Purdue Beats Temple

The Boiling Point: Purdue beats Temple in semifinals of Puerto Rico Tip-Off.

Purdue is on their way to the championship game against the winner of Alabama and Wichita St. They beat Temple 85-77 today in the semifinals. This is a good win for Purdue since Temple is #26 in the polls and will really help the out of conference strength of schedule at NCAA tournament selection time. The Boilers will play at 8pm eastern on ESPN2 Sunday. Below are some brief points about the game.

-A lot of people questioned where Purdue was going to get their offense this year. Well Purdue has scored more than 85 points in three of their first four games. They also have done this by not shooting above average. Hopefully this is something that can continue throughout the season. Being able to put up points while not shooting above average is going to help if the defense doesn’t get fixed.

-I usually never question Coach Painter but why Travis Carroll played so much is mystifying to me. Jacob Lawson didn’t have a great game but Sandi Marcius was playing really well. In the box score you’ll see he had 2 points, 2 assists, and 5 rebounds in 14 minutes, but he did all the stuff that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet. He set great screens to open up shots, played really good defense and help defense(minus one play he left his guy open), and he just took up space. Carroll meanwhile was over-matched and not athletic enough finishing with 2 rebounds in 16 minutes with no points on his one shot.

-This might have been one of the more inconsistently reffed games I’ve watched. It started out not much being called, then everything, then nothing again, then literally every single thing even when they weren’t fouls, and back and forth. This drives coaches nuts because the teams can’t get in the flow of the game. The fouls were just bad both ways and in the second half both teams were in the double bonus with almost 8 minutes left. That’s just ridiculous.

-After starting out slow, Lewis Jackson completely took over the second half. Robbie Hummel looked to be on fire with 12 points in the first half but only had one made field goal in the second half(still got 20 points). LewJack stepped up and finished with 26 points, 1 rebound, 3 assists, and 1 steal. Him being able to step up when needed and put a lot of points up will be huge this season.

-DJ Byrd played a big role off the bench. He did his usual thing of stuff that doesn’t show up on the stat sheet and finished with 12 big points in 17 minutes. Anthony Johnson was also effective in his 14 minutes with 6 points and 3 rebounds.

-Defense and free throw shooting have to improve. Giving up as many points as Purdue has to mid-major(albeit really good mid-major) teams can’t happen. If it keeps going like that just wait until Big Ten Season. Free throws once again were a struggle early on but eventually they hit 19 straight in the second half. Rebounding also has to improve as they lost the board battle 29-27.

Full box score here.  Also, let us know what you thought of the game below.