On to the next game or Chicken Little?

[Chi-Boiler]

I'm probably closer to the former. Yeah we lost. Yeah we played like crap. But it does not end the season. It worries me that we're here again in mid-February and we are struggling 2 games in a row, but the mistakes were ours, and they can be corrected.

First and foremost, we didn't play as hard as Ohio State. Yeah, yeah, they fired their coach, and for whatever reason those teams play better the next game out. They certainly did. Ohio State got virtually all the 50/50 balls, most importantly the sequence under their own basket late when we had seemingly 5 tips and then they got the ball. Also the scramble after a blocked shot that ended up with Ohio State getting a strange timeout as the guy was sliding out of bounds. Bad call I think but it's a close one.

As others have said, we need Loyer playing well. We can not win games where both Loyer and Jones struggle shooting. Just can't. Jones does other things on the court but Loyer doesn't. I'm not going to bench him and play Colvin 20 minutes a game though. He just has to be better. When he missed a wide open 3 on the break midway through the first half I knew he was going to have a long day. Throw in the foul trouble for Edey in the first half, and we're cooked.

That being said, we STILL had a chance to win the game, if not for some bad offensive plays down the stretch. We took their best shot that put them up 12 and then got it back to a tie game. We probably played our second worst game of the season (Nebraska) and still had chances. Ohio State played their most inspired ball in the last 2 months and almost choked it away.

I'm still confident, but this performance can't repeat itself in a month.

 

[PaBoiler78]

I'm probably closer to the former. Yeah we lost. Yeah we played like crap. But it does not end the season. It worries me that we're here again in mid-February and we are struggling 2 games in a row, but the mistakes were ours, and they can be corrected.

First and foremost, we didn't play as hard as Ohio State. Yeah, yeah, they fired their coach, and for whatever reason those teams play better the next game out. They certainly did. Ohio State got virtually all the 50/50 balls, most importantly the sequence under their own basket late when we had seemingly 5 tips and then they got the ball. Also the scramble after a blocked shot that ended up with Ohio State getting a strange timeout as the guy was sliding out of bounds. Bad call I think but it's a close one.

As others have said, we need Loyer playing well. We can not win games where both Loyer and Jones struggle shooting. Just can't. Jones does other things on the court but Loyer doesn't. I'm not going to bench him and play Colvin 20 minutes a game though. He just has to be better. When he missed a wide open 3 on the break midway through the first half I knew he was going to have a long day. Throw in the foul trouble for Edey in the first half, and we're cooked.

That being said, we STILL had a chance to win the game, if not for some bad offensive plays down the stretch. We took their best shot that put them up 12 and then got it back to a tie game. We probably played our second worst game of the season (Nebraska) and still had chances. Ohio State played their most inspired ball in the last 2 months and almost choked it away.

I'm still confident, but this performance can't repeat itself in a month.

agree about Loyer and Jones, but Gillis didn't offer anything to pick up the slack for those 2 which was a surprise to me

 

[ChoiceBeef]

I am not hitting the panic button but will be curious how we come out on Thursday. We need to be locked in and ready to bring it as Rutgers is different with Jeremiah Williams on the team. I hope we are shooting from deep and keeping the turnovers low. This is a team who pressures all 40 minutes and doesn’t quit. Need to establish ourselves and see how the lessons from Sunday have been learned.

 

[Chi-Boiler]

agree about Loyer and Jones, but Gillis didn't offer anything to pick up the slack for those 2 which was a surprise to me

He didn't. I noticed that his top-of-the-key looks were really covered well. They clearly set out to guard him after what he did against Minnesota.

 

[boilerzz]

I don't get people screaming that this year is the same as last year. Last year, the team clearly was a shell of it's former shelf and lost 4 of 6 in February. It recovered to win it's last 5 but only one of those wins was by more than 5 points. That team was broken and it was painfully obvious. From February 4th forward, Purdue was the 30th most efficient team in the country (21st offensively and 53rd defensively).

Contrast with the recent "struggles". Starting with a pedestrian performance against Rutgers on January 28th, Purdue is 5-1 with those 5 wins by an average of 10.2 points (all 5 by 6 or more) and the efficiency during this rough stretch is 18th nationally (8th offensively and 84th defensively).

People seem to be hyper focused on the offense (WE NEED COLVIN!) but the reality is, outside of when Zach is in foul trouble (which is a problem), Purdue's offense has been fine.

The defense on the other hand is becoming an issue. The D has only had 8 games this year where the opponent had a better than 110 offensive efficiency. Unfortunately 3 of those 8 are in this 6 game stretch.