Purdue Shut Down

The Boilers were not on the top of their game on Tuesday night's loss to Duke 76-60. Purdue came out flat and it seemed to stay like that the rest of the night. We were never able to get a good run going that would give us the momentum to get back into the game. Purdue was never able to take the lead or fight back from Duke's 7-0 point run at the start of the game.

Duke's plan coming into the game was to shut down sophomores E'Twaun Moore and Robbie Hummel. The Blue Devils were able to do this without much trouble. Hummel seemed to disappear on the court since he never got an open look at the basket and was held to shoot only 50 percent from the field and only allowed one 3-pointer on several attempts which was when Purdue was shooting 3-pointers desperately towards to end of the game to get something going. E'Twaun Moore was completely shut down in the 1st half and didn't score until the 2nd half, but he did manage to come away with 10 points, only shooting 5 of 12 from the field and scoreless from beyond the arch. The Boilers had to look to other players to step up and make plays.

Purdue looked to their big men down low, Johnson and Calasan, to step up and play big. These two seemed to have the best chance of scoring since Duke was focusing on stopping our perimeter shooting. Johnson and Calason both had relatively good games compared to the rest of the team. They were able to get down low and play physical, get rebounds, and draw fouls while getting shots off. Unfortunately, 2 big men were not able to pull out a win for the Boilers.

The Duke game is one that we Boilers wish we could forget about. It was not a pretty game. Duke and Purdue was, what I believe, the biggest game of the year for the Boilers. There is no better rival than Duke. I am excluding Indiana since they are having a bad year coming off of the coaching incident last year. There is no doubt that Purdue will be able to bounce back from having two losses in a row. They are a good enough team that this will not get inside their heads. I am predicting a blow out this Saturday when we play Arkansas-PB.

UNC Looks Unbelieveable

If you have watched any of North Carolina's basketball games this year, then you know that they are the team to beat in college basketball. I mean, their teams looks unbeatable. They are 8-0 right now and just defeated number 13 Michigan State by 35 points. That is unbelievable. Beating a ranked opponent by that much. They did not just have one good game that blew Michigan State away, but they have been beating opposing teams by anywhere from 15 to 68 points. I don't think that there is a weak point to this Tar Heel basketball team.



This North Carolina offense does not have one star player that they go to. Some may argue that Tyler Hansbrough is their star forward. Yes, he does dominate whoever is guarding him, but he is not the only one that makes plays for the Tar Heels. There are 6 plays who are averaging double figures in the points category so far this season.



Tyler Hansbrough and Ty Lawson are two key players that make this team so good. Tyler Hansbrough has been averaging 22 points and about 7 rebounds per game. The most impressive stat that Hansbrough brings to the game is his free throws. So far this season he has made 41 free throws out of 44 attempts giving him a 93 free throw percentage. He is clearly an offensive threat to any team. The only bad things I have notices about Hansbrough is that he does not pass the ball that well and thus averages less than one assist per game.



Ty Lawson is the "team player" that every coach wishes he could have. In the last 5 games, Lawson has 38 assists compared to only 3 turnovers. He is one that you feel safe giving the ball to knowing that he won't give it up. Averaging about 16 points and 7 assists per game, this guy is one you need to keep your eye on at all times.



At this rate, I don't see UNC losing a single game this season. They have all of their basics down pat without a single weak point. This team is loaded with players that could be stars on almost any other college team, but the way they play is what makes them better. No one on the team wants to be the star, but they share the wealth and contribute to the team and don't worry about pumping up their stats. I would put money on this team going very very far in March Madness this year.

Purdue Loses…Again!!!!!

On December 2, 2008 the Purdue Boilermakers played the Duke Blue Devils and faced a determined squad and Olympic Gold coach, Coach K. The Purdue Boilers came out and started the game the same exact way they finished the game against Oklahoma. If you happened to miss that game they played with no poise and made very stupid mistakes. So after the Duke Blue Devils pulled out to an early lead they never looked back and the game ended with a score of 76-60 Duke. The Purdue Boilermakers played like shit and could not hit a damn shot. The entire game they went 22-59 in field goals, which is a terrible 37.3 percent. This is not a good percentage for any team in Division I of the NCAA and for any team at all in college basketball. They also went 2-13 for three’s with a percentage of 15.4; this is really really bad. I mean that is the main thing that keeps us in games is the trey. When we are not hitting three’s the chances of us winning the game is very very slim, if not minimal. The stats leaders for the Purdue Boilermakers were Robbie Hummel with 15 Points, Robbie Hummel with 8 rebounds, Chris Kramer with 4 assists and 3 steals, and JaJuan Johnson with 3 blocks. The Purdue Boilermakers should have been closer in this game although I don’t think they should have won because of the way they have been playing. I noticed that their play style aggressive or suppressive depends on the crowds loudness and craziness. It seems that if the crowd is loud and into the game Purdue’s defense is extremely aggressive and their offense is just great, but the second that the crowd stops screaming and yelling “GO PURDUE” they just turn into the same Purdue; it’s as if the football team has been transferred to the basketball team. Ha Ha Ha. Duke on the other hand had an amazingly good game Scheyer had an amazing game and seemed as if he could not miss a three or a shot for that matter. He was the leading scorer with 20 points and had 2 steals. Gerald Henderson had 2 blocks and 5 assists along with 2 points; his night was not good for him because he usually is a very explosive player throughout the entire game and in this game he had only a few explosive moments that really caught my attention. Kyle Singler had a double double (having two stats that are in double digits) in that he had 20 points, tied for tops with Sheyer, and 12 rebounds. This was probably one of his best games in the season although his point total was one point from a season best, he beat his rebound season high by four boards and because of six offensive boards gave Duke plenty of second chance attempts that just helped beat Purdue even more than what happened. Although Purdue did not play the game that they wanted there is always room in the tournament and if we can get wins against Wisconsin, Michigan State, and Ohio State then we should be in good shape for and NCAA tournament bid. Hopefully we can fix our little miss communications on the court and be able to get to the Big Ten Title game and win it. Purdue needs a little refining and I think they will get better and better as their young players start to get familiar with the offense and rotation off the bench.

Purdue’s Loss Questionable?

On November 28 the Purdue Boilermakers lost to the Oklahoma Sooners in the preseason NIT finals. The game went into overtime and some very questionable fouls were called. Including one in overtime that gave the Sooners the momentum to go ahead and take the game. The game was very well played and showed how good both teams were; in the first half there was a total of almost eight points scored by the two teams combined. The leading scorers for the Purdue Boilermakers were E’twaun Moore with twenty-two points and Nemanja Calasan with twenty points. The leading scorers for the Oklahoma Sooners were Willie Warren with twenty –two points, Taylor Griffin with nineteen points, and Blake Griffin with eighteen points. Blake Griffin is a beast because in this game he had more boards that points which in my opinion is just beasty. Blake Griffin pretty much dominated the entire game and came out with twenty one rebounds, nineteen points, three assists, two steals, and two blocks. I believe that although Purdue was dominated by Blake Griffin, which they should not have lost. The reason for the loss was both a little bit of Purdue’s fault; most of all though it was the refs fault because although Purdue put their team into this position that refs were not calling fair fouls. The foul that was definitely not fair was when E’twaun Moore was called for an intentional foul although it did not even look like he had fouled the other team’s player. Purdue was not playing well at all the whole night, though, they did not look like the team that came out and beat Boston College. They just didn’t seem like they were all on the same page so maybe they deserved to lose this game and get it out of the way.