CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Long night here, as I found out the hard way tonight that Illinois' wireless Internet in Assembly Hall is every bit as inconsistent and error prone as the basketball team that plays in it.
Winding down after this late, late game, there's a lot to talk about, but I'm going to do my best here to shed my normal ways of needing 18 sentences to say what could be said in eight words and just cut to the chase.
We're Cliff's Noting this blog, folks. Consider this the lightning round.
1. Robbie Hummel and Lewis Jackson: They're practicing more than they have all season and Purdue's played three of its better games all season in its last three. Imagine that. Practice is kind of important, it turns out. This was Purdue's first winning streak of 2012, by the way.
Live it up Hummel and Jackson. You dominated Illinois in your careers. That text from Brian Cardinal, who never lost to Illinois, is coming in 3, 2, 1 ...
2. Byrdsanity: Dude has been unbelievable. You're stunned when he misses right now. And for all the scoring exploits, he gives Purdue great substance.
3. Sophomores: Big game for Travis Carroll and Terone Johnson. Throw away the 12 points. Look at Johnson's six-to-zero assist-to-turnover deal. Carroll gets four points and four boards and a block and contributes to Meyers Leonard casting a long shadow, then just fading into it. I say that after a kid gets nine points and 12 boards and some nice assists out of the post. Funny what awesome talent does to how people perceive you. It's a blessing and a curse.
4. WTF: Brandon Paul shoots a twisting heave with a guy in his grill to try to tie the game with eight seconds left. For effect, please count to yourself to eight Mississippi and consider all the basketball scenarios that could have unfolded in that time.
This, after fouling Hummel shooting a jumper that Michael Jordan or Larry Bird couldn't have hit in that McDonald's commercial back in the day. (for you kids)
Bruce Weber ... this is your life.
5. It's pretty clear now that Weber is done at Illinois, which is very unfortunate. Couldn't happen to a better man, but it's the blessing and the curse of the Illinois job, that unbelievable well of talent in the state to draw from. There's great players in Illinois and Illinois has to recruit them. But the problem is that once you've kissed enough hindquarters and played enough politics to get them, then you have to coach them.
Weber talked of his time at Illinois in a regretful, remorseful sort of past tense. I'm not sure he ever really fit Illinois culture. One of his regrets, he said, was trying to change it.
Next season, some program that operates in far lesser of a fishbowl, with significantly less B.S. to deal with, is going to have itself a pretty damn good, pretty damn hoarse coach.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2012. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
Check out GoldandBlack.com on
This post was edited on 2/16 1:41 AM by Brian_GoldandBlack.com
