Ryne Smith stole my lead.
After Purdue’s 15-point-but-may-as-well-have-been-25 win over Illinois, the Boilermaker senior pretty much jacked the sentence I’d already typed out to lead my story off with when he said, “I think we're finally getting back to what Purdue basketball is all about.”
And because he actually said it, it was no longer an original idea, so my sentence of, “Purdue finally looked like Purdue again,” was deleted.
But however phrased and whoever thought of it first - me! - Purdue did look like Purdue again.
To this point, Purdue has been a little off in the areas of its game that generally define it.
The Boilermakers have been just OK on defense in 2011-12 - sometimes not even that - but at Purdue OK isn’t good enough on defense.
The second half Saturday gave us our first glimpse of real Purdue defense, at least against a notable opponent.
Purdue has now won six in a row against Illinois, again sucker-punching the Illini with a sizeable run to start the second half.
The X-factor with Illinois, as talented as they have been during the extent of that Purdue winning streak, has been mental toughness. Poor Bruce Weber has dealt with some fragile personalities, rife with inconsistency and attitude. Might just be the nature of the beast when you coach at Illinois, for a variety of reasons.
I didn’t know what to make of this game because I didn’t have a good read on what Illinois is made of this year, with the possibility that it might be a more focused, more head-strong group without some of its enigmas from last season.
Guess not. At least not Saturday, I should say.
Look, Purdue won the game and just took it to Illinois, but Illinois didn’t respond in any sense.
Meyers Leonard, a top-10-pick talent with maturity and consistency issues evident long before he ever enrolled in college, was a non-factor. In a matchup with a talent it simply couldn’t match up with, Purdue won decisively, with the inexperienced and small Jacob Lawson and distinctly un-athletic Travis Carroll turning Leonard into a lamp post, for all intents and purposes. The best player in the building checked out.
In part because of the job it did on Leonard, Purdue blew Illinois out, with ease unseen previously during its run of success against the Illini. Purdue’s won all these games, but Illinois’ always been a huge pain in the a$$ to do it against.
The final margin was just 15. The real margin was much greater.
Illinois scored almost half its points after falling behind almost four touchdowns. All but three of its second-half field goals came after that juncture as well. Practically speaking, prior to garbage time, Purdue held Illinois to about 30 points in 30 minutes and turned its own defensive conquests into points.
Saturday’s Purdue win - aside probably from falling behind eight in the first half - was the prototype for the Boilermakers. They took away the other team’s big gun, forced mistakes and capitalized on them.
You couldn’t have drawn it up any better.
In the big picture, what does Saturday’s win mean?
Hard to say. It’s really too early in the Big Ten season to know a whole lot about anybody for certain.
But Purdue is trending well, thanks largely to its bench.
D.J. Byrd has been fantastic the past two games. Travis Carroll just had his best game at Purdue by a long shot. He scored, provided offense for others with his screening and led the defensive effort against a future pro he gave up four inches and a world of athleticism and length to. You could make an argument he was Purdue’s player-of-the-game.
John Hart is doing good things after being an afterthought (to me, anyway) earlier in the season and the two Johnsons have been very solid, with their free-throw shooting being the only barrier between them and more minutes, at least according to Painter after the game.
On that note, you do have to wonder at what point Purdue can’t afford to have Terone Johnson on the floor in second halves with his streak of missed free throws now reaching seven. He’s not made one since 15 minutes remained in the Eastern Michigan game Dec. 10 and is now shooting less than 24 percent, 4-of-28 since going 4-of-6 in the opener. Never seen anything like it.
I do know they’re trying different things in practice to get him going, but none of it’s worked.
But foul-line failures aside, Terone Johnson is a really important player for Purdue, and part of a cast of reserves that’s played critical roles in these two Big Ten wins, from almost out of nowhere, no less.
If I’d told you before Christmas that D.J. Byrd and John Hart, guys who’d not been getting either consistent opportunity or any opportunity, would be indispensible players in Purdue’s first two Big Ten wins and that I would tell you that, “You could make an argument he was Purdue’s player-of-the-game” about Carroll after a double-digit win over a one-time top-25 team, you’d have canceled your subscription to this site figuring we’d all gone loco.
If I’d told you that Purdue would blow out Illinois with Robbie Hummel scoring five points on six shots, maybe you’d have thought the same.
Saturday, the offense was led by the defense and a newly efficient Kelsey Barlow. Since he made just one of his way-too-many six threes against Butler, the junior is averaging 12 points a game in three wins and shooting 65 percent.
He was a central player in the deluge of Illinois turnovers that Purdue turned into a pile of points, flipping this game into blowout mode in the veritable blink of an eye and making this a very impressive win.
I don’t know what will happen when these two teams meet again in Champaign - the power of the home floor in the Big Ten is strong, as we saw again today in Purdue’s 26th consecutive home win - and I don’t know what will happen in virtually any game from here on out.
But Saturday, Purdue looked like a damn good basketball team, the best we’ve seen it this season.
Because it finally again looked like Purdue.
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This post was edited on 12/31 11:07 PM by Brian_GoldandBlack.com
