IOWA CITY — First of all, let me say this: Iowa is really good.
Fran McCaffery has himself one of those silver-bullet-type teams with a ton of seniors and a ton of synergy, on top of a great deal of ability. And they have an absolute Terminator in Jarrod Uthoff, one of those scouting report-destroyers who simply cannot be matched up with using conventional or particularly legal methods.
The Hawkeyes are great, have to be to have done to Purdue what they now done to Purdue twice, over 40 minutes of second-half basketball.
In those two second halves: 100 points, right on the head.
Purdue is a good team, but one with holes. And in these two games, Iowa has pin-pointed those holes and run through them over and over again.
Purdue's a particularly matchups-vulnerable team, with all its extremes. Iowa is almost a worst-case matchup for the Boilermakers. It has everything that's problematic for Purdue.
But the simple reality is that all that being said, if Purdue controls its own business better, it might not have two wins over these guys, but it'd have no worse than one.
Two Boilermaker players were good today: P.J. Thompson and Vince Edwards.
Purdue has three active upperclassmen currently and none of them played particularly well. Caleb Swanigan got off to a nice start, then plateaued. Since that quietly terrific game at Rutgers, he's had a difficult time putting the ball in the basket.
And I thought Purdue gave him no chance on defense by having him on Uthoff instead of Rapheal Davis. I get that Peter Jok has been the guy who's raised Iowa to another level, but Uthoff is the foundation all other levels are built on, and Purdue let him do pretty much whatever he wanted today against a defender who couldn't stay in front of him and shouldn't have been expected to.
It's a process for Swanigan being able to guard certain players. He's not there yet, not that anybody can guard Uthoff.
(Not that Davis slowed Uthoff in the first game, but he'd have stood a better chance, IMO.)
Matt Painter talks all the time about not letting great players "get their heads up." Well, Uthoff's eyes might have lit up when he could shoot threes over Swanigan early in the first, then drive past him for assists early in the second.
Is it ideal then to have Vince Edwards guard Peter Jok? Nope, but some poisons taste better than others. That's the nature of this Iowa team vs. this Purdue team.
The reality, too, though is that Purdue again undercut Purdue. Purdue needs poise; it needs a stabilizing presence, and as solid as Edwards and Thompson were and have been, Purdue does not have a calming influence. Its three seniors today totaled 10 turnovers, four of them by Davis, who was exposed to a certain degree as a ball-handler today. Never been his strength, particularly against pressure. He is too good a player to play the way he's playing on offense right now.
Can't say Purdue played him too much today, because Purdue is down a shooting guard, as is now during Kendall Stephens absence.
Back to matchups: So much of this season's narrative has been based on the need to "flip" those, to expose smaller, quicker defenders against physicality. Past two games, Swanigan has had such matchups and is now 4-of-19 shooting in those games. Purdue's goal is to get him high-percentage looks. It's doing that. He's got to put them down. Simple as that. Again, and I keep saying this, he's too good a player to be shooting 38.5 percent in Big Ten play. That number, to me, is inconceivable.
Anyway, now Purdue moves on to Minnesota, a team that's better in the Big Ten than Rutgers and no one else and would be a safe pick to go winless in conference play if not for remaining games against Rutgers.
It's only Jan. 24, and we can only say, 'it's only …' for so long, but the Big Ten race is starting to look like Iowa's and Iowa's alone.
I know IU is unbeaten as well, but compare the bodies of work to this point. Indiana has yet to play a contender. Iowa has already swept Purdue and Michigan State.
They are sitting pretty.
Iowa's really good.
Purdue, to win games like this, has to be a lot better.
Fran McCaffery has himself one of those silver-bullet-type teams with a ton of seniors and a ton of synergy, on top of a great deal of ability. And they have an absolute Terminator in Jarrod Uthoff, one of those scouting report-destroyers who simply cannot be matched up with using conventional or particularly legal methods.
The Hawkeyes are great, have to be to have done to Purdue what they now done to Purdue twice, over 40 minutes of second-half basketball.
In those two second halves: 100 points, right on the head.
Purdue is a good team, but one with holes. And in these two games, Iowa has pin-pointed those holes and run through them over and over again.
Purdue's a particularly matchups-vulnerable team, with all its extremes. Iowa is almost a worst-case matchup for the Boilermakers. It has everything that's problematic for Purdue.
But the simple reality is that all that being said, if Purdue controls its own business better, it might not have two wins over these guys, but it'd have no worse than one.
Two Boilermaker players were good today: P.J. Thompson and Vince Edwards.
Purdue has three active upperclassmen currently and none of them played particularly well. Caleb Swanigan got off to a nice start, then plateaued. Since that quietly terrific game at Rutgers, he's had a difficult time putting the ball in the basket.
And I thought Purdue gave him no chance on defense by having him on Uthoff instead of Rapheal Davis. I get that Peter Jok has been the guy who's raised Iowa to another level, but Uthoff is the foundation all other levels are built on, and Purdue let him do pretty much whatever he wanted today against a defender who couldn't stay in front of him and shouldn't have been expected to.
It's a process for Swanigan being able to guard certain players. He's not there yet, not that anybody can guard Uthoff.
(Not that Davis slowed Uthoff in the first game, but he'd have stood a better chance, IMO.)
Matt Painter talks all the time about not letting great players "get their heads up." Well, Uthoff's eyes might have lit up when he could shoot threes over Swanigan early in the first, then drive past him for assists early in the second.
Is it ideal then to have Vince Edwards guard Peter Jok? Nope, but some poisons taste better than others. That's the nature of this Iowa team vs. this Purdue team.
The reality, too, though is that Purdue again undercut Purdue. Purdue needs poise; it needs a stabilizing presence, and as solid as Edwards and Thompson were and have been, Purdue does not have a calming influence. Its three seniors today totaled 10 turnovers, four of them by Davis, who was exposed to a certain degree as a ball-handler today. Never been his strength, particularly against pressure. He is too good a player to play the way he's playing on offense right now.
Can't say Purdue played him too much today, because Purdue is down a shooting guard, as is now during Kendall Stephens absence.
Back to matchups: So much of this season's narrative has been based on the need to "flip" those, to expose smaller, quicker defenders against physicality. Past two games, Swanigan has had such matchups and is now 4-of-19 shooting in those games. Purdue's goal is to get him high-percentage looks. It's doing that. He's got to put them down. Simple as that. Again, and I keep saying this, he's too good a player to be shooting 38.5 percent in Big Ten play. That number, to me, is inconceivable.
Anyway, now Purdue moves on to Minnesota, a team that's better in the Big Ten than Rutgers and no one else and would be a safe pick to go winless in conference play if not for remaining games against Rutgers.
It's only Jan. 24, and we can only say, 'it's only …' for so long, but the Big Ten race is starting to look like Iowa's and Iowa's alone.
I know IU is unbeaten as well, but compare the bodies of work to this point. Indiana has yet to play a contender. Iowa has already swept Purdue and Michigan State.
They are sitting pretty.
Iowa's really good.
Purdue, to win games like this, has to be a lot better.
