IOWA CITY — There's still lots of season left to play, obviously, and don't lose sight of that.
But that Purdue team you saw at Iowa Thursday, that's not a Big Ten champion.
Never mind the fact that the Boilermakers responded to their biggest win of the season with a letdown at Iowa shortly after its presumed chief opposition atop the Big Ten, Wisconsin, did to Ohio State tonight what your garbage disposal does to old grapes.
Purdue just beat Wisconsin, soundly, looking the part of a league champion. One guy at ESPN wrote something about Purdue maybe even "winning it all."
And then the Boilermakers did this.
Look, Iowa was awesome tonight. Peter Jok was heroic. He's a great player. A bunch of no-name (to this point) freshmen made enormous plays. I only knew who Ryan Kriener was before tonight because I saw him play AAU in Milwaukee once, not because he's been particularly relevant for Iowa this season.
But as good as Iowa was, the unfortunate truth for Purdue is that Iowa's best still shouldn't have been enough. Purdue's better. It's bigger, it's older and more experienced, and it shoots better and has the best big man in college basketball, I think. And because of a lot of those things, Iowa's best would have resulted in a loss had Purdue been better when it had to be, which has become a disturbing trend around this team. Being good and being good when it matters most are two different things sometimes.
Purdue wasn't good when it mattered at Iowa, on a night when it wasn't particularly good, period, but still should have won. It missed seemingly every shot it took for a long stretch in the second half, and let the Hawkeyes make two of every three of theirs for the final 20 minutes.
And it still should have won. And it probably would have had it made point-blank looks in the post, some important free throws, any one of at least a half dozen good looks from three or secured a rebound it had every right to.
Purdue did none of those things, and because of it, suffered a loss that was kind of a cross of the Illinois letdown last season and the Michigan collapse, that game where Purdue led most of the way, then let it get away.
Matt Painter was asked this week how his team was handling life as a frontrunner.
"I think you answer that question by being able to win on the road, being able to defend your home court, and being able to string together wins," he said. "The thing that winning does is that it makes you soft and makes your forget your mistakes.
"We blew out Ohio State by one point, and you’re thinking, 'Oh man, we just beat Ohio State on the road,' but you were only one possession better than them. We were very fortunate. So it depends on how players handle that. We have to be able to play better in Iowa City than we did in Columbus. I thought we allowed the game to remain too close, and we didn’t do certain things and didn’t finish offensively. Hopefully we can learn from that."
No one's trying to miss shots, and or fumble loose balls out of bounds.
But, if there was anything shown tonight in Iowa City, it's that this Purdue team is just way too inconsistent, from game to game, possession to possession, half to half, with so much left to prove in quote-unquote winning time, to be viewed right now the same way it was after that Wisconsin game.
But that Purdue team you saw at Iowa Thursday, that's not a Big Ten champion.
Never mind the fact that the Boilermakers responded to their biggest win of the season with a letdown at Iowa shortly after its presumed chief opposition atop the Big Ten, Wisconsin, did to Ohio State tonight what your garbage disposal does to old grapes.
Purdue just beat Wisconsin, soundly, looking the part of a league champion. One guy at ESPN wrote something about Purdue maybe even "winning it all."
And then the Boilermakers did this.
Look, Iowa was awesome tonight. Peter Jok was heroic. He's a great player. A bunch of no-name (to this point) freshmen made enormous plays. I only knew who Ryan Kriener was before tonight because I saw him play AAU in Milwaukee once, not because he's been particularly relevant for Iowa this season.
But as good as Iowa was, the unfortunate truth for Purdue is that Iowa's best still shouldn't have been enough. Purdue's better. It's bigger, it's older and more experienced, and it shoots better and has the best big man in college basketball, I think. And because of a lot of those things, Iowa's best would have resulted in a loss had Purdue been better when it had to be, which has become a disturbing trend around this team. Being good and being good when it matters most are two different things sometimes.
Purdue wasn't good when it mattered at Iowa, on a night when it wasn't particularly good, period, but still should have won. It missed seemingly every shot it took for a long stretch in the second half, and let the Hawkeyes make two of every three of theirs for the final 20 minutes.
And it still should have won. And it probably would have had it made point-blank looks in the post, some important free throws, any one of at least a half dozen good looks from three or secured a rebound it had every right to.
Purdue did none of those things, and because of it, suffered a loss that was kind of a cross of the Illinois letdown last season and the Michigan collapse, that game where Purdue led most of the way, then let it get away.
Matt Painter was asked this week how his team was handling life as a frontrunner.
"I think you answer that question by being able to win on the road, being able to defend your home court, and being able to string together wins," he said. "The thing that winning does is that it makes you soft and makes your forget your mistakes.
"We blew out Ohio State by one point, and you’re thinking, 'Oh man, we just beat Ohio State on the road,' but you were only one possession better than them. We were very fortunate. So it depends on how players handle that. We have to be able to play better in Iowa City than we did in Columbus. I thought we allowed the game to remain too close, and we didn’t do certain things and didn’t finish offensively. Hopefully we can learn from that."
No one's trying to miss shots, and or fumble loose balls out of bounds.
But, if there was anything shown tonight in Iowa City, it's that this Purdue team is just way too inconsistent, from game to game, possession to possession, half to half, with so much left to prove in quote-unquote winning time, to be viewed right now the same way it was after that Wisconsin game.
