Boudreaux, Boilers, Bounce Badgers
(Photo Credit: Purdue Sports)
After the Illinois game, Coach Paint wasn’t pleased as time and again, he blamed himself for not preparing his team. He thought they’d take the fight to the Illini, mere weeks after a historic shellacking of his squad. Purdue didn’t have it on Tuesday. Tonight in Mackey Arena, the fight returned, and so did Mackey Magic. Purdue routed Wisconsin, 70-51 in an unusual primetime Friday night B1G game.
It was Purdue’s Coaches for Cancer game, so Purdue donned black, gray and highlighter yellow uniforms with an ode to our friend, Tyler Trent, on the jersey. They didn’t dress like our Boilers normally dress, but they played like we all have come to expect them to play at home. Sure we’re spoiled, but our un-managed Boiler ball expectations generally lead to very good things.
Eastern set the tone on the defensive side of the court early as he made everything difficult for Wisconsin’s guards. He played hard-nosed, tight on-ball defense, and was a rim protector as well. He also confidently knocked down shots on the offensive side of the floor for the third-straight game. He evened knocked down his only two free throws for good measure. He stuffed the stat sheet with 8 pts, 4 rebounds, 3 blocks, 2 steals an assist…and 0 turnovers. He was everywhere, especially in the first half, and completely disrupted Wisconsin’s offensive.
At the same time Evan Boudreaux played a special brand of basketball, and did it as a starter (in the place of Haarms). When he made things difficult for MSU a few weeks ago, it was his shooting that was the difference-maker. Tonight, he scrapped for 50/50 balls, shot the ball well (4/7), and cleaned the glass until it was spotless. The effort earned him with a double-double, and left Wisconsin woozy and staggered. He finished with 10 points, 13 rebounds and 3 assists. The Mackey faithful ate it up.
Purdue got back to doing what they generally do at home, after the hiccup versus Illinois. They played harder, smarter and simply better than Wisconsin. But the most noteworthy stat was the rebounding battle. Purdue finished the game with 42…Wisconsin had 16. Yeah, Boudreaux almost grabbed as many boards as the entire Wisconsin team. Those rebounds led to second and third chance buckets for Purdue and quick possessions for Wisconsin.
Purdue led by 18 to end the first half, while holding Wisconsin to a paltry 15 points. Purdue flexed out their sizable lead to 45-17 early in the second half…and even when Purdue stubbed their collective toe, the differential never got closer than 15 points. Matchups are everything, in basketball as we’ve seen versus Illinois twice this season…but versus the plodding Badgers, Purdue matches up quite well…even without their offensive stalwart, Tre Williams. He was in foul trouble for much of the game, so his minutes were limited. It didn’t matter.
Sasha hit 4 of his 10 three pointers and scored 12 points. Haarms added 11 points, but maybe more importantly, showed emotion and fire, for the first time in too long. And for the first time in a while, Purdue had a threat to score from deep coming off of the bench- Thompson was uber efficient, as he went 6/8 and scored 14 big points.
If you’re an optimist, you might see this as a sign of potentially good things to come. If you’re a pessimist, you might see tonight’s game as frustrating, as this Jekyll & Hyde Purdue squad continues to struggle to find consistency. I think the realist in me says this Purdue needs grit and toughness to win games…and will need a ton of it in the next month and one-half, if they dare to dream about making the dance.
Eastern and Hunter simply must play high-level on-ball defense all of the time. Guys like Haarms, Sash and Boudreaux must frustrate and confound opponents as they scratch and claw for every loose ball. Mean Tre has to show his teeth, night-in, night-out. Notice, I haven’t mentioned shooting, because I don’t think Purdue can count on that on the road. The path to the tournament must be paved with bruises, floor burns and sweat.
Purdue improves to 11-9 (4-5), and their NET coming into the game was in the mid-40s. There is plenty of work yet to be done.
Next up, Purdue travels to visit the suddenly-terrifying #24 Scarlet Knights (Tuesday, 1/28 @ 8:00p).
