Busy night last night, so I only got to see a combined twelve minutes of the game. Still...some thoughts:
1. We have to do an even better job of feeding the post. Dakota was absolutely ice last night for us, and there's no way we win without him, but he had one of the poor entries I saw, and it really hurt our momentum. Like I said, Dakota was awesome, but he and the rest of the team have to recognize Haas when he's open and make catchable feeds.
2. Much was made of Eastern's missed dunk and layup last night, but here's what I saw: a hard-nosed defender with a better-than-average understanding of weak-side positioning (relative to his age) and aggressive/hard-working ball-hawking skills (sheesh, that's a lot of hyphens!). If you were playing in front of hundreds of thousands of fans on national TV, you'd be nervous too. I don't worry about any botched FG attempts at all. I like the kid, and I like that Painter let him get some burn in a big-time situation.
3. I love Haarms. So will NBA scouts. I hope we have him for at least two years. Three or four would be even better.
4. Lastly, this board is pretty fascinating as a sociological experiment, as well as a study in how tone reveals true intent. After we had a rough two-day stretch, the board was filled with folks who'd been largely silent--grudgingly silent, I'd say--during our opening winning streak. When we lost, it was as though the barn doors had been blown off, and they emerged with pitchforks and bared teeth attacking Coach Painter, attacking players, attacking anyone who didn't revel in the gloomy shade of negativity. There were a few, like tjreese (Sorry if I misspelled that), who clearly want the team to succeed and who tried to inject a bit of reason. But it all leads me to point something out...
When you post and the tone of your posts reveals your intent. This is self-evident, but I'll say it anyway: This board has an extraordinarily nasty underbelly, one that does our team and our school no favors. Before you criticize--and yes, I can say this, because I live it--ask yourself if you'd say it to the person's face. Would you call a player garbage to his face? To his mom? His dad?
If you answered yes, you're either lying or you're an insufferable jerk. Neither one is a good way to be.
Thankfully, the majority of Purdue fans are supportive, through good times and bad.
Boiler Up.
1. We have to do an even better job of feeding the post. Dakota was absolutely ice last night for us, and there's no way we win without him, but he had one of the poor entries I saw, and it really hurt our momentum. Like I said, Dakota was awesome, but he and the rest of the team have to recognize Haas when he's open and make catchable feeds.
2. Much was made of Eastern's missed dunk and layup last night, but here's what I saw: a hard-nosed defender with a better-than-average understanding of weak-side positioning (relative to his age) and aggressive/hard-working ball-hawking skills (sheesh, that's a lot of hyphens!). If you were playing in front of hundreds of thousands of fans on national TV, you'd be nervous too. I don't worry about any botched FG attempts at all. I like the kid, and I like that Painter let him get some burn in a big-time situation.
3. I love Haarms. So will NBA scouts. I hope we have him for at least two years. Three or four would be even better.
4. Lastly, this board is pretty fascinating as a sociological experiment, as well as a study in how tone reveals true intent. After we had a rough two-day stretch, the board was filled with folks who'd been largely silent--grudgingly silent, I'd say--during our opening winning streak. When we lost, it was as though the barn doors had been blown off, and they emerged with pitchforks and bared teeth attacking Coach Painter, attacking players, attacking anyone who didn't revel in the gloomy shade of negativity. There were a few, like tjreese (Sorry if I misspelled that), who clearly want the team to succeed and who tried to inject a bit of reason. But it all leads me to point something out...
When you post and the tone of your posts reveals your intent. This is self-evident, but I'll say it anyway: This board has an extraordinarily nasty underbelly, one that does our team and our school no favors. Before you criticize--and yes, I can say this, because I live it--ask yourself if you'd say it to the person's face. Would you call a player garbage to his face? To his mom? His dad?
If you answered yes, you're either lying or you're an insufferable jerk. Neither one is a good way to be.
Thankfully, the majority of Purdue fans are supportive, through good times and bad.
Boiler Up.
