The Ten at Ten
The Boiling Point: The Ten at Ten.
Welcome to the Ten at Ten, a list of 10 positives/negatives/in-between from the previous week in Purdue sports posted at 10am eastern every Monday.
Positives
1) Going to Little Caesar’s Pizza Bowl– Purdue will be traveling to Detroit to play Western Michigan at Ford Field on December 27th. Is it a lower tier bowl? Yes. However, it is Purdue’s first bowl game since 2007 and for how up and down this season has been I’d say it is an accomplishment. Purdue will be able to practice 20 hours a week like usual instead of not being able to do anything. Also, it will give the Boilers some time to heal up since they probably won’t have a true practice every day. Some days will just be watching film, lifting, studying the opponent, etc.
2) First 30 Minutes of Xavier Game– With Purdue going to #11 Xavier, pretty much every media prediction I saw was a double digit loss for the Boilers. For the first 30 minutes of the game Purdue did pretty much the opposite, building up a 19 point lead. We had good balance on offense, were playing great defense, and just were having an overall really good game. It says something that we got to that lead when Robbie Hummel couldn’t buy a shot.
3) Women Beat Texas A&M– Yesterday Purdue took on defending champion and number 4 ranked Texas A&M. The Boilers used a 19-3 run in the second half to propel them to the victory. This game is sandwiched by a loss to highly ranked Duke last week and a game against last year’s national title runner up Notre Dame. Purdue was ranked #16 yesterday and should move up in the rankings when they are released.
4) Volleyball Going to Sweet 16– This past Friday and Saturday Purdue hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA tourney. The 5th ranked Boilers won both rounds to advance to the Sweet 16. On Friday they defeated Morehead St 3 sets to 0 and on Saturday defeated Louisville 3 sets to 1. The next opponent is Florida State and then they’d play the winner of Iowa St and Minnesota in the Elite 8. The Big Ten had 6 teams make the Sweet 16, cementing their place as the best conference for women’s volleyball.
In the Middle
5) Coach Painter Decisions– To say Coach Painter is responsible for the loss Saturday against Xavier is just dumb. He isn’t the one that went out there and made only two shots in the last ten minutes while Xavier suddenly was hitting everything, even with hands in their face. Painter clearly had a game plan and it was working to pretty much perfection for the first 30 minutes. Purdue was getting looks but they weren’t falling. However, there were a couple decisions I didn’t agree with. First, was keeping Travis Carroll in the game for so long. He didn’t match up with their athletic post players and he didn’t match up with their huge guy Frease. At least Sandi Marcius was causing Frease to foul and he was strong enough to handle him. Jacob Lawson matched up fine with the other post players. I realize that Sandi and Lawson had major foul trouble, but I have to think it may have been better to just let both of them foul out before putting Carroll back in. Second, was it seemed like Purdue got complacent on offense in the second half and not driving to the rim as much. Some of it was Purdue not hitting shots, some was better defense on Xavier, but driving to the whole was working really well. Also, where was Kelsey Barlow? He had limited minutes because of fouls, but he was effective when he was in. I’d imagine that his defense and ability to get to the rim would have helped immensely.
Negatives
6) Last 10 Minutes of Xavier Game– The last 10 minutes of the Xavier game was just not good. Though if we kept hitting shot like we had been we would have won easily. Probably still would have won if Robbie hadn’t been decimated by body cramps in his whole body. The team has to fight through adversity though. Yeah, Xavier was hitting threes like crazy, but have to be better disciplined. This was Purdue’s chance to make a statement win over the #11 team in the country and they just blew it. Last 10 minutes Purdue only made 2 shots, only had 6 free throws(made 4), Xavier hit 5 threes in a row, Hummel taken out by cramps, and 5 turnovers. Pretty much what could go wrong, did go wrong.
7) Travis Carroll– I’ve never been the biggest fan of Carroll. Last year I though he maybe could be decent, but I think that was more of comparing him to Patrick Bade. Carroll had a key layup miss(how many now?), a terrible decision to shoot from almost three point land, as well as that costly travel when he is outside the three point line. I don’t fault Painter for recruiting him since he was supposed to keep growing and didn’t as well as he was the Gatorade Player of the Year for Indiana. He just seems to not be panning out. I can’t think of many match-ups that work in his favor.
8) Fouling From the Center Position– Part of the reason Carroll played a lot is because Sandi and Lawson were in foul trouble. There’s no doubt that Lawson has played above expectations this year and could start by the end of the year. His foul trouble is killing him though. It is something that affects freshman every year, but Purdue needs him to figure it out fast.
9) Purdue’s Fan Base– If I had any doubt Purdue’s fan base was terrible after the attendance for the Iowa football game to make a bowl game, the nonstop complaining about anything Purdue sports, and attendance in lower bowl at basketball games, then the outcry after the game Saturday confirmed it. For some reason, there’s people that think Painter shouldn’t be the coach because we lost to the number 11 team in the country. Let me clue all of you in on something: Just because he is getting $2.5mil now, doesn’t mean he automatically wins national titles. Getting extra money doesn’t automatically mean the team is full of future NBA players. Fact: Coach K didn’t win his first national title until his 11th year at Duke while his first three years at Duke were terrible and he admitted he would probably have been fired if he did that in the age we live in now. Also, there’s people saying its a joke that we’re in the bowl we’re in. Really?! You’re the same people who said we wouldn’t make a bowl in the first place. Maybe I just need to stay off any Purdue message boards since they may be a small sample of Purdue’s fan base, but if the fan base as a whole is like it, then it’s a joke. Purdue fans are apathetic, bandwagoners, who don’t have enough diehards to stick with it through thick and thin. There’s a reason the top teams in the country sell out every game and have crazy atmospheres; they have die hard fans. Even Iowa sells out all their football games and they aren’t historically really good. If you want to change the culture of winning at Purdue then demand it by changing the culture of the fans. It’s easy to sit at home and complain when you contribute nothing to the cause by not going to any games or donating any money.
10) Officiating Consistency– I wouldn’t blame the loss on Saturday on officiating at all, but there was a consistency issue. How Xavier is in double bonus 8ish minutes into the second half while Purdue didn’t get there until only a couple minutes, is beyond me. Both teams were pretty much playing the same style of defense and it seemed the game was called different ways not only in both halves, but in spurts as well. It was just suspect both ways.
What are your positives, negatives, or anything really from the week in Purdue sports? Let us know in the comments area.