120 minutes of basketball there doesn't seem like sure-fire reason to believe this is a quick fix. If it was, it would have been by tonight.
But, here's the thing, maybe the thing you can hold on to as a Purdue fan over the holidays: Purdue has shown it can play well against decent competition.
And the Big Ten is Wisconsin and 13 darts being thrown at a bar-room wall.
Maybe hope lies in the unknown on that front in a league that's spent the whole non-conference season losing to Gardner-Webbs.
That's that. We will talk to you again after the Minnesota game on New Year's Eve, when you can make a fun drinking game (if you're into that sort of thing) out of how many times I say "obviously" in my Wrap Video.
If you watched tonight's video you saw my obnoxious litany of thank-yous, but it bears repeating.
Your support has been profoundly appreciated all these years, especially while the subject matter hasn't all been puppy dogs and ice cream lately.
We know you have had options in recent years for your subscription-based Purdue-related niche web site needs - options that keep cropping up, getting you to subscribe, then disappearing in the middle of the night, but whatever - and we do appreciate everyone's support of our humble little web site and plucky little publication.
Happy holidays, everyone.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2014. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
There's still plenty of time for the Boilermakers to do something.
But what Purdue's third collapse in as many games did do was officially turn this once-promising season on its side.
Lose at Vandy in your first road game? OK.
Give up 94 points to Notre Dame in a 31-point loss? Well, that's not ideal.
Trail by 18 on your home floor in the second half to something called a Gardner-Webb? Oh.
Remember 6-1? What the hell happened?
Well, did anything happen or did Purdue have the same flaws then that it has now only to not let them get the best of it?
Dunno. No easy answer.
I just know that I don't know - makes sense, right? - if this can be pinned on youth. This was Game 13 for a group that has showed it can play at a high level, but just stopped doing so this month for no apparent reason.
If you watched our Wrap Video - and please do because it's meant as a complement to this blog - we hit on a bunch of stuff like the trappings of playing big, condensing rotations, etc., but mostly defense.
This is Year 4 now of suspect defense at Purdue, where that stuff supposedly lives. I think it might have gotten evicted.
The Boilermakers were a sieve tonight, like they were the game before and the game before that, like they were last season and the season before that.
Purdue has physical limitations in man-to-man defense, limitations its personnel might have overachieved in the face of earlier this season, like in Maui. The bottom has dropped out as the Boilermakers have gotten lit up like the Griswold Estate in their past three outings.
Purdue's getting beaten like a piñata off the bounce, to either get to the basket or find way-too-open shooters. Even when they're not way-too-open, their shots seem to go in. A kid hit a 30-footer tonight with two minutes left and the shot clock gasping like an earthbound fish, a crushing blow to Purdue's comeback hopes. Vandy hit a shot like that, too, among the many shots it hit. Notre Dame was too busy dunking to have to.
The Boilermakers' model now is to play big when so much of its success in the past came playing small, and much of Painter's pre-Purdue success came playing mid-major ball, i.e. coaching around a dearth of size.
(Remember when Purdue went small Robbie Hummel's second senior season? It saved the season.)
Purdue is now committed to playing big, with traditional, plodding centers, has been ever since A.J. Hammons showed up as the one guy on that team's roster with a physical advantage on most people he played against.
With Isaac Haas now, Purdue has doubled down.
(I know what you're saying: Carl Landry and JaJuan Johnson. Those guys are different.)
It's not been a seamless translation and now Purdue finds itself generating a lot of offense through the post but right now at the cost of a lot of turnovers, foul problems, missed free throws and missed four-foot hook shots. So much has to go right on offense for Purdue to get the shot it wants and when Hammons misses a clean three-footer or Haas gets fouled and misses the free throws, it's a gut-punch.
Opponents have figured out how to score on Haas: Face up and drive. Could have told you in Maui that was going to happen. That's how K-State held off the Boilermakers at the end and that's what Vandy went to right off the bat, with success. Hammons is a great shot-blocker but just an OK defensive player otherwise, and he's that after getting better from last season.
And to best leverage the value of that size, Purdue has recruited a bunch of shooters who are not good man defenders and not shooting particularly well right now, so it's kind of a jackpot situation here.
Purdue's model is clearly defined but to be as effective as it needs to be, the Boilermakers need Hammons and Kendall Stephens functioning at high levels. They're not and that's putting Purdue in really tough spots given its defensive problems.
A lot of stuff has gone into Purdue's struggles lately - bad defense, certain players struggling, bad shots and turnovers, the latter of which has led to 44 opponent points the past two games, by the way - and based off the past 120 minutes of basketball there doesn't seem like sure-fire reason to believe this is a quick fix. If it was, it would have been by tonight.
But, here's the thing, maybe the thing you can hold on to as a Purdue fan over the holidays: Purdue has shown it can play well against decent competition.
And the Big Ten is Wisconsin and 13 darts being thrown at a bar-room wall.
Maybe hope lies in the unknown on that front in a league that's spent the whole non-conference season losing to Gardner-Webbs.
That's that. We will talk to you again after the Minnesota game on New Year's Eve, when you can make a fun drinking game (if you're into that sort of thing) out of how many times I say "obviously" in my Wrap Video.
If you watched tonight's video you saw my obnoxious litany of thank-yous, but it bears repeating.
Your support has been profoundly appreciated all these years, especially while the subject matter hasn't all been puppy dogs and ice cream lately.
We know you have had options in recent years for your subscription-based Purdue-related niche web site needs - options that keep cropping up, getting you to subscribe, then disappearing in the middle of the night, but whatever - and we do appreciate everyone's support of our humble little web site and plucky little publication.
Happy holidays, everyone.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2014. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
