(Photo credit: Purdue Basketball)

In a game Purdue absolutely had to have, they came up a little short, losing in overtime to Rutgers today, 71-68.

It was Senior Day at Mackey, usually a tough place to get a win under any circumstances, but especially on Senior Day and when Purdue needs the Dub. Rutgers had previously been 0-7 at Mackey and there were a lot of twitter chatterers complaining about losing at home to the Knights. I mean, sure, but as Jon Rothstein would (endlessly) say, this isn’t your father’s Rutgers team. Four years ago, Aneesh and I watched Purdue win by fifty in their building. Today, Rutgers got to 20 wins, swept Purdue and is the owner of the most home wins in the country, I believe I heard.

Still, it’s cold comfort to Purdue fans, who like a jilted girlfriend were repeatedly drawn into trusting their beloved Boilermakers not to hurt them. This time it’ll be different, they crowed, after Purdue battered Iowa on the road to keep hope alive. Alas, it is not going to happen, as Purdue sits at 16-15 and 9-11 in the conference. It’ll now take a run of the conference tournament to get into the NCAAs. Hell, it’ll take that kind of run to extend Matt Painter’s run of consecutive 20-win seasons to six.

The true crime today was that the King of Mackey, Tommy Luce, did not see the floor. Sasha led the way with 22 points on 7/15 shooting, including 5/13 from deep. Eric Hunter was the only other Boilermaker in double figures with 12 on 4/12 shooting. Nobody besides Sasha hit a trey except Isaiah Thompson, who hit 2/5.

Purdue put together a nice day from the line, shooting 81% to Rutgers’ 57%, but the Boilermakers coupled it with shooting an abysmal 34% from the field and – gulp – 24% from deep. That’s not going to get it done most nights, and yet Purdue had a chance at the end of regulation when Hunter was fouled by Ron Harper. Sadly, Hunter made only one and the game went to OT.

I could break all this down for you but in the end, Rutgers ground this one out. They had four guys in double figures, Geo Baker was a force in the second half and overtime and late in the OT, RU’s Jacob Young fouled Hunter on a three and then cursed directly at the official – who was looking at him – and was somehow free to do so. Hey, like I said, Rutgers got it done… it all helps.

Purdue will play on Thursday in the BTT, potentially against Iowa and while it would be fun to beat them a third time and maybe muck up somebody’s plans along the way, Purdue now has to do something that only one Purdue team ever has done – win the Big Ten Tourney.

Special thanks to the efforts of seniors Evan Boudreaux, Jahaad Proctor, and of course, Tommy Luce. Black and gold forever, boys.