Our Boilers struggled for a half against an awful team earlier tonight...and the Villanova team that beat them in NYlost by 20, at home, versus an Ivy league foe a few days ago. The point is, Purdue isn't a good team...yet.
Painter said yesterday that his squad still doesn't have an identity...and I think he's precisely correct. Check that, they've got an identity, but it's not a good one.
Here's what's defining them at this point: missing a ton of shots, making youthful mistakes and missing a ton of free throws. Youth is responsible for some of these problems, chemistry for others. And while I am struggling to find a way our Boilers can play their way into the NCAA tournament this season, not all is lost. This team will get better this season...and many of these players will understand their roles as the season progresses.
It's still odd for me to see Purdue with such a deep bench and massive rotation. It's not the exception, but the rule for Purdue to go 12 deep. This is a great problem for the coaching staff to have...but it is still a problem. A lot of guys have looked serviceable, but only a few have really shown that they deserve to be consistently in an 8-10 man rotation. Matty's embarrassment of riches puts our Boilers in the position in which the starting line-ups, and line changes (if you will), can react to the opponent...at least until the team grows up a bit.
Right now, we're seeing a bunch of talented individuals that are not yet a team.
RonJohn and TJohn seem to work well together (obviously), so they're the basis for one of my starting line-ups. This line-up looks like a Painter team from the last few seasons- three guards and two small forwards, but a higher tempo than what we've seen the last few seasons.
1 RonJohn
2 TJohn
3 AJ
4 Byrd
5 Hale
The second line-up is significantly larger...they'd match-up well with MSU or Wisconsin...
1 AJ
2 TJohn
3 Byrd
4 Lawson
5 Hammons