LOUISVILLE - Purdue's not an elite team right now, not one of college basketball's best teams, as it aspires to be and as some seem to view it.
Nothing to be ashamed of. There's nothing wrong with just being good.
But I think we can all agree that Purdue can be better than just good.
It can be that, as soon as it allows itself to be.
Look, this was going to be a process all along. Purdue had more questions coming into the season than I think people realized.
But Purdue didn't lose tonight at Louisville, or earlier in the season against Villanova, or almost a couple weeks ago against Georgia State because of those questions.
When Purdue has struggled, it's been Purdue's own doing.
At the risk of hyperbole, this turnover thing is the greatest crisis a team has ever faced in the history of basketball.
Like I said, don't want to overstate it.
But it is an urgent concern, an acute problem Purdue must find an answer to before it costs it more than just high-level résumé games - as if that's not bad enough - but saddles the Boilermakers with the scarlet letters of bad losses.
It can happen, and might if this group isn't more careful.
I think it's a tremendous irony that for a team that's still framed as having deficient guard play, that its greatest issue is turnovers and the guards have very little to do with it.
Caleb Swanigan's turnover issue, even with six tonight, is at a more acceptable level than it was a year ago when you consider his usage. Isaac Haas has taken a step backward of late after a great start to the season. He only had one tonight, officially, though no one's going to argue he handled Louisville's trapping and helping particularly well.
But it's Vincent Edwards who not only is turning the ball over too much, but he might be putting himself in funks by committing them right out of the chute.
Purdue is simply not allowing itself to be more than a good team.
This is not a personnel issue, as Matt Painter always rightfully says his team's press/poise issues from a year ago were. The press has been a non-issue. Purdue is not turning the ball over because its players are incapable of properly passing, catching and dribbling.
That's the razor-blade pill is swallowing. It's sutured its mortal wound from a year ago, then is simply frittering away all the benefits by turning it over wholesale in the halfcourt, where this group as it's constituted has to make its living.
Give Louisville credit. They're good on defense. Not on offense, but on defense. And their physical dimensions are difficult.
But this was another case tonight where maybe you could take half Purdue's turnovers and attribute them to the opponent, then the other half and attribute them to the Boilermakers. This looks like carelessness as much as anything.
There's no good time for turnovers. But Purdue is committing them in bulk in first halves and that's keeping it from playing from ahead. One would think that the team with great big men who draw a lot of fouls would enjoy playing with leads in games like this.
Then there's these second-half stretches that are just kneecapping Purdue. Just like the Villanova game, Purdue asserted itself defensively when it had to at Louisville, then turned the ball over, over and over. You hope for Purdue's sake that the two aren't connected, that this team isn't just incapable of being good on defense and solid on offense at the same time.
Purdue can be good. It has good players, players who've proven themselves for the most part.
But the Boilermakers won't be as good as they can be until they just get out of their own way.
Nothing to be ashamed of. There's nothing wrong with just being good.
But I think we can all agree that Purdue can be better than just good.
It can be that, as soon as it allows itself to be.
Look, this was going to be a process all along. Purdue had more questions coming into the season than I think people realized.
But Purdue didn't lose tonight at Louisville, or earlier in the season against Villanova, or almost a couple weeks ago against Georgia State because of those questions.
When Purdue has struggled, it's been Purdue's own doing.
At the risk of hyperbole, this turnover thing is the greatest crisis a team has ever faced in the history of basketball.
Like I said, don't want to overstate it.
But it is an urgent concern, an acute problem Purdue must find an answer to before it costs it more than just high-level résumé games - as if that's not bad enough - but saddles the Boilermakers with the scarlet letters of bad losses.
It can happen, and might if this group isn't more careful.
I think it's a tremendous irony that for a team that's still framed as having deficient guard play, that its greatest issue is turnovers and the guards have very little to do with it.
Caleb Swanigan's turnover issue, even with six tonight, is at a more acceptable level than it was a year ago when you consider his usage. Isaac Haas has taken a step backward of late after a great start to the season. He only had one tonight, officially, though no one's going to argue he handled Louisville's trapping and helping particularly well.
But it's Vincent Edwards who not only is turning the ball over too much, but he might be putting himself in funks by committing them right out of the chute.
Purdue is simply not allowing itself to be more than a good team.
This is not a personnel issue, as Matt Painter always rightfully says his team's press/poise issues from a year ago were. The press has been a non-issue. Purdue is not turning the ball over because its players are incapable of properly passing, catching and dribbling.
That's the razor-blade pill is swallowing. It's sutured its mortal wound from a year ago, then is simply frittering away all the benefits by turning it over wholesale in the halfcourt, where this group as it's constituted has to make its living.
Give Louisville credit. They're good on defense. Not on offense, but on defense. And their physical dimensions are difficult.
But this was another case tonight where maybe you could take half Purdue's turnovers and attribute them to the opponent, then the other half and attribute them to the Boilermakers. This looks like carelessness as much as anything.
There's no good time for turnovers. But Purdue is committing them in bulk in first halves and that's keeping it from playing from ahead. One would think that the team with great big men who draw a lot of fouls would enjoy playing with leads in games like this.
Then there's these second-half stretches that are just kneecapping Purdue. Just like the Villanova game, Purdue asserted itself defensively when it had to at Louisville, then turned the ball over, over and over. You hope for Purdue's sake that the two aren't connected, that this team isn't just incapable of being good on defense and solid on offense at the same time.
Purdue can be good. It has good players, players who've proven themselves for the most part.
But the Boilermakers won't be as good as they can be until they just get out of their own way.
