IOWA CITY — Greetings from Carver Hawkeye Arena (or something near-by), where Purdue meets Iowa tonight, trying to complete a two-game regular season sweep of the Hawkeyes.
It's Purdue's first repeat opponent of the season, so the familiarity thing works both ways, even though Iowa now has Keegan Murray. That's a big difference.
Is it such a big difference that Purdue leading by 19 in the second half first time around becomes irrelevant context? I don't think so.
It was right around that moment that it was clear Purdue was going to be No. 1 in the country and the worm turned on the Boilermakers and some un-evenness took hold.
It was triggered by Iowa's full-court trapping and pressing, which Purdue ought to be more than ready for tonight. Being strong with the ball and decisive and stuff, that's part of the equation, but so is doing what you're supposed to do, and back in December, Purdue didn't. It didn't come to the ball like it should have, made at least one really bad pass and trapped itself a couple times by cutting things too tight with the boundaries.
What Purdue has to do tonight is be physical. What I think you should want to see from Purdue at least once this season is a game like what Indiana did to Penn State last night, where they just play so hard, the other team just gets swallowed whole.
It's huge having Jaden Ivey back tonight. This could be a higher-scoring game, the kind Purdue fares better in. Playing a game like that without Ivey would be like playing in your socks. Only so much you can do.
But this is a great opportunity, too, for Purdue to take another step defensively.
They could not keep the ball out of the paint in December and that has to change tonight. A lot of that falls on the big guys, but also the guards getting through or around screens and the wings collapsing on the ball. And good, disciplined offense. So pretty much everything. #Analysis.
Three things ...
• Purdue's interior passing against zones has to be better. Seems like there have been a lot of deflections/turnovers passing out of the high post to the low post, or from the wing to the high post. Maybe I'm imagining that.
• Big game for Eric Hunter to build on his recent momentum, starting with crawling down Joe Toussaint's throat on defense.
• Gotta make some shots tonight. Hard to beat a team like Iowa ugly, even though Rutgers did just that, albeit in Piscataway. This is a game where Sasha Stefanovic may be guarded by a 6-10 guy at times, since Iowa plays Pat McCaffery at the 3. When they're in man, run him all over the arena.
That said, the key for Purdue is always going to be Tredey — let's normalize this — on the interior. Iowa did a good job on them last time, somehow.
Thanks for joining us here. Follow along in this thread or on Twitter at @brianneubert.
I'm riding a two-year winning streak on the wifi being usable here, so cross your fingers.
It's Purdue's first repeat opponent of the season, so the familiarity thing works both ways, even though Iowa now has Keegan Murray. That's a big difference.
Is it such a big difference that Purdue leading by 19 in the second half first time around becomes irrelevant context? I don't think so.
It was right around that moment that it was clear Purdue was going to be No. 1 in the country and the worm turned on the Boilermakers and some un-evenness took hold.
It was triggered by Iowa's full-court trapping and pressing, which Purdue ought to be more than ready for tonight. Being strong with the ball and decisive and stuff, that's part of the equation, but so is doing what you're supposed to do, and back in December, Purdue didn't. It didn't come to the ball like it should have, made at least one really bad pass and trapped itself a couple times by cutting things too tight with the boundaries.
What Purdue has to do tonight is be physical. What I think you should want to see from Purdue at least once this season is a game like what Indiana did to Penn State last night, where they just play so hard, the other team just gets swallowed whole.
It's huge having Jaden Ivey back tonight. This could be a higher-scoring game, the kind Purdue fares better in. Playing a game like that without Ivey would be like playing in your socks. Only so much you can do.
But this is a great opportunity, too, for Purdue to take another step defensively.
They could not keep the ball out of the paint in December and that has to change tonight. A lot of that falls on the big guys, but also the guards getting through or around screens and the wings collapsing on the ball. And good, disciplined offense. So pretty much everything. #Analysis.
Three things ...
• Purdue's interior passing against zones has to be better. Seems like there have been a lot of deflections/turnovers passing out of the high post to the low post, or from the wing to the high post. Maybe I'm imagining that.
• Big game for Eric Hunter to build on his recent momentum, starting with crawling down Joe Toussaint's throat on defense.
• Gotta make some shots tonight. Hard to beat a team like Iowa ugly, even though Rutgers did just that, albeit in Piscataway. This is a game where Sasha Stefanovic may be guarded by a 6-10 guy at times, since Iowa plays Pat McCaffery at the 3. When they're in man, run him all over the arena.
That said, the key for Purdue is always going to be Tredey — let's normalize this — on the interior. Iowa did a good job on them last time, somehow.
Thanks for joining us here. Follow along in this thread or on Twitter at @brianneubert.
I'm riding a two-year winning streak on the wifi being usable here, so cross your fingers.
