Iowa 70, Purdue 63: Purdue Collapses at Home

Well, I have no idea what that was. Purdue led 40-22 with 19 minutes left after a basket by Caleb Swanigan.  This was after a fist half where Purdue went on a 16-0 run and channeled the spirit of Rick Mount from long range. It looked like Purdue would cruise, but in the final 19 minutes Purdue spiraled into a freaking mountain. The Boilers scored 2 points in a stretch from 16:28 to 7:08, and Iowa scored 19 in that time to take the lead.

It was about as bad of a stretch as you can have. Purdue was completely lost offensively, turned the ball over, and took bad shots. Defensively they were getting beat and when they did play good defense Iowa, particularly Jarrod Uthoff, hit though shot after tough shot. Before we knew what happened an 18 point second half lead at home had become a 7 point deficit.

I have to give Iowa credit. They played some very good basketball and took full advantage of Purdue not making any adjustments to their press. They caused a lot of turnovers, but Purdue time and again ran into their press and Thompson never had any help when he was trapped at midcourt.

Even worse, Purdue was out of timeouts for the final 8 minutes, not that it mattered much because when the Boilers did use them it did little good. There wasn't anything the Boilers could do to stem the rising Hawkeye tide.

This game was a lot like the Ohio State home game during the 2009-10 season when Robbie Hummel blistered the nets in the first half and Purdue led big, but collapsed on offense late. Tonight it was Jarrod Uthoff playing the role of Evan Turner. He had 25 points and seemed to hit about a dozen fadeaways while being solid at the line.

It was all the second half too. Iowa shot 64% in the half and caused a ton of Purdue turnovers with their trapping defense. Purdue had no answer at all. It looked completely lost on offense from the 16 minute mark on and even after hitting a few shots in the last 5 minutes they had no timeouts left and couldn't get some necessary stops on defense.

So now it is Iowa who has a surprising lead in the Big Ten. They have earned it too by beating Michigan State at home and coming back from 18 down at Purdue to win. Purdue had better right things in a hurry. Michigan is more than good enough to win here Thursday night. Purdue was outscored 50-26 in the second half at home and it wasn't even that close.