With just seconds remaining, Matt Painter was still animated on the most-famous court in basketball. He wasn't demonstrably coaching, he was letting a particular official know how wrong he was for his handling of the closing minutes of the Pre-Season NIT Final on Friday evening.
FOUL!!! On each of you!!
Painter, who's had one technical foul called on him in the previous three seasons, took umbrage with the officials...and this might be why- Purdue had 28 personal fouls, OU had 15. Purdue took 5 free throws, OU took 46. OU received that delicious home cooking that might have made an IU fan blush. Plus, in the closing seconds, Smooge drove, got past the defender and made it to the freethrow line and the ball was knocked away; cleanly, in the opinion of the officials. Problem was, it was knocked away by a player behind Moore; so he either hand an extra elbow to help his arm articulate and avoid contact, or the officials missed yet another easy foul.
No matter, Purdue lost to a good team, and squandered opportunities to put the game away in the closing minutes of regulation. It reminded me of an NCAA tourney game...and I can guarantee you, the calls won't always go their way in March either.
Our Boilers slowed down one of the nation's best low post players for big chunks of the game. The combination of solid post defense by Calasan and double-teaming by the Ostrich and others that kept Griffin on his heels for most of the contest. Problem was, as Griffin was held in check, OU's blue chip Frosh, Warren went berzerk. Games like these are a good opportunity to learn how to get better, and I think our Boilers will do that.
Green made some heady plays on both sides of the floor, Calasan scored the ball well versus a very good low post presence, and played defense even better, Smooge was a bit streaky while scoring the team high 22 points and Hummel was in the right place on a lot of occasions as he played his typical style of game. The problem with that style of game is that it leads to him earning 2 fouls quickly, nearly every contest, and in this one, he was fouled out at the end of the game and clearly was aggitated that he couldn't contributed during overtime. He's gotta figure this out...Hopefully, he'll learn to control his handsy defense before the BT schedule begins.
I was very impressed with LewJack during chunks of the game. He shot the three well, and had 8 points in the first half alone. I would have liked to have seen more of him in the second half...but I was proven to be not-too-smart as he threw the ball away on Purdue's last legitimate possession in the overtime period. Kramer played well and had some nifty pull-up jumpers, but also missed a few shots by a whole bunch and looked like the old poor-shooting Kramer at times. Johnson had a lot of trouble with Griffin's strength and didn't seem to square his shoulders on a few of his turn-arounds. Keaton Grant's shooting is really bothering me right now...It seems that he's either very cold or his old knee injury isn't allowing him to get his legs set comfortably...It's definitely something to watch in the coming weeks.
I'm not bothered by the loss...we'll get to see how these guys bounce back versus, arguably, the best team on the schedule, this coming Tuesday. But, I'm always angry when officials don't call even games; this game was far from even, and OU plays a pretty aggressive, extended defense. Onward and upward...Next up, the UND football team of college basketball.