CHICAGO - Greetings again from the United Center, where Purdue's playing with house money today against sixth-ranked Wisconsin today.
As we said yesterday in the blog, Purdue's gotten through its must-wins now and done what it has needed to do to get into the NCAA Tournament, considering how much the bubble on a national level has popped for so many other teams. Someone has to make the NCAA Tournament and Purdue is one of the few teams who's actually played like it wants to.
So today's result will have no bearing on Purdue having its seat at the NCAA Tournament. A win might bump it up closer to the grown-ups table, but regardless Purdue is in.
So what does Purdue have to lose today? Nothing.
Does that change the way the Boilermakers play or carry themselves? It does not. But some measure of pressure is off and that can't hurt anyone.
Wisconsin is a great team, a surgical team offensively and a stifling defensive team that doesn't make mistakes and doesn't foul, or at least doesn't get called for fouls.
I don't see Purdue being able to stop Wisconsin enough to win.
Last game between these two teams, it fared well defensively, but couldn't defend without fouling. Wisconsin got fat at the foul line.
Rapheal Davis neutralized Sam Dekker and will probably be asked to do the same today. I figure Purdue will probably run Vince Edwards at Frank Kaminsky against today, at least to start with so that it's 7-footers don't get hung out to dry on the perimeter.
Last game, Wisconsin went right after the matchups, trying to post Kaminsky on Edwards and with Nigel Hayes shooting jumpers over Purdue's centers. It didn't work all that well and Purdue got off to a solid start.
Purdue shot 51 percent in Madison and outrebounded Wisconsin, so there's a track record of success there that says the matchup isn't one-sided toward the Badgers, but a lot more goes into it and in the last game, it was simply a matter of Purdue being unable to keep Wisconsin off the foul line.
With teams like Wisconsin, if it's not one thing, it's another, so Purdue could do a great job in, let's say, eight of nine phases of a game and still lose. That's the nature of the beast with teams like this.
You almost have to be perfect to beat them.
If Purdue turns the ball over, well, you know. You only read it before every game.
Does Purdue has a chance today? Sure it does.
It can look back at the first Wisconsin game and realize that it had a chance for 38 of 40 minutes, whatever it was. Purdue stacked up well in Madison, better than most teams have.
I think Purdue gives them a game today, but with a No. 1 seed on the line and what might be a homecourt advantage - there are tons of Wisconsin fans here - I just have a hard time seeing the Badgers falling short at this point.
You know the deal by now.
Discuss the game in this thread or in new ones.
We'll talk to you after the game with our game story, Wrap Video, blog, etc.
As we said yesterday in the blog, Purdue's gotten through its must-wins now and done what it has needed to do to get into the NCAA Tournament, considering how much the bubble on a national level has popped for so many other teams. Someone has to make the NCAA Tournament and Purdue is one of the few teams who's actually played like it wants to.
So today's result will have no bearing on Purdue having its seat at the NCAA Tournament. A win might bump it up closer to the grown-ups table, but regardless Purdue is in.
So what does Purdue have to lose today? Nothing.
Does that change the way the Boilermakers play or carry themselves? It does not. But some measure of pressure is off and that can't hurt anyone.
Wisconsin is a great team, a surgical team offensively and a stifling defensive team that doesn't make mistakes and doesn't foul, or at least doesn't get called for fouls.
I don't see Purdue being able to stop Wisconsin enough to win.
Last game between these two teams, it fared well defensively, but couldn't defend without fouling. Wisconsin got fat at the foul line.
Rapheal Davis neutralized Sam Dekker and will probably be asked to do the same today. I figure Purdue will probably run Vince Edwards at Frank Kaminsky against today, at least to start with so that it's 7-footers don't get hung out to dry on the perimeter.
Last game, Wisconsin went right after the matchups, trying to post Kaminsky on Edwards and with Nigel Hayes shooting jumpers over Purdue's centers. It didn't work all that well and Purdue got off to a solid start.
Purdue shot 51 percent in Madison and outrebounded Wisconsin, so there's a track record of success there that says the matchup isn't one-sided toward the Badgers, but a lot more goes into it and in the last game, it was simply a matter of Purdue being unable to keep Wisconsin off the foul line.
With teams like Wisconsin, if it's not one thing, it's another, so Purdue could do a great job in, let's say, eight of nine phases of a game and still lose. That's the nature of the beast with teams like this.
You almost have to be perfect to beat them.
If Purdue turns the ball over, well, you know. You only read it before every game.
Does Purdue has a chance today? Sure it does.
It can look back at the first Wisconsin game and realize that it had a chance for 38 of 40 minutes, whatever it was. Purdue stacked up well in Madison, better than most teams have.
I think Purdue gives them a game today, but with a No. 1 seed on the line and what might be a homecourt advantage - there are tons of Wisconsin fans here - I just have a hard time seeing the Badgers falling short at this point.
You know the deal by now.
Discuss the game in this thread or in new ones.
We'll talk to you after the game with our game story, Wrap Video, blog, etc.
