Feature image from AP’s Paul Sancya

Purdue only plays double overtime games on 2020 Thursday nights, apparently. Adjust your blood pressure medication accordingly.

This wasn’t the way we wanted Purdue to start their toughest stretch of the season. After Sunday’s historically dreadful 37-point, 25% shooting performance at Illinois, none of us knew what to expect at #19 Michigan. The only certainty was that predicting a Purdue performance on the road would be nearly impossible. (Basically, for you gamblers out there, just stay away when Purdue isn’t in the friendly and clearly magical confines of Mackey.)

I had a modest wish list to see tonight: energy on the road, shooting consistency, and bench scoring of any kind. Easy and simple.

I wasn’t expecting two career-high performances and the second double overtime game of 2020.

The first half was, honestly, kind of boring. Sloppy play on both ends (11 Purdue turnovers to Michigan’s 8), a total of four made three pointers, and only Trevion Williams and Eric Hunter offered any offensive production for Purdue. Trevion has been so very steady all season, and he was cooking when Michigan put backup center Austin Davis on him with no help.

(Williams and Hunter have been Purdue’s steadiest players all season, which is very great for them but also isn’t great for the expected offensive bedrocks Matt Haarms and Nojel Eastern. Haarms has been injured and inconsistent all year, and Nojel has taken strides forward defensively but stagnated offensively. Not ideal, but it’s allowed Williams to blossom.)

Michigan, meanwhile, was being driven by center Jon Teske to a 4-point halftime lead. Neither team was shooting particularly well, with the only difference being Purdue’s three extra turnovers leading to extra Michigan possessions.

Matt Haarms suffered a pretty violent fall on his hip late in the first half after getting a bit undercut after jumping for a block, forcing him to sit for the rest of the game. Fast forward to the end, and Haarms was the player Purdue desperately needed to beat the 19th ranked Wolverines on the road.

Trevion continued his utter dominance in the second half, except this half he demoralized Michigan on the glass with 6 rebounds in the first 8 minutes of play. Trevion and Purdue got an unexpected offensive boost during this run – Isaiah Thompson, in the best stretch of his young collegiate career, scoring 15 points on his own as Purdue pulled into the lead.

It bought enough time to get Trevion back into a rhythm, and this is when the game went from good to great. It was Trevion Williams vs Jon Teske and Zavier Simpson, back and forth to break each other’s will.

The biggest concern was making sure Trevion didn’t get too gassed as no backups were available to spare him some time. But Trevion kept attacking through regulation, including this absurd step-back three to beat the shot clock right after Teske scored four straight points:

But Simpson just wouldn’t let Michigan die. With Haarms out and switches getting him away from Nojel, Simpson relentlessly attacked the paint and plunged daggers into Purdue fan’s hearts each time. Just truly phenomenal, finishing with 22 points and 9 assists on 9/13 shooting, including this game-tying layup in regulation:

Purdue couldn’t get a bucket in the final seconds of regulation after a timeout…couldn’t get a bucket in the final seconds of the first overtime after a timeout and an offensive rebound. (Don’t worry, you can skip straight to The Bad section if you want the excruciating details for both of those plays.) Overtime featured another Williams vs Simpson duel – Trevion bullied Teske in the post, and Simpson attacked Trevion off a high screen. It was Simpson again who tied the game at the end of overtime with a dribble-drive layup, because he had no conscience tonight.

Trevion did his best in overtime to bully the Boilermakers to a win, but asking him to carry Purdue in 2OT was a bridge too far. Michigan opened the final extra period with six quick points (of course, a Teske three-point play and a Simpson three), and after Trevion short-armed a hook it was pretty much over.

But my takeaway – this Purdue team has an abundance of heart, even if they might not have the consistent shooting skill to go with it. Tonight was an especially great effort immediately after one of the most disappointing performances of the Painter era. Hopefully, this bounce back performance is a signal that the Illinois game was a real outlier that won’t be seen again during this rebuilding year.

Purdue continues along its tough three-game stretch, returning to Mackey on Sunday to host #8 Michigan State before traveling to #12 Maryland a week later. On paper, that should be a winless stretch for this roster. But, as tonight showed, you never know which Purdue team might walk out onto the floor. Here’s hoping this close loss carries over, instead of causing another post-overtime hangover.

Player of the Game

I mean, do we really need to even have a category here? Trevion Williams has been Purdue’s most consistent player this season, he was Purdue’s rock tonight, he made the ballsy move of being a husky big man in Biggie Swanigan’s #50 jersey and this season has exceeded every expectation. 36 points and 20 rebounds on 16/28 shooting, plus 2 assists, 1 block, and no turnovers.

(To be fair, sophomore year Swanigan had games with 32pts/20rbs, 28/22, 21/21, 23/20, 25/17, 24/16, 25/15, and also had handfuls of assists and threes to boot. Don’t get me wrong, Trevion looked every bit as good tonight as sophomore Biggie, but let’s not forget how consistently dominant Swanigan was.)

The Good

• Trevion Williams is good. That’s it, the whole bullet point, that’s my big message here, long live Trevion.

• Maize Rage jerseys. The section name belongs squarely in “The Bad”, but man these Space Jam jerseys are nice:

• Isaiah Thompson scoring off the bench (kinda) in the second half. This is kind of cheating, because Isaiah got the second half start in place of Haarms as Painter decided to go smaller. But bench or not, Isaiah was Purdue’s engine in the second half. He finished with 14 points on 4/8 shooting, and hopefully it carries into the Michigan State game in Mackey.

The Bad

• Defending dribble-drives after Haarms’ fall in the first half, which injured his hip and kept him out during the second half and both OTs. Purdue really needed Haarms’ rim protection against the unstoppable Simpson late in the second half, and would have gotten the win with him on the floor.

• The final play of regulation. After a Purdue timeout, Hunter and Wheeler played hot potato at top of the arc before Hunter made a way-too-late drive-and-dump to Trevion that didn’t have a chance.

• The final play of overtime. Out of a timeout, Trevion was doubled on the low block, missed, Purdue grabbed the rebound, and..instead of running a play, Hunter just isolated for a contested jumper. I wonder if this year’s last second out-of-timeout difficulties are because of poor play design or poor execution, but they need a ton of improvement.

The Ugly

• Nojel-Isaiah-Proctor-Wheeler-Boudreaux lineup was on the floor for like two minutes in the second half and it gave me heart palpitations the entire time.

• Michigan put up 7 airballs at home tonight, must be the draft inside Crisler Arena (and good perimeter defense from Purdue).

• Purdue’s bench depth. Painter has 5 players he can trust in a double overtime situation like tonight, and with an injury it leads to three non-shooting threats on the floor during crunch time. This is not ideal. It’s great that Isaiah Thompson emerged in the second half as a viable threat, but the disappearance of other scorers during the season is the reason Purdue can fight this hard but still fall short.