A few final musings — yes, musings — from Purdue's 69-40 win over No. 5 Virginia ...
• First off, clearly Virginia is not a real top-five-caliber team at this stage of the season. That is a really limited offensive team, beyond just the limitations it puts on itself by being so methodical. You don't lose what they lost and not feel it in a big way unless you cheat and go buy a new team every year, and Virginia doesn't, so here they are with a limited team in a transitional year.
That said, while this win probably looks better today than it will in two months, it will always look damn good. This is a quality, quality win over a name brand, a likely top-25 team this year who'll make the tournament.
Purdue has two quality wins now for its NCAA Tournament résumé and as uneven as that season has been prior to tonight, that's a hell of a lot better than where it sat a year ago at this time.
• Regarding the two bigs starting together, we shall see, I suppose, but it worked tonight. It worked in part because Virginia itself starts two bigs, and the matchup difficult lied only in the fact that those bigs can shoot, and they did early on over both of Purdue's posts.
Ask yourself this: What if Purdue had been playing against Vince Edwards as the opposing 4? Or what if this were Penn State with Lamar Stevens? Could Purdue have played that lineup even for a minute? Maybe not.
And an up-tempo game would have put Purdue at a severe disadvantage. Just so happens pace was perfect for this lineup tonight.
Maybe Purdue stays with it, maybe it's a game-to-game thing, maybe you never see it again. Who knows? My guess is Painter gives it the old college try here to see how it works and goes from there, but we'll see.
I do think Painter rolled the dice defensively to try to help his offense. His gamble was rewarded, because Sasha Stefanovic made a bunch of threes. Had he not, I'm still not sure Virginia was good enough offensively to beat Purdue's lesser defensive lineups the for a full 40 minutes, but it's a moot point.
Purdue just shot at practically a magic level tonight and when you look at some of the mid-range shots they hit, they are the shots Virginia thrives on forcing. Eric Hunter did a pirouette when he was stuck in the lane, but made the turnaround, Jahaad Proctor made a contested J after nearly losing the ball in traffic and Proctor also shot-faked a three to take a challenged long two. That's Virginia's game. It just so happens Purdue beat it at its game.
• Sasha Stefanovic was the clear MVP on this night, but a bunch of guys were terrific, and two worth singling out, I think, were Trevion Williams and Eric Hunter, who both affected this game in a lot of ways that belie their stats.
As I wrote in the analysis earlier, Williams' effort and tenacity were big deals, and Eric Hunter made plays on offense and defense — sometimes the latter leading to the former — tonight, and may be growing into the guy Purdue doesn't have, the guy who can go get a shot one on one when Purdue needs one.
• I don't know which statistic is more impressive: Purdue's seven turnovers or its 12 steals.
Virginia is very different from Florida State and VCU defensively, but Purdue's been prone to the unforced turnovers, so seven's a good number against anybody, quite honestly, let alone college basketball's pre-eminent defensive program.
And you don't just take the ball from Virginia.
Twelve steals is a big number.
Two stand out, Eric Hunter's help-D deflection that led to his own transition three, and Nojel Eastern's pick-six. Those were door-slamming-type plays, Purdue turning the tables on what VCU and FSU did to it.
• Purdue has wanted to play inside-out this season and you finally saw it tonight, as Matt Haarms kicked out to Sasha Stefanovic out of a post-up for a three and Nojel Eastern assisted out of both a drive-and-kick and post-up on threes by Aaron Wheeler and Stefanovic, respectively.
Trevion Williams turned the ball over a few times, but also made some productive passes out of the paint that Purdue didn't get anything off, but could have.
We'll do our review tomorrow ....
Good night, everybody.
• First off, clearly Virginia is not a real top-five-caliber team at this stage of the season. That is a really limited offensive team, beyond just the limitations it puts on itself by being so methodical. You don't lose what they lost and not feel it in a big way unless you cheat and go buy a new team every year, and Virginia doesn't, so here they are with a limited team in a transitional year.
That said, while this win probably looks better today than it will in two months, it will always look damn good. This is a quality, quality win over a name brand, a likely top-25 team this year who'll make the tournament.
Purdue has two quality wins now for its NCAA Tournament résumé and as uneven as that season has been prior to tonight, that's a hell of a lot better than where it sat a year ago at this time.
• Regarding the two bigs starting together, we shall see, I suppose, but it worked tonight. It worked in part because Virginia itself starts two bigs, and the matchup difficult lied only in the fact that those bigs can shoot, and they did early on over both of Purdue's posts.
Ask yourself this: What if Purdue had been playing against Vince Edwards as the opposing 4? Or what if this were Penn State with Lamar Stevens? Could Purdue have played that lineup even for a minute? Maybe not.
And an up-tempo game would have put Purdue at a severe disadvantage. Just so happens pace was perfect for this lineup tonight.
Maybe Purdue stays with it, maybe it's a game-to-game thing, maybe you never see it again. Who knows? My guess is Painter gives it the old college try here to see how it works and goes from there, but we'll see.
I do think Painter rolled the dice defensively to try to help his offense. His gamble was rewarded, because Sasha Stefanovic made a bunch of threes. Had he not, I'm still not sure Virginia was good enough offensively to beat Purdue's lesser defensive lineups the for a full 40 minutes, but it's a moot point.
Purdue just shot at practically a magic level tonight and when you look at some of the mid-range shots they hit, they are the shots Virginia thrives on forcing. Eric Hunter did a pirouette when he was stuck in the lane, but made the turnaround, Jahaad Proctor made a contested J after nearly losing the ball in traffic and Proctor also shot-faked a three to take a challenged long two. That's Virginia's game. It just so happens Purdue beat it at its game.
• Sasha Stefanovic was the clear MVP on this night, but a bunch of guys were terrific, and two worth singling out, I think, were Trevion Williams and Eric Hunter, who both affected this game in a lot of ways that belie their stats.
As I wrote in the analysis earlier, Williams' effort and tenacity were big deals, and Eric Hunter made plays on offense and defense — sometimes the latter leading to the former — tonight, and may be growing into the guy Purdue doesn't have, the guy who can go get a shot one on one when Purdue needs one.
• I don't know which statistic is more impressive: Purdue's seven turnovers or its 12 steals.
Virginia is very different from Florida State and VCU defensively, but Purdue's been prone to the unforced turnovers, so seven's a good number against anybody, quite honestly, let alone college basketball's pre-eminent defensive program.
And you don't just take the ball from Virginia.
Twelve steals is a big number.
Two stand out, Eric Hunter's help-D deflection that led to his own transition three, and Nojel Eastern's pick-six. Those were door-slamming-type plays, Purdue turning the tables on what VCU and FSU did to it.
• Purdue has wanted to play inside-out this season and you finally saw it tonight, as Matt Haarms kicked out to Sasha Stefanovic out of a post-up for a three and Nojel Eastern assisted out of both a drive-and-kick and post-up on threes by Aaron Wheeler and Stefanovic, respectively.
Trevion Williams turned the ball over a few times, but also made some productive passes out of the paint that Purdue didn't get anything off, but could have.
We'll do our review tomorrow ....
Good night, everybody.
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