I don't have many thoughts in advance of tonight's Purdue game against Rutgers beside one obvious one: The Boilermakers, for their sake, had better win.
Given as bad as the Scarlet Knight are, losers of 11 in a row, and considering how undermined Purdue's NCAA résumé already is by its sins of December, this is a game it can't lose more than it must win, if that makes sense. It may even turn out to be an elimination game of sorts depending how things shake out from here on out.
Losing tonight would be really, really bad for Purdue.
Can't happen, I don't think.
Even without Vince Edwards - who we expected to be idled tonight by concussion symptoms (don't know if there's a confirmed diagnosis at this point) - I don't think Rutgers can hang. That said, the timing for Rutgers to visit couldn't be better. The Knights can't score enough to pull an upset, in my opinion, and losing Edwards shouldn't adversely impact the Boilermakers much in the phase of the game where they should win: Defense.
Keep in mind: When these teams last met, Purdue won by 10, but really by 20. That was never a competitive game in the second half.
The good news for Purdue: Rutgers making that run - scoring 45 percent of its points in the final six minutes - might offset any concern of the Boilermakers overlooking the Big Ten's worst team. Maybe that burst captured some attention that would not have otherwise been captured had Purdue just rolled to the final buzzer.
Rutgers can match Purdue's physicality inside and that's a concern on the boards, but we'd expect the home team to learn from that. The first time it played Indiana, it got rolled on the boards; the second time, it did the rolling.
We'll see.
Could get ugly tonight. Avert your eyes when necessary.
But not from our site.
Discuss the game here or elsewhere on the board.
We'll talk to you again afterward, with our game story, Wrap Video, blog and all the other drivel we produce. Haha, I'm kidding.
Given as bad as the Scarlet Knight are, losers of 11 in a row, and considering how undermined Purdue's NCAA résumé already is by its sins of December, this is a game it can't lose more than it must win, if that makes sense. It may even turn out to be an elimination game of sorts depending how things shake out from here on out.
Losing tonight would be really, really bad for Purdue.
Can't happen, I don't think.
Even without Vince Edwards - who we expected to be idled tonight by concussion symptoms (don't know if there's a confirmed diagnosis at this point) - I don't think Rutgers can hang. That said, the timing for Rutgers to visit couldn't be better. The Knights can't score enough to pull an upset, in my opinion, and losing Edwards shouldn't adversely impact the Boilermakers much in the phase of the game where they should win: Defense.
Keep in mind: When these teams last met, Purdue won by 10, but really by 20. That was never a competitive game in the second half.
The good news for Purdue: Rutgers making that run - scoring 45 percent of its points in the final six minutes - might offset any concern of the Boilermakers overlooking the Big Ten's worst team. Maybe that burst captured some attention that would not have otherwise been captured had Purdue just rolled to the final buzzer.
Rutgers can match Purdue's physicality inside and that's a concern on the boards, but we'd expect the home team to learn from that. The first time it played Indiana, it got rolled on the boards; the second time, it did the rolling.
We'll see.
Could get ugly tonight. Avert your eyes when necessary.
But not from our site.
Discuss the game here or elsewhere on the board.
We'll talk to you again afterward, with our game story, Wrap Video, blog and all the other drivel we produce. Haha, I'm kidding.
