MINNEAPOLIS - At the end of a weird game, something really weird happened.
Purdue had a chance to tie or win a game it had no business being in position to tie or win and it got the ball to Vince Edwards on the baseline a few feet from the rim.
He went up to try to tie the game and Maurice Walker closed in. There was an engagement. The ball came out. Everyone and everything stopped.
Jon Octeus said he thought he heard a whistle. Minnesota players said the same according to reports from the other side of the aisle.
Maybe that whistle was just a figment of their imaginations spawned by assumption.
"Everybody was shocked," Edwards said, "but you have to keep playing. If the whistle didn't blow, don't stop, and we all stopped. I think the whole arena, everybody in this gym, was shocked there was no call."
It was strange, play stopped for a matter of seconds, at least until Andre Hollins had the presence of mind to pick up the ball. Edwards stood there and looked over his shoulder at Hollins as if to say, "Huh?"
The crowd had even gone quiet for a second, unsure whether Walker had just made a game-saving defensive play or committed a potentially game-tying foul.
It was just weird, a fitting ending to a weird game, a game of abberations as I called it in the Wrap Video before.
I can't comment on the play. It all happened too fast live and Edwards' back was turned to my perch up in the Williams Arena balcony, so I have no idea what happened, except that it was weird.
But it was a position Purdue didn't deserve to be in, not after it's almost unbelievable rash of turnovers not just to start the second half, but throughout the game, the Gophers' game-turning run just being the worst of it.
This didn't stand to reason - a team that had been keeping a pretty calm head about it lately just kind of checking out there for a while.
The reason I used the term "aberration" with this game is because I don't think how it played out represented any sort of new reality for Purdue - whether it be bad in terms of turnovers or good in terms of shooting - and thus is no indicator of things to come, for better or worse.
So much about college sports is just about one snapshot in time, there being wildcards always on the table due to it being a game played by the non-static beings that are young people.
Purdue gave one away today in a way that almost certainly won't repeat itself any time soon, then almost took it back on the back of a couple of banked-in three-pointers. Under the same circumstances, that happens the same way four times out of a hundred maybe.
So what the hell just happened in the Barn?
I don't know, but it was sure weird.
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 had a chance to tie or win a game it had no business being in position to tie or win and it got the ball to Vince Edwards on the baseline a few feet from the rim.
He went up to try to tie the game and Maurice Walker closed in. There was an engagement. The ball came out. Everyone and everything stopped.
Jon Octeus said he thought he heard a whistle. Minnesota players said the same according to reports from the other side of the aisle.
Maybe that whistle was just a figment of their imaginations spawned by assumption.
"Everybody was shocked," Edwards said, "but you have to keep playing. If the whistle didn't blow, don't stop, and we all stopped. I think the whole arena, everybody in this gym, was shocked there was no call."
It was strange, play stopped for a matter of seconds, at least until Andre Hollins had the presence of mind to pick up the ball. Edwards stood there and looked over his shoulder at Hollins as if to say, "Huh?"
The crowd had even gone quiet for a second, unsure whether Walker had just made a game-saving defensive play or committed a potentially game-tying foul.
It was just weird, a fitting ending to a weird game, a game of abberations as I called it in the Wrap Video before.
I can't comment on the play. It all happened too fast live and Edwards' back was turned to my perch up in the Williams Arena balcony, so I have no idea what happened, except that it was weird.
But it was a position Purdue didn't deserve to be in, not after it's almost unbelievable rash of turnovers not just to start the second half, but throughout the game, the Gophers' game-turning run just being the worst of it.
This didn't stand to reason - a team that had been keeping a pretty calm head about it lately just kind of checking out there for a while.
The reason I used the term "aberration" with this game is because I don't think how it played out represented any sort of new reality for Purdue - whether it be bad in terms of turnovers or good in terms of shooting - and thus is no indicator of things to come, for better or worse.
So much about college sports is just about one snapshot in time, there being wildcards always on the table due to it being a game played by the non-static beings that are young people.
Purdue gave one away today in a way that almost certainly won't repeat itself any time soon, then almost took it back on the back of a couple of banked-in three-pointers. Under the same circumstances, that happens the same way four times out of a hundred maybe.
So what the hell just happened in the Barn?
I don't know, but it was sure weird.
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.
