I've been wrong a lot this basketball season.
Making predictions, I am literally just throwing darts. I'm not going to lie about that.
In my defense, this year's Purdue team has been such a wild card, then I'm not sure anybody else could have done better.
Saturday, I couldn't have been more wrong.
I expected Purdue to beat West Virginia in Mackey Arena, but I figured you'd be watching one of those two-possession games with five minutes to go, the ones where the Boilermakers have to make free throws - and give their fans coronaries - to win in the final minute or two.
Nope. Purdue kicked the you-know-what out of West Virginia and it did it without playing unbelievably well, amazingly.
Sure, that's a bit of an indictment of a Mountaineer team that looks like it's ysucking Bob Huggins' will to live.
"(Shoot)," Huggins said after the game, when asked about three more games being on the Purdue-West Virginia schedule in coming years, "I might not be alive then."
Yeah, West Virginia isn't great, but Purdue wasn't either - at least not from start to finish - against the Mountaineers.
It turned the ball way too much. Way too much.
And it got outrebounded in the first half before trying harder in the second and getting the desired result.
Purdue didn't, or couldn't, get much going for A.J. Hammons inside. He scored four points. And point guard Ronnie Johnson handed over the ball like Halloween candy.
Think about how integral those two players have been in Purdue's success, or lack thereof, this season. Purdue just won a game by damn near 30 without them doing a whole.
Why?
D.J. Byrd: Remember that turnaround last Christmas? Yeah, it happened again. He's shooting a mere 48 percent from three-point range since the start of Big Ten play.
Call it the Christmas spirit, I guess.
Anthony Johnson: There might have been no more welcome sight Saturday than that of the sophomore guard playing well. He's really struggling for the better part of this season, even since starting off well, and he's just in a position where Purdue needs productive minutes from him. In the first half especially against West Virginia, Purdue got that and then some.
Sandi Marcus: Purdue wins this game with or without the backup big man, but it was certainly a positive thing to see him pulled out of the attic to provide some very good minutes against an opponent that could throw some big bodies out there.
Rapheal Davis: Wow.
Shooting: Matt Painter doesn't care much how many threes his team takes as long as they're acceptable ones. It was an odd game in that Hammons didn't get many good touches inside, yet Purdue didn't shoot many threes either. But it was the consummate less-is-more game, as the Boilermakers made 8-of-11. That Byrd went all NBA Jam against the Mountaineers.
Defense: West Virginia is not a good offensive basketball team. But it is a real-life basketball team with real-life players, many of whom are fairly talented. Purdue dominated them, continuing a stretch of games in which the Boilermakers have quietly become pretty salty on defense. Let's see what happens at Michigan now.
And that brings us to where Purdue is right now.
No one would admit it at the time, but these past three games have been crucial Purdue due to their winnability quotient*.
Purdue needed wins and needed momentum and got both by beating two winless (at the time) Big Ten teams and a struggling non-conference team.
Now things get hairy. Purdue goes to Michigan Thursday.
Michigan is very, very good at basketball right now.
So we'll see.
But Purdue looks good right now, like a wholly different team than it did six weeks ago.
What else Purdue looks like is a team that's going to beat some people in the Big Ten this year. And I don't just mean the few remaining games in which it'll be a favorite. I mean it'll beat some people, good people.
It has to, obviously, and now more than at any point this season, Purdue looks up to it.
* Totally made-up word. Trademark pending.
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.
This post was edited on 1/20 12:56 PM by Alan_GoldandBlack.com
Making predictions, I am literally just throwing darts. I'm not going to lie about that.
In my defense, this year's Purdue team has been such a wild card, then I'm not sure anybody else could have done better.
Saturday, I couldn't have been more wrong.
I expected Purdue to beat West Virginia in Mackey Arena, but I figured you'd be watching one of those two-possession games with five minutes to go, the ones where the Boilermakers have to make free throws - and give their fans coronaries - to win in the final minute or two.
Nope. Purdue kicked the you-know-what out of West Virginia and it did it without playing unbelievably well, amazingly.
Sure, that's a bit of an indictment of a Mountaineer team that looks like it's ysucking Bob Huggins' will to live.
"(Shoot)," Huggins said after the game, when asked about three more games being on the Purdue-West Virginia schedule in coming years, "I might not be alive then."
Yeah, West Virginia isn't great, but Purdue wasn't either - at least not from start to finish - against the Mountaineers.
It turned the ball way too much. Way too much.
And it got outrebounded in the first half before trying harder in the second and getting the desired result.
Purdue didn't, or couldn't, get much going for A.J. Hammons inside. He scored four points. And point guard Ronnie Johnson handed over the ball like Halloween candy.
Think about how integral those two players have been in Purdue's success, or lack thereof, this season. Purdue just won a game by damn near 30 without them doing a whole.
Why?
D.J. Byrd: Remember that turnaround last Christmas? Yeah, it happened again. He's shooting a mere 48 percent from three-point range since the start of Big Ten play.
Call it the Christmas spirit, I guess.
Anthony Johnson: There might have been no more welcome sight Saturday than that of the sophomore guard playing well. He's really struggling for the better part of this season, even since starting off well, and he's just in a position where Purdue needs productive minutes from him. In the first half especially against West Virginia, Purdue got that and then some.
Sandi Marcus: Purdue wins this game with or without the backup big man, but it was certainly a positive thing to see him pulled out of the attic to provide some very good minutes against an opponent that could throw some big bodies out there.
Rapheal Davis: Wow.
Shooting: Matt Painter doesn't care much how many threes his team takes as long as they're acceptable ones. It was an odd game in that Hammons didn't get many good touches inside, yet Purdue didn't shoot many threes either. But it was the consummate less-is-more game, as the Boilermakers made 8-of-11. That Byrd went all NBA Jam against the Mountaineers.
Defense: West Virginia is not a good offensive basketball team. But it is a real-life basketball team with real-life players, many of whom are fairly talented. Purdue dominated them, continuing a stretch of games in which the Boilermakers have quietly become pretty salty on defense. Let's see what happens at Michigan now.
And that brings us to where Purdue is right now.
No one would admit it at the time, but these past three games have been crucial Purdue due to their winnability quotient*.
Purdue needed wins and needed momentum and got both by beating two winless (at the time) Big Ten teams and a struggling non-conference team.
Now things get hairy. Purdue goes to Michigan Thursday.
Michigan is very, very good at basketball right now.
So we'll see.
But Purdue looks good right now, like a wholly different team than it did six weeks ago.
What else Purdue looks like is a team that's going to beat some people in the Big Ten this year. And I don't just mean the few remaining games in which it'll be a favorite. I mean it'll beat some people, good people.
It has to, obviously, and now more than at any point this season, Purdue looks up to it.
* Totally made-up word. Trademark pending.
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.
This post was edited on 1/20 12:56 PM by Alan_GoldandBlack.com
