Wait Til Next Year, Purdue
by David P Funk on Feb 5, 2012 3:39 PM CST
in Purdue
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PrintPurdue's 17-point loss to Indiana Saturday at Mackey Arena feels like the beginning of the end. And Boilermaker fans should have seen it coming.
Matt Painter is a great strategic coach and usually gets the most out of his players. At first glance, it would appear that he's not doing that this season. A deeper look reveals that there may just not be a lot of potential to be maximizing.
Outside of Robbie Hummel, not a single player on this team comes from a class that was ranked in the top 25 by Scout. There just isn't that much talent out there. And that is Painter's fault.
During the current stretch in which Purdue is 3-5, the team is shooting under 36 percent from the floor (145-403). That's not going to get it done. But maybe this is less an anomaly and more the norm with this group of shooters. They're only shooting 63 percent from the free throw line, after all. There are four players (Terone Johnson, Travis Carroll, Jacob Lawson and Anthony Johnson) who are shooting .500 or worse from the charity stripe.
Maybe they just can't shoot.
Defense. That's what Painter is supposed to be all about. Thusfar this season, the Boilermakers are allowing 63.5 points per game. That puts them right around 80th best in the country (last update was Feb. 2, when Purdue was ranked 69th). During the aforementioned eight-game period, the team is actually allowing five points more per game.
Defense may have lived in West Lafayette in the past and it may live there again in the future, but it's at least on vacation right now. It's probably in Wisconsin.
Sometimes defensive insufficiencies can be hidden with good shooting (which Purdue doesn't have) and rebounding, thus not allowing second chance shots. JaJuan Johnson left a big hole in the middle of the Boilermaker lineup.
Over the season, Purdue is averaging 33.8 rebounds per game. Unfortunately, it's opponents are averaging 35 rebounds per game. And those numbers are skewed because they include games against High Point, Northern Illinois, Western Michigan and Coppin State.
During these last eight games, the boilers are grabbing just over 30 boards while opponents are getting to over 43.
Painter's squad is now .500 in the conference. It hasn't been under .500 this deep into the Big Ten schedule in five years but that's about to change. Tuesday, Purdue will visit Colombus and the No. 3 Ohio State Buckeyes. They won't win that game.
And they're probably not going to get above .500 before the conference tournament. The schedule still includes games at Michigan and Illinois and a home game against Michigan State.
It's time for Boiler Nation to come around and realize that this team is not a world beater. Even if Purdue sneaks into the tournament, it will have a hard time competing.
But hey, La Lumiere had a good week. Just wait til next year, Purdue.
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Pretty sneaking posting this before a Super Bowl in Indianapolis.
I’m sure the flame war will start soon.
Hard to flame when he is right
Say what you will but I hope all purdue fans can see that the vaunted Purdue defense is missing this year.
Offensive struggles are normal to see but the defensive lapses aren’t. This is what I think the major factor for failure s for this team. I don’t know that I’d agree that the talent isn’t there at all. There have been stretches of plenty of games where purdue has dominated, but it always happens when the defense steps up (how many turnovers did Xavier have in the first half, like 50?).
Without that defense though, they struggle and the rest of their gaps become more apparent.
I think the article inadvertently snubbed LewJack, but regardless…
I don’t know that I’d agree that the talent isn’t there at all
Consistency.
Kelsey Barlow can be a lock down defensive player and drive to the rim whenever he pleases. But he’s also prone to come off like he’s just winging it out there. Terone Johnson (not considering his free throw woes) can be an effective offensive player being able to shoot the three and drive it to the bucket but then he’ll randomly go ice cold. Same with Anthony Johnson. Smith and Byrd can sometimes be deadly from the three and sometimes they can’t buy a bucket. Lawson actually is a big that has shown signs of being able to score inside but he’s struggled picking up the offense and with fouls.
Basically, there’s a lot of pieces there capable of beating teams. This team should have beaten Xavier, Michigan and Butler and was on the verge against Wiscy and Indiana. They just can’t piece it all together for a complete 40 and it’s costing them day in and day out.
I think the biggest reason is they need an inside presence. Hummel is essentially a power forward but his entire game is mainly outside scoring now and he hasn’t been the same pre-ACL injury (his shooting is usually abysmal in games we lose). Outside of Hummel almost all of our offense comes from guards scoring, which means if the outside shot doesn’t fall we can’t score. Marcius / Carroll don’t have any presence in the lane at all and don’t even demand or attempt to score down low it seems. I know it wouldn’t solve anything, but if we had a center with at least somewhat of an offensive game then we’d be a lot better off and probably have several less loses.
We do have two strong recruiting classes for 2012 and 2013, there is talent with current freshman Lawson and A. Johnson and if Terone Johnson continues to develop this could be a fun team to watch. I just wish the current one would piece together an entire game for once.
http://theboilermaker.blogspot.com/
by Bryan Steedman on Feb 5, 2012 10:53 PM CST up reply actions
It's not that there's no talent
It’s just that there always seems to be a fatal flaw. You pointed most of them out.
Outside of Hummel and LewJack, the team is full of guys who would be great to bring off the bench, guys that would’ve been great as the second of third best player in a recruiting class. And injuries don’t allow Hummel and Jackson to be the kind of guys that can carry a team, anymore.
On a positive note, it’s kind of nice that a disappointing season for Purdue is going to be one with 17, 18, 19 wins. Those 2005, 2006 type seasons don’t look like they’ll be repeated any time soon.
You don’t think it’s disingenuous to say that Purdue doesn’t have talent on the floor? Purdue has a couple of four star players in Hummel, TJ, and AJ even if they didn’t come in with enough other talented guys to reach the top 25. TJ and AJ play like 3 star freshman though TJ has a year of experience under his belt and AJ had the benefit of a redshirt year to help him transition to the college game.
Purdue would be worlds better if their players had a solid base of fundamental skills. There’s no excuse for being a guard that can’t hit free throws. Painter should be drilling free throws in every practice at this point. If they fixed that alone they wouldn’t be a team that had a chance of finding itself on the bubble come Selection Sunday.
See guys I agree, there isn't much talent
After Hummel, Lewis Jackson (I guess) and Barlow most of Purdue’s regular rotation really isn’t that good. DJ Byrd is a joke. And there aren’t players like on Indiana, Illinois, Michigan State and OSU who can just take over a game out of the blue if the leading scorers falter, in fact the only player on the team who I think can really win a game by putting the team on his back is Hummel, and I suppose Barlow is athletic enough to bust out once in a while as well. Point is this isn’t too big a deal all the time, Michigan can’t win if Hardaway Jr or Burke doesn’t score a ton because players like Novak aren’t talented. But the difference is that their role players who aren’t as athletic as who their defending are still consistent.
