Props to Butler

[proudopete]

Yeah, the reason he's not starting is if the refs call the game close, Isaac will pick up a quick foul, not AJ. It's not like AJ is sitting on the bench until halfway through the game.

I think it's about setting the tone.
We should be starting out best 5 against teams like Butler so we can set the tone early and dictate the game.
Hammons is more aggressive on both ends and makes our offend and defense much better. He is what makes us special.
I want AJ to start if only to win a freaking opening tip for a change.

I would start AJ over Haas and Stephens over PJ or Hill.

Rotate from there as needed. But those are our best 5 and should play the bulk of the minutes.

 

[BoilerDaddy]

Hammons was put in less than three minutes into the game. I assume he only sat in the first half because of fouls.

He was in less than two minutes into the second half. He played almost the rest of the game from there, sitting mainly only when Purdue started making offensive/defensive substitutions at the end.

He was in the game the entire time that Butler's lead blew up to 16 points. Butler led by 16 on four different occasions and Hammons was on the floor the entire time. It's not like he was a game changer during that rather lengthy sequence.

I saw it a little differently. I thought that Purdue was in good shape when Hammons picked up his second foul, but I thought that the game shifted over that last 12 minutes of the first half when Hammons was on the bench. Haas was struggling and the offense seemed to get out of sync and guys seemed to be getting frustrated. At one point, Painter even went small with Swanigan at the five. By the time that Hammons was reinserted in the second half, I thought that Butler was playing with great confidence and Purdue was not. In that subsequent stretch where the lead continued to grow, I thought that Hammons made some really good defensive plays, but Butler got really hot and made some tough midrange shots and also beat Purdue to a lot of loose balls, while Purdue was trying to do too much and needed to regain its composure on offense. Ultimately, I thought that Hammons was a key player in getting things turned around and if it weren't for a bad traveling call against AJ, I thought that Purdue had a chance to win.

I know that hindsight is 20/20, but I believe that AJ has shown that he can play without fouling and it was would have been worth the risk to reinsert him with maybe 6 minutes to go in the first half. I think that it was obvious that Isaac was having his worst game of the year in the first half. (I also believe that we'll see Hammons start for the rest of the year, but that isn't really the point of my post.)

 

[BoilerDaddy]

I think it's about setting the tone.
We should be starting out best 5 against teams like Butler so we can set the tone early and dictate the game.
Hammons is more aggressive on both ends and makes our offend and defense much better. He is what makes us special.
I want AJ to start if only to win a freaking opening tip for a change.

I would start AJ over Haas and Stephens over PJ or Hill.

Rotate from there as needed. But those are our best 5 and should play the bulk of the minutes.

I agree on AJ, but I think that PJ needs to start and play the majority of minutes at point guard.