Good evening, everyone, from the bowels of Mackey Arena, or the Chipotle on Salisbury, one or the other.
Purdue meets Nebraska here tonight at 6:30. Not 7, 6:30.
Anyone, it is what it is here. Nebraska's 0-6 in the Big Ten and terrible defensively. They've been competitive at home — they are not at home tonight — but have routinely crumbled when it's come time to actually win the game.
They have some formidable backcourt that can be a headache for Purdue, though, so this will be a good test of the Boilermakers' discipline at both ends of the floor.
Anyway, three things ...
• Don't screw around: Nebraska's path to competitiveness here lies with Purdue. If the Boilermakers jack around, take bad shots, turn the ball over and get too cute, as they did against Wisconsin, they will be the Cornhuskers' sixth man.
I don't think Nebraska can beat Purdue in a halfcourt game. They can stick to the bottom of Purdue's shoe if the Boilermakers give them run-outs and then you never know what can happen.
• Be the more physical team. Derrick Walker is going to play his tail off against Trevion Williams and Zach Edey and it was just two games ago that Edey lamented not being as tough or physical as he needed to be to open the game vs. the Badgers. That's been a trend that I suspect might be tied to him trying to feel out the officiating.
Tonight, those guys will need to move Walker to get the post position they want, keep him off the offensive glass and not pick up the sort of fouls that can get them in trouble.
Walker's the sort of guy who might be able to hold those to only 25 and 10 between them on relative inefficiency, then get 12 and seven himself.
This, to me, is the key matchup to the game.
• Be good in help: Couple weeks ago I asked a couple Purdue players what the path to improvement defensively was and they all said "Stay out of help." I don't know if that was a better answer than "Be better in help," but who am I to judge?
Look, Alonzo Verge can be a runaway train at times, but he'll break Purdue down a bunch. Bryce McGowens will take advantage by finding driving lanes when Purdue is broken down. And the last thing you want is one of these other ditch-diggers on the floor to pull a bunch of threes out of their backside.
That's what I've got.
Follow along here or on the Twitter machine at @brianneubert.
I'll have full coverage tonight and hopefully a more coherent game story than I've been writing lately as I'm dealing with my annual format remorse.
Discuss the game here or however you wish.
Purdue meets Nebraska here tonight at 6:30. Not 7, 6:30.
Anyone, it is what it is here. Nebraska's 0-6 in the Big Ten and terrible defensively. They've been competitive at home — they are not at home tonight — but have routinely crumbled when it's come time to actually win the game.
They have some formidable backcourt that can be a headache for Purdue, though, so this will be a good test of the Boilermakers' discipline at both ends of the floor.
Anyway, three things ...
• Don't screw around: Nebraska's path to competitiveness here lies with Purdue. If the Boilermakers jack around, take bad shots, turn the ball over and get too cute, as they did against Wisconsin, they will be the Cornhuskers' sixth man.
I don't think Nebraska can beat Purdue in a halfcourt game. They can stick to the bottom of Purdue's shoe if the Boilermakers give them run-outs and then you never know what can happen.
• Be the more physical team. Derrick Walker is going to play his tail off against Trevion Williams and Zach Edey and it was just two games ago that Edey lamented not being as tough or physical as he needed to be to open the game vs. the Badgers. That's been a trend that I suspect might be tied to him trying to feel out the officiating.
Tonight, those guys will need to move Walker to get the post position they want, keep him off the offensive glass and not pick up the sort of fouls that can get them in trouble.
Walker's the sort of guy who might be able to hold those to only 25 and 10 between them on relative inefficiency, then get 12 and seven himself.
This, to me, is the key matchup to the game.
• Be good in help: Couple weeks ago I asked a couple Purdue players what the path to improvement defensively was and they all said "Stay out of help." I don't know if that was a better answer than "Be better in help," but who am I to judge?
Look, Alonzo Verge can be a runaway train at times, but he'll break Purdue down a bunch. Bryce McGowens will take advantage by finding driving lanes when Purdue is broken down. And the last thing you want is one of these other ditch-diggers on the floor to pull a bunch of threes out of their backside.
That's what I've got.
Follow along here or on the Twitter machine at @brianneubert.
I'll have full coverage tonight and hopefully a more coherent game story than I've been writing lately as I'm dealing with my annual format remorse.
Discuss the game here or however you wish.
