Shortly following Purdue's 65-62 overtime win over Iowa Sunday, an esteemed colleague put it so eloquently: "Like America needed five more minutes of that."
Yeah, if you braved the threats of freezing rain to be in Mackey Arena for this 87-rebound roller derby jam, you took in a real eyesore.
Winning ugly, though, is still winning and for this Purdue team for which wins have been such a precious and hard-earned commodity, winning is the only thing that matters.
But
So many times this season now, leading has very nearly led to losing for this Boilermaker team, which simply can not seem to bring itself to enjoy prosperity and look to protect it.
You have to give Iowa credit for stepping up and seizing the moment, but it shouldn't have happened so quickly after Purdue went up 11 with eight minutes to go. The way this bunt-the-runners-over game was going, 11 may as have been twice as many.
Iowa scored the next eight points and it took them just two minutes and three seconds to be back within one possession. Again, credit Iowa, but it's hard to make a run like that without the team with the lead greasing the skids a little bit.
It's Jan. 27 and this is still an issue, confounding and a suggestion that players lack sound basketball sense, aren't listening or aren't being taught properly.
Assuming Matt Painter is not telling them things completely opposite of what he tells us pretty much every single day, then I don't think it's the teaching. Purdue's players seem like conscientious young men, so I don't think it's any ill-willed resistance to coaching.
That would leave basketball sense as the apparent culprit.
There's been a lot of consternation in the basketball community in modern years over the impact year-round "bulk" basketball has made on the game in general.
Maybe the informalities of summer basketball - and I'm an AAU fan, for the most part - have diluted basketball IQ in general. Yeah, there's the more formal high school season, but that's like a quarter of the calendar and I'm not going to lie, for the guys who go to prep school, that can be glorified summer basketball, battles to see which team can simply roll out the most raw talent.
Whatever it is, Purdue has to figure it out, though at this point, you wonder if it won't take an off-season of self-reflection for non-jump shooters to stop shooting jumpers just because they can in tense situations or for guys to not go 1-on-3 in transition just 'cause
Again, it is not just Purdue's young players doing it.
Coming into the Iowa game, there was the Nebraska game. Before the Nebraska game, there was the Illinois game.
Sooner or later, you have to figure, it won't go Purdue's way.
It nearly didn't Sunday and Purdue easily could have eaten a loss that would whited-out the "probably" from the statement, "Purdue probably won't make the NCAA Tournament."
Purdue won all three of those games mentioned above in spite of its inability to sit on leads. I'm no longer taking into account the Villanova game, because that may as well have been a year ago in the context of this season.
Had Purdue squandered a terrific game and lost Sunday, whatever borderline NCAA chances it has would have been no more.
The NCAA Tournament is still a long way off. Purdue will have to win big, big games to get there. Can the Boilermakers win such games given their propensity to make things more interesting than they need to be?
Yeah, that was kind of a story from the Iowa game, though Purdue definitely should be credited for collecting itself and winning. Iowa had everything going for it before Purdue's last timeout, which preceded Terone Johnson's game-tying basket, followed by his defensive stop at the end of regulation.
Terone Johnson got Purdue to overtime, but Purdue wouldn't have even been in a position to be in that position without the game's unlikely hero, Donnie Hale.
For the first time this Big Ten season, Rapheal Davis looked like a freshman, a total non-factor. Matchups, Painter said.
They suited Hale just fine and he played his best game of the year. Not even close.
In retrospect, Purdue has no chance in the second half without Hale's high-post offense and effort on the boards. His tip-in of A.J. Hammons' miss at 1:45 was unbelievably important and the sort of play he's not made often this season.
Hale was great today. Purdue played excellent defense and Iowa just clanked shots when Purdue didn't or couldn't rebound. Hammons was Hammons again after the Michigan game. Byrd and Terone Johnson combined for 19 rebounds and one turnover.
Iowa shot 15 percent in the first half. Fifteen!
Yet there were the Boilermakers living dangerously again at the end because of their inability to protect leads.
They got away with it again.
Next time, they might not.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2013. 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.
Yeah, if you braved the threats of freezing rain to be in Mackey Arena for this 87-rebound roller derby jam, you took in a real eyesore.
Winning ugly, though, is still winning and for this Purdue team for which wins have been such a precious and hard-earned commodity, winning is the only thing that matters.
But
So many times this season now, leading has very nearly led to losing for this Boilermaker team, which simply can not seem to bring itself to enjoy prosperity and look to protect it.
You have to give Iowa credit for stepping up and seizing the moment, but it shouldn't have happened so quickly after Purdue went up 11 with eight minutes to go. The way this bunt-the-runners-over game was going, 11 may as have been twice as many.
Iowa scored the next eight points and it took them just two minutes and three seconds to be back within one possession. Again, credit Iowa, but it's hard to make a run like that without the team with the lead greasing the skids a little bit.
It's Jan. 27 and this is still an issue, confounding and a suggestion that players lack sound basketball sense, aren't listening or aren't being taught properly.
Assuming Matt Painter is not telling them things completely opposite of what he tells us pretty much every single day, then I don't think it's the teaching. Purdue's players seem like conscientious young men, so I don't think it's any ill-willed resistance to coaching.
That would leave basketball sense as the apparent culprit.
There's been a lot of consternation in the basketball community in modern years over the impact year-round "bulk" basketball has made on the game in general.
Maybe the informalities of summer basketball - and I'm an AAU fan, for the most part - have diluted basketball IQ in general. Yeah, there's the more formal high school season, but that's like a quarter of the calendar and I'm not going to lie, for the guys who go to prep school, that can be glorified summer basketball, battles to see which team can simply roll out the most raw talent.
Whatever it is, Purdue has to figure it out, though at this point, you wonder if it won't take an off-season of self-reflection for non-jump shooters to stop shooting jumpers just because they can in tense situations or for guys to not go 1-on-3 in transition just 'cause
Again, it is not just Purdue's young players doing it.
Coming into the Iowa game, there was the Nebraska game. Before the Nebraska game, there was the Illinois game.
Sooner or later, you have to figure, it won't go Purdue's way.
It nearly didn't Sunday and Purdue easily could have eaten a loss that would whited-out the "probably" from the statement, "Purdue probably won't make the NCAA Tournament."
Purdue won all three of those games mentioned above in spite of its inability to sit on leads. I'm no longer taking into account the Villanova game, because that may as well have been a year ago in the context of this season.
Had Purdue squandered a terrific game and lost Sunday, whatever borderline NCAA chances it has would have been no more.
The NCAA Tournament is still a long way off. Purdue will have to win big, big games to get there. Can the Boilermakers win such games given their propensity to make things more interesting than they need to be?
Yeah, that was kind of a story from the Iowa game, though Purdue definitely should be credited for collecting itself and winning. Iowa had everything going for it before Purdue's last timeout, which preceded Terone Johnson's game-tying basket, followed by his defensive stop at the end of regulation.
Terone Johnson got Purdue to overtime, but Purdue wouldn't have even been in a position to be in that position without the game's unlikely hero, Donnie Hale.
For the first time this Big Ten season, Rapheal Davis looked like a freshman, a total non-factor. Matchups, Painter said.
They suited Hale just fine and he played his best game of the year. Not even close.
In retrospect, Purdue has no chance in the second half without Hale's high-post offense and effort on the boards. His tip-in of A.J. Hammons' miss at 1:45 was unbelievably important and the sort of play he's not made often this season.
Hale was great today. Purdue played excellent defense and Iowa just clanked shots when Purdue didn't or couldn't rebound. Hammons was Hammons again after the Michigan game. Byrd and Terone Johnson combined for 19 rebounds and one turnover.
Iowa shot 15 percent in the first half. Fifteen!
Yet there were the Boilermakers living dangerously again at the end because of their inability to protect leads.
They got away with it again.
Next time, they might not.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2013. 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.
