INDIANAPOLIS - Remember that Purdue team, the one that answered with an uppercut each time it took a jab against BYU, the one that pounded Missouri into baby food a day prior and showed such toughness and resolve (and good sense) a few days later against North Carolina State?
Where'd that team go?
Because what you've seen since hasn't been it.
Purdue's post-game press conference following Saturday's 94-63 bludgeoning - there are few better words in the English language than "bludgeoning" by the way - against Notre Dame could have been pulled right out of last year's playbook.
"We have to play harder," followed by the obligatory post-game nods to bad shots, turnovers, etc.
I repeat: Where did that team go?
Purdue has come apart at the seams in the face of deficits its past two outings, unraveling like a roll of Charmin being lobbed into your neighbor's tree.
Why? Better question, why now and not before?
Saturday night's outcome from a won-loss perspective is no surprise. Notre Dame has too many offensive weapons for a perimeter-quickness-deficient Purdue team to hang with in man defense. Purdue's best hope was to absorb that mismatch at one end and crush Notre Dame in the post at the other. After a few OK minutes, it all evaporated.
It's no surprise Notre Dame won.
It is a surprise it did so by four touchdowns and a field goal, because Notre Dame is good but not 31-points-better-than-Purdue good.
No one in the country should be 31 points better than any team of a comparable level. I always say after blowouts and I'll say it again: Notre Dame beat Purdue; Purdue blew Purdue out.
This is a better group than those from the past two seasons, brighter, more mature, more conscientious, more engaged guys.
Yet Saturday night, and to a lesser extent last Saturday night, saw a better team falling into the same trappings as those inferior ones.
Youth is an issue, but how much of an issue? If you want to itemize things, freshmen have played a role in some of the anecdotal examples, but not even the lion's share.
If you'd told me prior to the season that A.J. Hammons would be averaging less than 10 points and shooting closer to 45 percent from the floor and that Kendall Stephens would come off the bench three games in a row when completely healthy, I'd have pegged Purdue's record through 12 games to be closer to 4-8 than 8-4.
That's Purdue's reality, though.
Rapheal Davis and Jon Octeus are having solid seasons and are playing like veterans, but no other player returning from last season can honestly say they're playing at a higher level than they were last season. In a season in which Purdue really needed a bunch of guys to play older than they are, few are.
Purdue learned early in the season the benefits of just doing simple stuff - passing, working for the best shot, taking care of the basketball, even when turnovers were a real problem.
Yet, those are greater issues for Purdue now than they were before, which doesn't make any sense.
Last year, players fought Matt Painter. Barely even hid it.
This year's group seems different.
They're just not looking different right now.
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.
Where'd that team go?
Because what you've seen since hasn't been it.
Purdue's post-game press conference following Saturday's 94-63 bludgeoning - there are few better words in the English language than "bludgeoning" by the way - against Notre Dame could have been pulled right out of last year's playbook.
"We have to play harder," followed by the obligatory post-game nods to bad shots, turnovers, etc.
I repeat: Where did that team go?
Purdue has come apart at the seams in the face of deficits its past two outings, unraveling like a roll of Charmin being lobbed into your neighbor's tree.
Why? Better question, why now and not before?
Saturday night's outcome from a won-loss perspective is no surprise. Notre Dame has too many offensive weapons for a perimeter-quickness-deficient Purdue team to hang with in man defense. Purdue's best hope was to absorb that mismatch at one end and crush Notre Dame in the post at the other. After a few OK minutes, it all evaporated.
It's no surprise Notre Dame won.
It is a surprise it did so by four touchdowns and a field goal, because Notre Dame is good but not 31-points-better-than-Purdue good.
No one in the country should be 31 points better than any team of a comparable level. I always say after blowouts and I'll say it again: Notre Dame beat Purdue; Purdue blew Purdue out.
This is a better group than those from the past two seasons, brighter, more mature, more conscientious, more engaged guys.
Yet Saturday night, and to a lesser extent last Saturday night, saw a better team falling into the same trappings as those inferior ones.
Youth is an issue, but how much of an issue? If you want to itemize things, freshmen have played a role in some of the anecdotal examples, but not even the lion's share.
If you'd told me prior to the season that A.J. Hammons would be averaging less than 10 points and shooting closer to 45 percent from the floor and that Kendall Stephens would come off the bench three games in a row when completely healthy, I'd have pegged Purdue's record through 12 games to be closer to 4-8 than 8-4.
That's Purdue's reality, though.
Rapheal Davis and Jon Octeus are having solid seasons and are playing like veterans, but no other player returning from last season can honestly say they're playing at a higher level than they were last season. In a season in which Purdue really needed a bunch of guys to play older than they are, few are.
Purdue learned early in the season the benefits of just doing simple stuff - passing, working for the best shot, taking care of the basketball, even when turnovers were a real problem.
Yet, those are greater issues for Purdue now than they were before, which doesn't make any sense.
Last year, players fought Matt Painter. Barely even hid it.
This year's group seems different.
They're just not looking different right now.
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.
