First of all, the free throws.
Once again, free throws bit Purdue Thursday night, in its 67-62 loss to Wisconsin in Mackey Arena, a game against an opponent that might have looked down in the standings but in reality remained the very same team that’s been such an unbelievably tough out in the Big Ten for so long now.
But had the Boilermakers just made a few more free throws, a game that seemed to go right out the window shortly after the jump may have turned out differently.
Purdue missed 10 of ‘em.
Who knows how a game will turn out as game conditions vary with every make and every miss, but suffice to say, a couple more freebies certainly would have helped the Boilermakers’ cause after they rallied to get out of what seemed in the first half to be an impossible hole, given the nature of the opponent and how it plays.
But, you know what, free throws aren’t even worth talking about anymore, because it is what it is. Purdue is just a bad free-throw shooting team and if that hasn’t changed by now, it’s not going to.
It’s like if you’re team is made up all guys who are 5-foot-11, what’s the sense in lamenting your lack of size? It’s not changing.
Whether Purdue’s individual pieces are as poor from the foul line as the sum of their parts are, I don’t know, but the bottom line is at this point, Purdue simply can’t count on anything from the free throw line. Now, that doesn’t mean change the way you play, because you still have to attack the basket and be aggressive and if you want to win close games, you have no choice but to shoot free throws at the end.
But what it does mean is that the Boilermakers are just going to have to plan from here on out on being X points better than their opponents to win to compensate for all the free points they’re forfeiting. Because those eight missed freebies per game - some games have been worse than others - they’re averaging due to their 61-percent shooting might just be an unavoidable reality from here on out.
But free throws weren’t entirely what got Purdue beat Thursday.
First of all, Purdue got beat by a good team, one on a three-game losing streak that created the illusion of a not-so-good team. It was evident that Wisconsin was just in a terrible shooting slump. It happens.
And when good shooting teams are mired in slumps, they tend to break them before long, and Purdue was Wisconsin’s slump-buster tonight, right out of the gate.
Clearly, there were some assignment issues in the early going as Wisconsin canned its first five threes after shooting 21 percent from long range the past three games. Coming off a big win at Minnesota, Purdue didn’t look ready to play on defense to start this game, even though the shot-clock violation it forced to start things off gave a different impression right away.
Purdue’s been nothing if not inconsistent this season, a dramatic departure from what we’re all used to seeing. There was the occasional bad loss here and there the past few years, but the peaks and valleys this team is riding are unprecedented. This is a different team every time out, maybe every half. That can be expected out of a team that’s gone through the transition it’s gone through personnel-wise, but Thursday was Game 18 and it’s been this middle portion of the season where Purdue’s been really all over the map. Go figure.
As it turned out, Minnesota, like Illinois, was another turning point come and gone.
But is this inconsistency that big a shock?
This is not the veteran team Purdue’s seemed to have out there every year the past few years and there’s been some growing pains that have come with inexperience and some new personalities.
And the continuity issue is a major one.
Lewis Jackson is clearly in really bad shape, making his outing at Minnesota all the more impressive.
And Robbie Hummel is carrying quite a burden, both physically and in his role on this newly crafted team. I’ve not seen a Purdue player in my time doing this job that I’d have more faith in to handle such a situation admirably - and Hummel is - but it’s not easy. There are going to be 5-of-17 nights.
Obviously, this wasn’t a good loss for Purdue. There are no good losses.
I guess there’s some irony in Purdue seeing its home winning streak snapped at the hands of a team that never wins in Mackey Arena, doing so for just the third time since the building opened. Maybe the universe balanced itself out Thursday with Wisconsin winning in a building it never wins in after Purdue won a couple games at the Kohl Center when the Badgers never lost there.
Either way, with the streak snapped, it’s appropriate to recognize what a feat it was and remember the big-time wins like those against Ohio State and Wisconsin in a week-long span last season. And you can take into account how long that streak might have been had Hummel not gotten hurt just days before Michigan State visits two seasons ago. With a healthy Hummel, Purdue rollls the Spartans that day. With a game between the Minnesota trip and State’s visit even, the Boilermakers win, in my opinion.
But no matter how long the streak was, it’s over now, because Purdue lost Thursday.
But it was lost to a good team, one that turned around its shooting to its normal standards and picked Purdue’s defense - however flawed it may have been - like a surgeon in the game’s decisive first half. When the game hung in the balance, it did the same.
Wisconsin put five guys in double-figures with no one taking more than nine shots. Its best player, Jordan Taylor, took five shots, yet the Badgers might not have won without him. All signs of a good team.
What kind of team is Purdue? Depends on the day, apparently.
Is it an NCAA Tournament team?
Matt Painter could have started lobbying Thursday in hopes of staying one step ahead of the bubble.
Instead, he said, “We’ll find out.”
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This post was edited on 1/13 12:19 AM by Brian_GoldandBlack.com
