Forget the fact for a second that Purdue was down 17-4 before it had even gotten loose Sunday against Minnesota.
Unsettling as that may have been from a Boilermaker perspective, it didn't matter at the end.
What did matter was the fact that Purdue had claimed control of a game it was expected to win, probably should have won and may very well end up needing to have won, and it lost.
Credit Minnesota. It made a bunch of grown-man plays and shots all day and had the best player on the floor in a game that also had a guy score 28 points and grab 22 rebounds.
But what was more unsettling for Purdue was that after the Boilermakers held a seven-point lead with 14 minutes to go, it did so much wrong.
Forget overtime, during which the Boilermakers got routed on par with the first few minutes of regulation; Purdue had every chance to win this game in regulation.
Instead, it took bad shots, barreled into shot-blockers for de-facto turnovers and just generally didn't make the sorts of plays Minnesota did to win, even though Purdue is older, better and was playing at home.
This wasn't about any one thing, and if it was, it was Nate Mason's virtuoso performance against an opponent that can't handle him.
But the turnover bug resurfaced - more so in the impactful scoring it provided Minnesota. And Purdue didn't shoot well, probably for a variety of reasons, notably Dakota Mathias and Vincent Edwards and Carsen Edwards, who had freshman moments. He was bound to have some at some point.
But what it came down to most was answers, the word we have kept using since the horn blew on Purdue's 91-82 OT loss.
Minnesota answered Purdue over and over, making key shots, often by young players or players who don't typically make such shots, while Purdue couldn't find any answer for Mason.
Or for its own situation.
Purdue never seemed to find the right mix.
The Isaac Haas issue again was an issue and this is not an issue Matt Painter has had to wrestle with for the last time.
Haas has to be an advantage. If he's not - if he's turning the ball over like he did in the first half, when he's not handling discomfort well, when he's tentative in his decision-making - then what?
This isn't about a big-lineup model or a small-lineup model and which suits Purdue best, it's just about Haas playing well, Haas being forceful in what he does, whether it's attempting to score or just passing. There were times today where if he'd just batted entry passes back to whoever threw them without even catching the ball, Purdue might have been better served.
Again, he's gigantic and that size has to be an advantage. When it's not, then Purdue is going to have more decisions to make like the ones where Painter benched Haas for most of the second half against Notre Dame and the entirety of OT today. If playing with "ultimate size" is a problem on defense, Purdue will live with it as long as Haas is a problem for the opponent at the other end.
For a lot of reasons, Purdue dropped a difficult loss today, one it could regret in the months to come. Very different circumstances, but this felt a little like Iowa last season and when you lose home games that are there to be won, you can undercut your Big Ten title hopes considerably.
But like any loss, what's done is done and what it turns out to be depends on what Purdue makes of it. There are big games to come and if Purdue wins them in part because it doesn't jack iffy threes down two in games' deciding stretches, or doesn't fall behind 17-4 coming out of the tunnel, then there was some good in this disappointment today.
I suppose.
Unsettling as that may have been from a Boilermaker perspective, it didn't matter at the end.
What did matter was the fact that Purdue had claimed control of a game it was expected to win, probably should have won and may very well end up needing to have won, and it lost.
Credit Minnesota. It made a bunch of grown-man plays and shots all day and had the best player on the floor in a game that also had a guy score 28 points and grab 22 rebounds.
But what was more unsettling for Purdue was that after the Boilermakers held a seven-point lead with 14 minutes to go, it did so much wrong.
Forget overtime, during which the Boilermakers got routed on par with the first few minutes of regulation; Purdue had every chance to win this game in regulation.
Instead, it took bad shots, barreled into shot-blockers for de-facto turnovers and just generally didn't make the sorts of plays Minnesota did to win, even though Purdue is older, better and was playing at home.
This wasn't about any one thing, and if it was, it was Nate Mason's virtuoso performance against an opponent that can't handle him.
But the turnover bug resurfaced - more so in the impactful scoring it provided Minnesota. And Purdue didn't shoot well, probably for a variety of reasons, notably Dakota Mathias and Vincent Edwards and Carsen Edwards, who had freshman moments. He was bound to have some at some point.
But what it came down to most was answers, the word we have kept using since the horn blew on Purdue's 91-82 OT loss.
Minnesota answered Purdue over and over, making key shots, often by young players or players who don't typically make such shots, while Purdue couldn't find any answer for Mason.
Or for its own situation.
Purdue never seemed to find the right mix.
The Isaac Haas issue again was an issue and this is not an issue Matt Painter has had to wrestle with for the last time.
Haas has to be an advantage. If he's not - if he's turning the ball over like he did in the first half, when he's not handling discomfort well, when he's tentative in his decision-making - then what?
This isn't about a big-lineup model or a small-lineup model and which suits Purdue best, it's just about Haas playing well, Haas being forceful in what he does, whether it's attempting to score or just passing. There were times today where if he'd just batted entry passes back to whoever threw them without even catching the ball, Purdue might have been better served.
Again, he's gigantic and that size has to be an advantage. When it's not, then Purdue is going to have more decisions to make like the ones where Painter benched Haas for most of the second half against Notre Dame and the entirety of OT today. If playing with "ultimate size" is a problem on defense, Purdue will live with it as long as Haas is a problem for the opponent at the other end.
For a lot of reasons, Purdue dropped a difficult loss today, one it could regret in the months to come. Very different circumstances, but this felt a little like Iowa last season and when you lose home games that are there to be won, you can undercut your Big Ten title hopes considerably.
But like any loss, what's done is done and what it turns out to be depends on what Purdue makes of it. There are big games to come and if Purdue wins them in part because it doesn't jack iffy threes down two in games' deciding stretches, or doesn't fall behind 17-4 coming out of the tunnel, then there was some good in this disappointment today.
I suppose.
