SAN JUAN, P.R. - Thursday's win over Iona, I think, will be a significant one for Purdue come March. The Gaels are a good team who'll be in the NCAA Tournament, and I said that prior to the game, so I'm not just parroting what was said after the game.
Iona has a couple guys who can play almost anywhere; in fact they have a guy, MoMo Jones, who has played (or committed) just about everywhere.
This wasn't pretty. This was video-game basketball a lot of the time, and that's not the style of basketball Purdue is designed to play, nor should it want to play, ideally.
It's a credit to the Boilermakers, though, that on this day they could and come out with a win.
Look, I don't want to sugar-coat this: The defense was just bad. Iona's offense was good, but on the defensive end, Purdue didn't look a whole lot better than it did at the end of last season.
Maybe that's going to be a process, but Matt Painter seemed in the off-season to believe that this could be a really good defensive team, not just an OK defensive team. Thursday, it wasn't even that.
We'll see. Purdue is not off to a great start in that sense, nor in the rebounding column. And its free throw shooting is just puzzling. It's not just that they're missing, it's who's missing.
It was Bizarro World when Robbie Hummel missed all those free throws against High Point, including the two that could have cost Purdue the game. This time, it was Ryne Smith, a 91-percent career shooter. Those two misses increased his career total by 50 percent.
What this tells me is that this foul-line hex has spread like a stomach virus, the result being every bit as disgusting.
But that'll pass, no pun intended. It has to.
The encouraging sign from Thursday was that Purdue has to get better defensively and it has to get better from the line. I view those as certainties, because they can't get worse.
Iona is good. Mike Glover is a Wooden candidate. Scott Machado might be an Olympian one day. MoMo Jones played 30 minutes a game for a team that nearly went to the Final Four last season.
There were other really encouraging signs from Thursday that might not jump out in the wake of Purdue giving up 90 points, only four fewer than they yielded in that layup drill against VCU in the NCAA Tournament last year.
First off is Robbie Hummel.
Yes, he made the game-winning three. Yes, he scored 24 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
But it was how he did it that stood out. He looked quick, fast and fearless cutting Iona up off the dribble, finishing the play every time. That was momentous.
Hummel's thrown up some clunkers, but I thought Painter made a good point after the game when he talked about how as he gets back in a playing rhythm, you won't see as many "fatigue shots." Hummel, remember, is also adjusting to having to shoot a lot for his team to win.
Lewis Jackson was really good, as was Ryne Smith, in a win really made by the Boilermakers' seniors.
But freshman Jacob Lawson played a major role also.
His athleticism is really showing up, because there have been some instances where he's just out-run and out-jumped people, and you've already seen how he can block shots above the rim.
He's a great complement to Purdue's other big guys.
Factoring in Anthony Johnson, Purdue's young guys are playing well.
Purdue simply out-scored Iona today and it did so in a variety of ways.
It again lived by the three-pointer, but generated a lot of its offense in transition and off penetration. Iona couldn't stay in front of Hummel or Jackson, or Barlow. Anthony Johnson and Terone Johnson broke the defense down often, too.
This was not a good defensive team Purdue lit up, though.
I'd say so far this season, Purdue's been just OK, but it does have a high ceiling to improve, and when you can improve without having to absorb losses, that's a good thing this time of year.
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