ANN ARBOR, Mich. - So Purdue led No. 2 Michigan at the half Thursday in Ann Arbor.
And as I sit here in my hotel room worrying about the snow that's going to hit tomorrow and kicking myself over the tactical error of not driving home tonight, I get the same sense of impending doom I had during said halftime.
Look, it was great that Purdue was up on the Wolverines at the half, but that lead was not built to last.
A.J. Hammons - Purdue's most influential player at both ends - had nothing whatsoever to do with it and the Boilermakers didn't build that lead by playing to their supposed their strengths.
They simply shot their way to a lead and defended just well enough to maintain it by the slimmest of margins. If Purdue just shoots to its average in the first half, there is no lead.
I didn't expect Purdue to go 0-for-9 in the second half after making seven first-half threes, but I did expect the shooting to balance out and for the better team to make a run on its home floor. Both those things happened.
No one could have reasonably expected Purdue to win in Ann Arbor. Purdue's been playing well lately, but not that well.
Michigan is really good, a team that kind of reminds me of the Boilermaker team when Hummel, Moore and JaJuan Johnson were all juniors, when Purdue had sort of that perfect blend of ability, experience, leadership and toughness.
Hopefully for the Wolverines' sake, things don't turn out the same way, because John Beilein's team would seem to have all the makings of a Final Four team great guard play, shooters, experience, interior physicality, etc. How long its window stays open, though, will be decided in the spring.
The point being, Purdue has been playing very well by its standards this season. It's gotten immeasurably better since it last visited this portion of Michigan for that grease fire at Eastern Michigan.
But Michigan was a different standard, the first elite team Purdue faced this season.
On one hand, it's encouraging on the surface to see the Boilermakers winning a game like this at the half, and there's certainly no shame in only being down five on the home floor of the second-ranked team with just a few minutes remaining.
But it was a mixed bag, a bit confounding to see a couple freshmen take steps backward as they'd been trending upward so steadily.
Again, Hammons was a non-factor, inexplicably. It wasn't just reflected in the numbers, but you knew it when you saw it, too.
When the 7-footer didn't run the floor to get back on defense, Matt Painter called a timeout just a minute or two into the game, whatever it was.
It was a good thing in the second half when Hammons blocked a shot, not so much when he stood around and looked at the loose ball while teammates braced to collect it when it was right there for the taking.
When he got a look inside around that same time, the 270-some-pounder drifted so far from the basket his soft hook shot had no chance, which worked out well for Purdue because the surging Rapheal Davis rebounded it for the and-one that got the Boilermakers within five and gave them new life, however briefly.
Feeding the post is a collective task, so you can't put it all on one guy, but certainly he could have found ways to make himself available for more respectable touches on the interior.
The exciting thing about Hammons lately has been the fact that he's seemed to get better every game. That's exaggeration, but the upward trajectory he's been on has been very apparent.
Same for Ronnie Johnson, who had to work like crazy tonight on D with Trey Burke and held up OK in that sense, but took some bad shots and committed some bad turnovers.
Freshmen are still freshmen. Yes, they've got half a season under their belts, but they're still freshmen.
It is a long season, mind you, and a grind in so many ways. Was Michigan just typical youthful inconsistency, the mythical freshman "wall," a total product of a very good opponent's effort or simply a lesson to be learned for two young players?
I guess what might be a bit unsettling about the Michigan game is that during the winning streak, you were starting to know what you were going to get from Purdue after weeks of it being a complete roll of the dice as to which team was going to show up.
I guess we'll find out more Saturday, when Iowa comes in.
Purdue showed Thursday that at least on the scoreboard, it can play with anybody.
But with some of the inconsistencies that resurfaced, it might not entirely be out of the water on the whole "can get beat by anybody" part of that, either.
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.
And as I sit here in my hotel room worrying about the snow that's going to hit tomorrow and kicking myself over the tactical error of not driving home tonight, I get the same sense of impending doom I had during said halftime.
Look, it was great that Purdue was up on the Wolverines at the half, but that lead was not built to last.
A.J. Hammons - Purdue's most influential player at both ends - had nothing whatsoever to do with it and the Boilermakers didn't build that lead by playing to their supposed their strengths.
They simply shot their way to a lead and defended just well enough to maintain it by the slimmest of margins. If Purdue just shoots to its average in the first half, there is no lead.
I didn't expect Purdue to go 0-for-9 in the second half after making seven first-half threes, but I did expect the shooting to balance out and for the better team to make a run on its home floor. Both those things happened.
No one could have reasonably expected Purdue to win in Ann Arbor. Purdue's been playing well lately, but not that well.
Michigan is really good, a team that kind of reminds me of the Boilermaker team when Hummel, Moore and JaJuan Johnson were all juniors, when Purdue had sort of that perfect blend of ability, experience, leadership and toughness.
Hopefully for the Wolverines' sake, things don't turn out the same way, because John Beilein's team would seem to have all the makings of a Final Four team great guard play, shooters, experience, interior physicality, etc. How long its window stays open, though, will be decided in the spring.
The point being, Purdue has been playing very well by its standards this season. It's gotten immeasurably better since it last visited this portion of Michigan for that grease fire at Eastern Michigan.
But Michigan was a different standard, the first elite team Purdue faced this season.
On one hand, it's encouraging on the surface to see the Boilermakers winning a game like this at the half, and there's certainly no shame in only being down five on the home floor of the second-ranked team with just a few minutes remaining.
But it was a mixed bag, a bit confounding to see a couple freshmen take steps backward as they'd been trending upward so steadily.
Again, Hammons was a non-factor, inexplicably. It wasn't just reflected in the numbers, but you knew it when you saw it, too.
When the 7-footer didn't run the floor to get back on defense, Matt Painter called a timeout just a minute or two into the game, whatever it was.
It was a good thing in the second half when Hammons blocked a shot, not so much when he stood around and looked at the loose ball while teammates braced to collect it when it was right there for the taking.
When he got a look inside around that same time, the 270-some-pounder drifted so far from the basket his soft hook shot had no chance, which worked out well for Purdue because the surging Rapheal Davis rebounded it for the and-one that got the Boilermakers within five and gave them new life, however briefly.
Feeding the post is a collective task, so you can't put it all on one guy, but certainly he could have found ways to make himself available for more respectable touches on the interior.
The exciting thing about Hammons lately has been the fact that he's seemed to get better every game. That's exaggeration, but the upward trajectory he's been on has been very apparent.
Same for Ronnie Johnson, who had to work like crazy tonight on D with Trey Burke and held up OK in that sense, but took some bad shots and committed some bad turnovers.
Freshmen are still freshmen. Yes, they've got half a season under their belts, but they're still freshmen.
It is a long season, mind you, and a grind in so many ways. Was Michigan just typical youthful inconsistency, the mythical freshman "wall," a total product of a very good opponent's effort or simply a lesson to be learned for two young players?
I guess what might be a bit unsettling about the Michigan game is that during the winning streak, you were starting to know what you were going to get from Purdue after weeks of it being a complete roll of the dice as to which team was going to show up.
I guess we'll find out more Saturday, when Iowa comes in.
Purdue showed Thursday that at least on the scoreboard, it can play with anybody.
But with some of the inconsistencies that resurfaced, it might not entirely be out of the water on the whole "can get beat by anybody" part of that, either.
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.
