U-G-L-Y; Purdue 57 - Michigan 76

Purdue lost today for a number of reasons. It’s important though to remember that Michigan played a big part in why Purdue lost. Let’s not sit here and pretend this was all about Purdue. Michigan is a damn fine basketball team with a damn fine coach. Keep that in mind. That said, Purdue didn’t help themselves today. They played shoddy defense for the first 28 minutes, only coming alive when the game was already decided, and failed to knock down easy shots when they had a chance to chip away at the lead. Purdue also continued down their recent path of turning the ball over far too much in critical places. Carsen Edwards was a key problem here again.

John Wooden Memorial Player of the Game (JWMPOTG): Jordan Poole. He absolutely dominated Purdue on offense. At one point in the second half he hit a three to put Michigan up 70-50 and was 5-5 from three at that point. It’s just amazing how this Michigan has players step up year after year to fill the holes of those that graduate. Poole finsihed 8-9 from the floor and 5-5 from three. Incredible game.

Purdue deg themselves a hole early by allowing Michigan to shoot 54% from the floor including 60% from three in the first half. That’s a recipe for disaster. Amazingly also that Teske his two threes, the second and third of his career. Purdue was just a step and a half slow on defense and failed to put a hand in the face of the numerous Michigan shooters.

On the offensive end Purdue couldn’t get anything going for the majority of the game. Purdue ended the first half with just 28 points with 9 of those coming off of Ryan Cline three pointers. Other than that there wasn’t much going on. Edwards had 10 sure, but he was 4-13 from the floor. I understand that he’s got to have the ball in his hands to make plays but Purdue needs him to be much more efficient if they want to reach their potential this year. No other Purdue player had more than three points in the first half. That allowed Michigan to focus on Edwards and Cline as the rest of the Purdue team sputtered.

The second half saw Michigan have a 7:00+ minute field goal drought but Purdue still couldn’t take advantage and on the back of the JWMPOTG Michigan pushed their lead back up to 20. After that it was all over but the final score. There was nothing Purdue could do.

Let’s look at some quick hits before we go.

• Purdue got good minutes from Aaron Wheeler who finished with 8 points on 3-3 shooting and 5 rebounds.
• Carsen finished 7-21 from the floor for 19 points. But, he had five turnovers of Purdue’s 10 total. As Carsen Edwards goes so goes Purdue.
• Purdue allowed Michigan to shoot 50% from three. Michigan went 13-26.
• Ryan Cline went 6-8 from the floor and has continued to show great improvement on his ability to put the ball on the floor and get to the hoop. He’s been Purdue’s brightest star not named Carsen Edwards.
• Edwards shot 21 times. Purdue took 62 times. Carsen Edwards took 34% of Purdue’s shots. That’s not ideal.
• Boudreaux struggled from the floor going a, ahem, bad 1-8. Can’t be having that. Combined with Haarms 2-6 the Purdue bigs went 3-14. That’s not a recipe for success.

Unfortunately this game may cause Purdue to fall out of the top 25 with their record now 5-3. The schedule doesn’t get much easier as Purdue heads home to play #24 Maryland, then on the road to #17 Texas. Purdue doesn’t get a true breather until the December 20th game against Ohio. Things need to come together soon for this team. NCAA Tournament resumes are made in the months of December and January.