OMAHA - OK, we're settled in here at the CenturyLink Center here in Omaha smelling like who-knows-what after a nice hour-long stroll through the Omaha zoo on a warm afternoon.
There's about two hours 'til game time for Purdue and Saint Mary's with the number of times in my life I'll have to both type and pronounce the word "Dellavedova" thankfully dwindling.
As I type this, the Fighting Norfolks of Norfolk State have heavily favored Missouri sweating, tied up at the half.
It has not been a good day here for 10 seeds, as Virginia lost to Florida early in the day by about 70 points.
Purdue is a 10 seed, also, for the first time in 13 years.
But I think the Boilermakers will fare better than the Cavaliers - admittedly, not saying much - and I'm gonna use this blog to explain why.
I've been split on which Purdue will show up, as have a lot of people who've followed this team closely.
But I do genuinely expect to see a team very eager to represent itself well here, a team with something to prove after nearly missing this thing - and by nearly, I mean the position they were in a month prior to Selection Sunday.
And I just don’t know about Saint Mary's, quite honestly.
The one thing that has so often spelled doom for Purdue in the postseason has been bodies.
Xavier had them; so did Connecticut and Duke. Purdue lost to VCU last season because it couldn't contain the dribble to save itself and because it was on the wrong end of a buzz saw.
But even the Rams had some big dudes and some pro bodies to them.
I look at Saint Mary's and I see a lot of a gangly. Rob Jones is a horse, but he's a couple inches short for his position. Northwestern defector Kyle Rowley is gigantic, but he doesn't do anything.
Purdue's been playing all season against Jared Sullinger, Meyers Leonard, Draymond Green and Cody Zeller. I think they can probably manage on the inside tonight.
We've talked about a Big Ten team beating a WCC team never being a real upset in most cases, no matter the seeding.
Saint Mary's is good, mind you. But when I see the Gaels posing for a team picture at center court yesterday during their open practice, they looked to me like a bunch of NCAA Tournament amateurs, which doesn't make sense because they were in the Sweet 16 24 months ago. I could be completely wrong.
I look at Saint Mary's and I just see a team Purdue can beat if it plays hard, tough and smart.
This might be a really high-scoring game and in this Bizzarro World season for Purdue - one that's shown us a Boilermaker team that's more likely to outscore somebody than stop them - that may actually a good thing. This game could be like Iona. Or it could be like Baylor two years ago, a game where Purdue just asserted itself from the jump and dominated.
I could be completely wrong. Trying to assess a team's psyche is an exercise in futility if there ever was one.
But this is just the impression I get.
Enjoy the game, folks.
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