Marquette Overcomes 19 Point Deficit, Beats Purdue 65-55
Photo Credit: Exponent
Purdue scored a paultry 17 points in the second half, missed 12 free throws in the game, and deserved to lose late Wednesday night in Milwaukee. Right now, this Purdue team isn’t cohesive and is floundering around as it waits for a leader to emerge from the roster.
Purdue plays Marquette seemingly every year in their Gavitt Games draw, and in this year’s installment, was a flat-out rock fight. A decade ago, Purdue won games like this regularly…but for the second straight year, Purdue lost an ugly game, in painful fashion to an OK Big East team (last year, it was UND in December).
Purdue couldn’t hit shots, nor could Marquette. The Forces of good shot 25% from deep, while Marquette, was also atrocious as they shot made just 28% of theirs. They were shooting only a bit over 16% from three in the first twenty minutes. Marquette made up for poor shooting by hitting FTs…Purdue did not. Purdue’s free throw shooting woes on the season found a new low spot, as Purdue shot a mere 43% from the stripe.
On top of that, Eastern was whistled for two quick, cheap fouls…then added another. So he was on the bench for much of the first half. At the same time, Proctor was whistled for two early fouls. Purdue’s defense made offensive problems disappear a bit- They were stout and scrappy for a half as their work on the offensive glass was noteworthy. They grabbed 12 in the first half alone.
Purdue’s lead swelled to 19 points in the first 17 minutes before the lead deflated to thirteen at the break.
When easy opportunities for points presented themselves, Purdue did itself no favors for. Missing free throw after free throw is a flat-out killer and poor shot selection is even worse when on the road. Purdue has shown its potential in each game this season, but also displays its shortcomings and youth just as regularly. They did it versus Texas as they watched a five point lead literally slip through their fingers and did it multiple times tonight in Milwaukee with the lead, as they simply weren’t poised when shots stopped falling.
At this point, Purdue is a much better team when they’re scrappy, because the offense seems to be three or four steps behind the defense right now. Effort glosses over a myriad of shortcomings…and Purdue’s offense has plenty of those, in this young season. Last November and December, Purdue’s offense looked discombobulated and jittery. But that one guy would bail them out time and again. Proctor and Hunter show flashes of brilliance, but don’t seem to have the juice to to stop momentum shifts just yet. And at the same time, Eastern seems to have taken a step backward in his decision making, and shot selection.
Until this squad gets to know one another, and they start knocking down three pointers, games versus good opponents (and there are plenty of them in the non-con) will test Purdue’s mettle and the fan base’s patience. It’s that simple. Growing pains are not fun.
In the second half, as Wheeler sat on the bench (with four fouls) and Eastern played defense a bit apprehensively (with three fouls), Purdue looked like it was running on fumes. In this half, they didn’t make shots NOR rebound well. And just like last Saturday night’s game, the ball movement was choppy (at best). As Marquette turned up the on-ball pressure, our Boilers struggled to get high percentage shots. And just as in their last game, Purdue’s guards struggled versus backcourt pressure. In thirteen minutes of second half play, Purdue had just nine points…and continued to miss FTs.
Purdue’s leading scorer was Haarms with 14 points and 8 rebounds. Boudreaux and Williams both played nearly silent games as Eastern wasn’t noteworthy on offense nor defense. If Purdue can’t have more output from this group, they definitely need more intensity.
In the backcourt, sloppy ball handling and poor/slow recognition of double teams are curable problems, and I expect these issues to improve, eventually. I also expect Stefanovic to snap out of the shooting funk that he’s been in for three straight halves. But the trend of missing free throws is something that Purdue really can’t afford to wait on improving. If Purdue had knocked down 75% of their free throws the tenor of this game would have been completely different and Marquette would have been forced to attempt more three pointers. Instead, they took the fight to Purdue and the Good Guys simply didn’t answer the bell in the final ten minutes of the game.
At this point, Purdue isn’t gritty enough to win ugly, and isn’t a good enough basketball team to win pretty. Much like they did in November of 2019, Purdue doesn’t look like an NCAA tournament in this young season.
Once again, Painter and his staff have their work cut out for them…but logically, we cannot really expect another radical tranformation from bad basketball team to good one this season. Can we?
