The key to this game is to be able to learn from it. We all knew before the game that this would be a tough game to win and a tough team to beat on their home court.
The key now is what lessons did Purdue learn from this loss and will they be able to fix them?
Last year at this time, the question being asked was how can you defeat Purdue with Edey in the middle? Several teams came close. By sagging on Edey and daring Purdue to shoot more threes to win. And Purdue responded by taking and making more 3 point shots.
I guarantee teams were watching both Purdue and Marquette tonight and will copy what they saw as being effective. If Loyer has issues against big physical guards, we will see more of them. If berg is slow and burgess keeps running out of gas, teams will continue to run and play an up tempo game.
I guarantee, unless we learn, the things you complained about will reoccur! Last year, we won a lot of our preseason games, but some were close. As a team, we learned and improved. That will be the key to our success this year! Learn and improve!
I give props to Marquette. They are a good team and deserved to win. I’m hoping for a rematch in April to show them how much we learned.