You can't say enough about how much Vince Edwards has meant to Purdue this season - you could make a credible case he's been its MVP, all told - but we're gonna try here by saying more.
Purdue's win over Michigan today was one of the freshman's best games of the season.
Put it up against his biggest games of the season and you'll see what would look like an entirely different player.
When the 6-foot-7 Swiss Army Knife stuck it to BYU and North Carolina State, he did it largely by making threes. Opponents have recognized him for it and taken it away.
And it might make better.
If you read this blog or our July recruiting coverage, you may know that we have a strange affinity for non-post players who can post up and either score or make plays for other people.
(I am not going to call Edwards a "post" player, because a more accurate description of his skill set would be an "anything" player.)
Well, Edwards can very much do that too.
Purdue came out looking for it, getting the ball to Edwards on the block early and getting a quick bucket off it, followed by a decent look that didn't go.
Edwards, a player opponents have adjusted to guard around the arc, owned the baseline today.
The numbers are what they are and Edwards has been highly efficient as an all-around shooter and a productive low-volume scorer who makes his free throws and doesn't turn the ball over at too high a rate relative to his opportunities and responsibilities.
Purdue came out looking to get Edwards more scoring opportunities - and Matt Painter said they're committed to doing more of just that - and was rewarded with 16 points on just eight shots.
You see, Edwards doesn't need to be positioned to score to be productive. He can go get it himself.
The player who's draining threes at a 40-percent clip and serving as a proxy point guard when opponents press in the full court is also a force on the offensive glass, with what looks like a sixth sense for finding the basketball. It's not like he's bigger, stronger, quicker or faster than the people he's playing. It's just that oftentimes, he's more instinctive, finding the ball intuitively like a bat snatching a mosquito under the cover of darkness.
(Also, it was a dark and stormy night )
Anyway, it's that versatility that Purdue's coaches pinpointed early, when Edwards was just a prep sophomore. This is what they saw in him and they should be commended for that the same way they're condemned when a player turns out not so good.
Provided he doesn't suffer from self-destructive ego-inflation, get hurt or fall off a cliff (which I guess would qualify as getting hurt, so never mind), Edwards is going to be outstanding at Purdue. Hell, he's not far off now, and that's been a game-changer for the Boilermakers this season.
The guy Purdue needed to be a game-changer this season is coming around, too.
A.J. Hammons looks right the past two games, and Purdue needed him badly today after Isaac Haas got relegated to spectator by more of officials assuming that the Robocop-looking guy is being a bully. Maybe Painter blowing his lid in the first half today can serve as a PSA of sorts that 7-foot-2 monsters are people too and deserve the same treatment afforded those eight inches shorter and a hundred pounds lighter.
Hammons has been very average this season relative to his ability and expectations, but as Haas has sort of regressed to the freshman mean in Big Ten play the past two games, the upperclassman has responded.
Good for him.
Better for Purdue, which is 2-0 in Big Ten play and looking like the team it hasn't been the past two seasons, one that responds to jams on its home floor. Purdue's been way too beatable in Mackey Arena the past three seasons before this one, really, and it's a great sign for it to win a couple 50/50 games against peer-level squads on Keady Court.
This was a big win, too, in that Purdue is almost certainly not winning at Wisconsin and ranked Maryland will be no picnic, home floor or not.
Purdue is on schedule, if not ahead of the curve, in terms of winning winnable games before playing in some lower-percentage contests.
But with that said, Hammons and Kendall Stephens can be great equalizers - and Stephens made another big shot tonight - and so can be rebounding, which won Purdue today's game as much as anything, so here's suggesting that when the right guys are, um, right, you never know what can happen, especially if the Boilermakers can make threes at a higher rate.
Purdue has a nice little rotation carved out, seems like, and it's paying dividends.
That rotation will include Bryson Scott again after today's DNP-CD.
Scott got booted from practice yesterday and that is almost certainly why he didn't play today.
Don't worry: Nobody got hit with a ballrack. We don't know what happened, but do know that it is not uncommon for stuff like this to happen.
Don't know if Scott was being punished, in effect, for whatever did happen or sitting simply because he missed a good deal, presumably, of a pretty important practice from a preparation standpoint.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2015. 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.
Purdue's win over Michigan today was one of the freshman's best games of the season.
Put it up against his biggest games of the season and you'll see what would look like an entirely different player.
And it might make better.
If you read this blog or our July recruiting coverage, you may know that we have a strange affinity for non-post players who can post up and either score or make plays for other people.
(I am not going to call Edwards a "post" player, because a more accurate description of his skill set would be an "anything" player.)
Well, Edwards can very much do that too.
Purdue came out looking for it, getting the ball to Edwards on the block early and getting a quick bucket off it, followed by a decent look that didn't go.
Edwards, a player opponents have adjusted to guard around the arc, owned the baseline today.
The numbers are what they are and Edwards has been highly efficient as an all-around shooter and a productive low-volume scorer who makes his free throws and doesn't turn the ball over at too high a rate relative to his opportunities and responsibilities.
Purdue came out looking to get Edwards more scoring opportunities - and Matt Painter said they're committed to doing more of just that - and was rewarded with 16 points on just eight shots.
You see, Edwards doesn't need to be positioned to score to be productive. He can go get it himself.
The player who's draining threes at a 40-percent clip and serving as a proxy point guard when opponents press in the full court is also a force on the offensive glass, with what looks like a sixth sense for finding the basketball. It's not like he's bigger, stronger, quicker or faster than the people he's playing. It's just that oftentimes, he's more instinctive, finding the ball intuitively like a bat snatching a mosquito under the cover of darkness.
(Also, it was a dark and stormy night )
Anyway, it's that versatility that Purdue's coaches pinpointed early, when Edwards was just a prep sophomore. This is what they saw in him and they should be commended for that the same way they're condemned when a player turns out not so good.
Provided he doesn't suffer from self-destructive ego-inflation, get hurt or fall off a cliff (which I guess would qualify as getting hurt, so never mind), Edwards is going to be outstanding at Purdue. Hell, he's not far off now, and that's been a game-changer for the Boilermakers this season.
The guy Purdue needed to be a game-changer this season is coming around, too.
A.J. Hammons looks right the past two games, and Purdue needed him badly today after Isaac Haas got relegated to spectator by more of officials assuming that the Robocop-looking guy is being a bully. Maybe Painter blowing his lid in the first half today can serve as a PSA of sorts that 7-foot-2 monsters are people too and deserve the same treatment afforded those eight inches shorter and a hundred pounds lighter.
Hammons has been very average this season relative to his ability and expectations, but as Haas has sort of regressed to the freshman mean in Big Ten play the past two games, the upperclassman has responded.
Good for him.
Better for Purdue, which is 2-0 in Big Ten play and looking like the team it hasn't been the past two seasons, one that responds to jams on its home floor. Purdue's been way too beatable in Mackey Arena the past three seasons before this one, really, and it's a great sign for it to win a couple 50/50 games against peer-level squads on Keady Court.
This was a big win, too, in that Purdue is almost certainly not winning at Wisconsin and ranked Maryland will be no picnic, home floor or not.
Purdue is on schedule, if not ahead of the curve, in terms of winning winnable games before playing in some lower-percentage contests.
But with that said, Hammons and Kendall Stephens can be great equalizers - and Stephens made another big shot tonight - and so can be rebounding, which won Purdue today's game as much as anything, so here's suggesting that when the right guys are, um, right, you never know what can happen, especially if the Boilermakers can make threes at a higher rate.
Purdue has a nice little rotation carved out, seems like, and it's paying dividends.
That rotation will include Bryson Scott again after today's DNP-CD.
Scott got booted from practice yesterday and that is almost certainly why he didn't play today.
Don't worry: Nobody got hit with a ballrack. We don't know what happened, but do know that it is not uncommon for stuff like this to happen.
Don't know if Scott was being punished, in effect, for whatever did happen or sitting simply because he missed a good deal, presumably, of a pretty important practice from a preparation standpoint.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2015. 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.
