INDIANAPOLIS — A few final musings from Purdues' 87-78 overtime loss to Ohio State at the Big Ten Tournament, because I know how you like musings ...
• Fitting that this third meeting between these two very equal teams came down to overtime. The Big Ten is no joke. That Ohio State team lost four straight to end the regular season, remember. That's more a credit to the league than an indictment of the Buckeyes.
• You can look at the glass being half full if you want and that's fine. A lot of positives in that second half.
But the NCAA Tournament starts this weekend, and the next loss ends your season, so it would seem appropriate to pine more over the stuff that can lead to losing rather than focusing on almost winning, but perhaps that's just me.
That first half was pretty shocking, to be honest, because Purdue's not really had many like it, and for it to happen this deep into the season to start the postseason, no less, that would seem troubling.
But as many have pointed out, the Elite Eight team from a few years back got punted right away in the Big Ten Tournament. The Hummel-less team years ago got obliterated at the Big Ten Tournament, then won a couple tough NCAA games.
Maybe this case scare them straight on the defensive end and with the turnovers and rebounding, and the second half can serve as the good cop to the first half's bad cop.
• Once Purdue earned itself a re-do with its second-half comeback, it lost this game on its first two possessions of OT, if you ask me. The turnover by Eric Hunter and the transition miss by Trevion Williams trying to make a tough finish off a golden opportunity. They set a bad, bad tone for overtime, put Purdue in a hole and may have energized Ohio State. Purdue had momentum at that point and those plays sucked the air from it. Williams' miss led to a breakaway for C.J. Walker, so that wasn't just essentially a turnover, it was essentially a pick-six.
• In hindsight — and I can't say hindsight, because I said this before the game — the 5 seed might have been better for Purdue, at least as it pertained to winning this one game. Ohio State looked sharp out of the gate and you can't tell me playing a game yesterday — and playing a game on that floor — didn't have something to do with it.
Doesn't matter now and it's far from the reason Purdue lost but I do think Ohio State had a slight advantage in that sense.
• I thought it was Purdue's night when it had Trevion Williams and Zach Edey in together for one possession and scored on it before Painter got Edey the hell out before they had to defend. That was far from the most important question to ask after the game so I didn't, but that was interesting. I don't know if Painter put in Edey to guard the inbound on D, then Iet them roll for one offensive possession after or what.
• Credit to Ohio State's frontcourt for making so many jumpers. Seth Towns was huge for them and Kyle Young obviously was the head of the first-half buzzsaw.
• Felt so good, to be honest, to see fans at the game again today. We're getting through this.
Thanks for reading, everybody, and have good night.
• Fitting that this third meeting between these two very equal teams came down to overtime. The Big Ten is no joke. That Ohio State team lost four straight to end the regular season, remember. That's more a credit to the league than an indictment of the Buckeyes.
• You can look at the glass being half full if you want and that's fine. A lot of positives in that second half.
But the NCAA Tournament starts this weekend, and the next loss ends your season, so it would seem appropriate to pine more over the stuff that can lead to losing rather than focusing on almost winning, but perhaps that's just me.
That first half was pretty shocking, to be honest, because Purdue's not really had many like it, and for it to happen this deep into the season to start the postseason, no less, that would seem troubling.
But as many have pointed out, the Elite Eight team from a few years back got punted right away in the Big Ten Tournament. The Hummel-less team years ago got obliterated at the Big Ten Tournament, then won a couple tough NCAA games.
Maybe this case scare them straight on the defensive end and with the turnovers and rebounding, and the second half can serve as the good cop to the first half's bad cop.
• Once Purdue earned itself a re-do with its second-half comeback, it lost this game on its first two possessions of OT, if you ask me. The turnover by Eric Hunter and the transition miss by Trevion Williams trying to make a tough finish off a golden opportunity. They set a bad, bad tone for overtime, put Purdue in a hole and may have energized Ohio State. Purdue had momentum at that point and those plays sucked the air from it. Williams' miss led to a breakaway for C.J. Walker, so that wasn't just essentially a turnover, it was essentially a pick-six.
• In hindsight — and I can't say hindsight, because I said this before the game — the 5 seed might have been better for Purdue, at least as it pertained to winning this one game. Ohio State looked sharp out of the gate and you can't tell me playing a game yesterday — and playing a game on that floor — didn't have something to do with it.
Doesn't matter now and it's far from the reason Purdue lost but I do think Ohio State had a slight advantage in that sense.
• I thought it was Purdue's night when it had Trevion Williams and Zach Edey in together for one possession and scored on it before Painter got Edey the hell out before they had to defend. That was far from the most important question to ask after the game so I didn't, but that was interesting. I don't know if Painter put in Edey to guard the inbound on D, then Iet them roll for one offensive possession after or what.
• Credit to Ohio State's frontcourt for making so many jumpers. Seth Towns was huge for them and Kyle Young obviously was the head of the first-half buzzsaw.
• Felt so good, to be honest, to see fans at the game again today. We're getting through this.
Thanks for reading, everybody, and have good night.
