COLUMBUS, Ohio - Look, there's no shame in losing at Ohio State, not the way the Buckeyes were playing leading into Saturday's win over Purdue, not in that building, where only one Boilermaker team - albeit a red-hot and very special one - has won.
But the way Purdue lost to Ohio State is what should trigger its collective gag reflex.
It's mid-February and the Boilermakers fell apart in a close game every bit as spectacularly as they might have in mid-November.
Regression comes in many forms for a team that's not good enough to subject itself to whims.
A.J. Hammons is great the past couple games, then locks up with the ball in the final 18 minutes every bit as much as what happened at Northwestern. Jay Simpson plays well the past few games, then can't score a couple times again from a foot away.
Kendall Stephens shoots Purdue into the game, then right out of it.
What a dichotomy in his game today. On four or five plays, he gave us reason to believe he can be great player one day; on four or five others, he showed perfectly how much growing up as a player he still has to do. What you also saw from Stephens is some maturity off the floor in his unprompted post-game assumption of blame.
Love the confidence from him at this stage of his career, but there's a fine line between confident and reckless. He'll learn. Unlike a lot of players his age, self-awareness is something he possesses, though maybe not always in the moment.
Matt Painter was very positive about his point guard play - thought with the caveat, "We've really fought those guys to sacrifice for our team " - but turnovers simply crushed Purdue in this game, 15 more of them, a third of those in the span of seven possessions, effectively taking the Boilermakers out of the game as soon as they got back into it. Of those five, three were committed by Hammons, one by Ronnie Johnson and one by Terone Johnson, who also had a shot blocked - such an effort by Shannon Scott that he actually hurt himself - that led to an Ohio State run-out.
Again with the turnovers, it wasn't the number so much as the impact: Eighteen Buckeye points.
I hate to keep saying the same stuff over and over here, but these guys have to grow up. Matt Painter is right when he points out that there are a lot of teams playing young players and winning - hell, it's been done at Purdue before - so it's not unreasonable to expect better.
You can blame Painter all you want and obviously when teams struggle, it's on everybody, but being on the business end of a 19-4 run to end a game speaks to the fabric of those playing the game, same way it did two months ago.
Our signature here has kind of become: Purdue needs to be better.
What it needs to do first is grow up.
It has a week to take a step in the right direction because this weekend's IU game is an important one, for so many reasons.
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.
But the way Purdue lost to Ohio State is what should trigger its collective gag reflex.
It's mid-February and the Boilermakers fell apart in a close game every bit as spectacularly as they might have in mid-November.
Regression comes in many forms for a team that's not good enough to subject itself to whims.
A.J. Hammons is great the past couple games, then locks up with the ball in the final 18 minutes every bit as much as what happened at Northwestern. Jay Simpson plays well the past few games, then can't score a couple times again from a foot away.
Kendall Stephens shoots Purdue into the game, then right out of it.
What a dichotomy in his game today. On four or five plays, he gave us reason to believe he can be great player one day; on four or five others, he showed perfectly how much growing up as a player he still has to do. What you also saw from Stephens is some maturity off the floor in his unprompted post-game assumption of blame.
Love the confidence from him at this stage of his career, but there's a fine line between confident and reckless. He'll learn. Unlike a lot of players his age, self-awareness is something he possesses, though maybe not always in the moment.
Matt Painter was very positive about his point guard play - thought with the caveat, "We've really fought those guys to sacrifice for our team " - but turnovers simply crushed Purdue in this game, 15 more of them, a third of those in the span of seven possessions, effectively taking the Boilermakers out of the game as soon as they got back into it. Of those five, three were committed by Hammons, one by Ronnie Johnson and one by Terone Johnson, who also had a shot blocked - such an effort by Shannon Scott that he actually hurt himself - that led to an Ohio State run-out.
Again with the turnovers, it wasn't the number so much as the impact: Eighteen Buckeye points.
I hate to keep saying the same stuff over and over here, but these guys have to grow up. Matt Painter is right when he points out that there are a lot of teams playing young players and winning - hell, it's been done at Purdue before - so it's not unreasonable to expect better.
You can blame Painter all you want and obviously when teams struggle, it's on everybody, but being on the business end of a 19-4 run to end a game speaks to the fabric of those playing the game, same way it did two months ago.
Our signature here has kind of become: Purdue needs to be better.
What it needs to do first is grow up.
It has a week to take a step in the right direction because this weekend's IU game is an important one, for so many reasons.
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.
