The focus today is on football, so I'm going to make this brief, but today's Purdue win over Coppin State, a game I thought might be closer than it turned out to be, brought to mind the subject of finishing, in a couple senses.
For one thing, there's Robbie Hummel.
Hummel started the game 2-of-6 or something very pedestrian in the first half, and it looked like a mediocre day might be in store. But with Hummel things always seem to balance out. Sure enough, he dominates the final 10 minutes of the game, finishes with 24 points on good shooting percentages.
Hummel has been clutch this season, making the game-winning three against Iona and that important turnaround against Temple. Saturday, he got better as the game went along.
It's not news anymore that Hummel is back to high-level form, but that very fact - that Hummel seems to get stronger as games go on and how well he's played in big situations - underscores it.
Your best players have to be your best players in the biggest situations and Hummel's been that for Purdue.
It also speaks to conditioning. This is a guy who didn't play in games for a season-and-a-half and still got held out of preseason practices. You wouldn't know it, would you?
Then there's Jacob Lawson.
People are obsessed with starting. It's always, "Who's starting?," "Why isn't so-and-so starting?" or "How long 'til so-and-so is a starter?"
That's fine. But it's not that big a deal. It's not just coachspeak to say that what matters is who finishes.
In 2007, Purdue won a lot of games starting Nemanja Calasan at the quote-unquote 5, then finishing the game with Scott Martin and Hummel side-by-side down low.
This season, it looks like a similar set-up is taking shape.
Matchups are going to determine what Purdue does at that post position in all likelihood, but Lawson can already be trusted, it seems, to play important minutes, as he did against Iona in a possession ball game.
Of the three bigs, he's the most athletic and the most versatile defensively. He's your best shot-blocking presence, though he's not the prototype, as well as maybe your best offensive rebounder.
Lawson may start at some point this season and he may not.
But he will play like a starter, and is there really that big a difference?
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