WOW!!! IU pulled it out last night in 2OT. What a game. I knew this game was going to be tough the second that Gordon signed at IU, but damn that was a helluva game. I mean there were numerous occasions where I thought the game was over for both teams, but both teams kept fighting. Demtri McCamey are you kidding me. The guy was unstoppable. Even though I’m a huge Hoosier backer it just hurt watching Shawn Pruitt trying to shoot free throws. I can’t get over this game. Jordan’s kid even got in on the action. I’m just glad to escape with a win and move on to Sunday at Ohio State. Go Hoosiers!!!
Although probably not on the same level, let’s not forget how bad IU fans treated Sean May when he returned to Bloomington with UNC.
You can’t even imagine how bad I was hoping Illinois would pull out the victory, even though I knew they’d probably run out of gas in the second OT.
Good ol’ Jeff Jordan. I think he’s a walk-on, no?
While a double-OT was certainly an interesting game…I can’t exactly call it a “great” game. It was more of an ugly game. Seriously, I’ve seen Illinois look good in a LOT of games this year and each and every time they find a way to blow it. Last night took the cake. They’re playing some mean defense, getting key points and good plays with less talent…and they have THREE frickin chances to just hit a goddamn free-throw and win the game. Holy crap…I can’t even imagine what it must feel to be an Illini fan now…I felt sick and I was only slightly pulling for them (an Indiana loss helps State obviously). What a brutal, brutal ending. Even the Illinois fans who were hot all game couldn’t even get excited when their players got fouled since they had no faith that they would hit anything. Good Lord.
Sadly I missed the VERY end of the Pitt/WV game since Lost had started but I caught the replay. Now that was solid, defensive game. Good times.
Stevo
Jordan’s kid is a recommended walkon. Whatever the hell that means. I think whatever Michael Jordan says is law in that state. He doens’t have an athletic scholarship, but he has a full academic scholarship. I don’t know how they are pulling that one off.
I’d argue and say it was a great game. Ugly I’ll give you, but the drama was intense. The whole Gordon situation. Frazier pushing him at the beginning of the game and the constant heckling. The Illinois athletic department even came out and aplogized to Indiana for the conduct of the fans. Debris was thrown at Gordon’s family and constant cursing. Shot after shot being hit by a guy I hadn’t even heard of until yesterday (Demetri McCamey). Free Throw after free throw being missed by Illinois (that wasn’t a new thing, they are the worst free throw shooting team in the Big Ten and I’d like to see how bad they are in comparison with the rest of the country). Then after all this Gordon banks in a three are you kidding me. It seemed to be a little bit of karma for all the bullshit he had to deal with. I mean kids change there mind all the time. I knew if Indiana could just get it to OT they would have the advantage.
I’m still worried about the way Indiana is playing though. I mean I thought Kelvin Sampson could coach. He just seems different this year. I don’t know if the phone call thing has gotten to him or what, but he looks lost on the sideline. He stuck with a zone for 30 minutes of the game. Once he switched to man to man IU virtually locked up Illinois. He better get the boys ready because the next four are @ Ohio State and home against Purdue, State, and Wisconsin. I think IU has to win at least 3 of 4 of these games to have a shot at the Big Ten Title. Really they need all 4 because they can’t afford to lose to Purdue, Wisconisin or State at home.
All right, god damnit. I’m jacked up for tonight’s game. I don’t even care if I can’t watch it on TV, I’ll have it on the radio.
Since the Kohl Center opened in 1998, Wisconsin’s mens team is 140-18 there. Bo Ryan has only lost 2 Big Ten games there since he’s been there: both to Illinois. Purdue hasn’t won there in their last 8 trips, with their margin of defeat being about 14 points per. Bo Ryan overall there is 102-6. That’s sickening.
Although I will admit that their student section is cleverly named (Grateful Red).
Let’s hope THIS guy can give the Boilermakers some luck:
Damn. Purdue is not going to go away are they. What a big win tonight at Wisconsin. Alright Circle the calendars: Purdue vs. IU is going to be a big one.
Far and away the biggest win of Matt Painter’s Purdue tenure.
Such a big game for the Boilermakers on about 1,000 different levels.
Big Ten lead, momentum for Tuesday’s showdown, confidence builder, streak-ender, etc. They also did it without one of their best reserves, freshman Scott Martin.
-
It was Purdue’s first win against a top-10 opponent since the night Tom Marshall sang “Buffalo Bill” with Phish at the Spectrum. I remember that game because they beat #2 Duke and I watched it in the middle of the night because they were playing in Alaska.
-
It was Purdue’s first win on the road against a top-10 opponent since about 30 days before the Island Tour kicked off
-
The first game of their last 9-game win streak (which they currently have) coincided with “The Wipeout Set” in Worcester.
Lavin. Musberger. ERIN ANDREWS. Mackey Arena. Paint Crew. #10 vs. #19.
On top of tonight, tomorrow night includes #14 Wisconsin at #12 Indiana and on Saturday, #10 Michigan State travels to #12 Indiana.
Some real separation games on tap for the Big Ten.
^INDEEEEED. I’ve been worried about this Purdue game ever since they had about a billion chances to beat MSU at home…and without one of their big men. Not good. The Spartans are better now too but the inconsistencies always have a chance of rearing their ugly heads. Whatever happens, this game will go down to the final minutes, I think. I thought they were in trouble at Minnesota, but that worked out to. The Spartans have a BRUTAL schedule coming up…@Purdue, @Indiana, Penn State, Iowa, @Wisconsin, Indiana, @Illinois, @Ohio State. UUGGGGGG. If they come out of all that with a Big Ten title, it’ll be a miracle.
And I saw the Wisconsin/Purdue game on BTN…quite a game. I was surprised how much the Badgers got down in the second half…they kept pulling closer but you can tell that that team is still a year away. Still, that’s an amazing win…NO ONE wins at Wisconsin.
As for Kelvin Sampson, I’m not THAT surprised, Hosemaster…I’d rank Sampson up there with Bill Self and Rick Barnes as a guy who is FANTASTIC recruiter but who is not the best game-day coach. After all…it’s not like Sampson’s won a title or anything. He’s definitely an upgrade over Mike Davis, but I’m not surprised that his team has had struggles…they’re getting by on star power, not on coaching. Might be an issue in the Big Tournament.
Stevo
Yeah, Robbie Hummel was sick that game they lost in East Lansing. However, he’ll be in action tonight but another guy (Scott Martin) will be out with a sprained ankle. I don’t think Martin is as good overall as Hummel, but Martin is a real aggressive player that will be missed.
The foul and free throw discrepancies in the PU/WU game was unbelievable. The refs were just handing the Badgers the game. But they didn’t want it, apparently.
T-minus 105 minutes!
Well I got a big punch to the stomach tonight. IU is potentially facing major violations. The allegations are suppose to be out sometime today. Not the best of timing considering we play Wisconsin tonight and Purdue doesn’t look they’ll be losing anytime soon.
My dad has this old red hooded sweatshirt with a picture of Bucky Badger on it giving the finger, and underneath it it says “Fuck 'em, Bucky!”
If I had it, I’d be wearing it tonight.
Damn, Purdue is legit!
Wow…Kelvin Sampson being involved in violations??? NOOOOO!! REALLY? Big shocker there…
Seriously, quite a tough game for the Spartans last night and my fears were totally legit. The Spartans got beat in every part of the game, including coaching. The biggest thing is how Matt painter was talking after they beat Wisconsin about the Spartans and said that their offense was somewhat predictable…and he’s RIGHT. Neitzel used to be a diverse player who went inside for layups and backcuts and got to the foul line…now he basically takes nothing but threes…it makes him so easy to guard!
The other players are predictable too. Walton never shoots…the big men only shoot when they get it down low, Raymar tends to disappear from games and commits stupid fouls which often get him in foul trouble in many games. The freshmen Allen and Summers look totally lost out there at times…Ug…heck, Purdue was even smoking out the rotating offensive set and were stealing some of those handoff passes we do. They knew everything the Spartans were gonna do.
The one bright light is Kalen Lucas who single-handedly kept the Spartans in that game…he’s the one player who wasn’t predictable and he had to make plays constantly because no one on the Spartans were getting open. At least he gives us something to look forward to since he’s a freshman.
The Spartans definitely win games with defense so that’s still a strength but they’ve got major offensive issues. Quite a bummer, really.
Anyway…here’s the sour grapes section, the refs were atrocious in the FIRST HALF of the game. They were totally swept up by the Purdue crowd and were making calls just to get a big cheer…it was pretty shameful, I’d say. The worst was the one player landing on Drew Naymick’s BACK when he tried to shoot and it wasn’t called, then they call some ticky-tack foul on Naymick on the following possession. Very poor. To theirt credit, I thought they improved in the second half though some calls were a lil strange. The worst was how their was hand-checking and slapping going around the ENTIRE game on multiple players on every play then with five minutes to go, they call Kramer for one…made NO sense.
The one funny thing was seeing the UNC/Virginia game afterward. It was like night and day.In the MSU/Purdue game it was where every player is was over each other and it was hard for anyone to even move, let alone get open, in the ACC game there were wide-open lanes for players to move and constant wide-open jumpers being shot on both sides. No wonder the ACC looks so good. It’s easy to score when no one is covering you. And it’s also the reason why Duke is dominating since they’re the only team in the ACC playing a Big Ten style of defense.
Stevo
Hey, if you watched or listened to the Wisconsin/PU game last Saturday, you would have seen the same EXACT thing. Purdue got shafted on a lot of the calls probably because of the Bo Ryan/Kohl Center factor. Purdue was whistled for 8 more fouls than the Badgers (25-17), a margin 4 times greater than last nights (Purdue had 17, MSU 15). So they weren’t even blowing the whistle as much as they were in Madison. On top of that, MSU shot 4 more free throws than Purdue, whereas Purdue shot ELEVEN less than the Badgers on Sunday.
So what you were seeing last night wasn’t nearly as bad as what Purdue had to deal with when they went to the Kohl Center.
I suppose you could argue that the refs sometimes are intimated by the coach on the home court sidelines, as well as the home court in general. That was certainly the case with the Tennessee/Rutgers blown call a few nights ago.
Do you honestly think the allegations that Sampson is facing are warranted for major violations. IU has already fired Senderoff (unfairly I believe) and they’ve taken scholarships away from the program. This was all done in house before the NCAA even ruled on this.
Sampson has really not been involved in that many scandals. Yes he was in trouble with illegal phonecalls in his last years at Oklahoma. IU hired with full knowledge of the problem. If Sampson violated them at IU (which of course he did) he would forfeit a $500,000 bonus.
Honestly though these are not major violations in my book. Improper text messaging, participating in three way calls. Oh I even think one recruit received an IU T-shirt and a duffle bag. I think this is complete crap. It will most likely cause Sampson let alone Rick Greenspan (AD) their jobs.
The sports talk in Indy are having a field day with this. Everyone wants Sampson out of here and some people even have the gall to hint at the return of Bobby Knight. Give me a break people. These “older” IU fans are so loyal to Knight (which I was until he moved on to Texas Tech) they just use this as another example of bashing the University for firing Knight. Get over it. Let’s move forward not backward. Unfortunately with these violations the alumni are going to have a field day.
I just hope the team can overcome this and finish the season strong. I mean honestly this is our best chance for a couple of years. Gordon is as good as gone next year and DJ White’s a senior. That’s the two top scorers in the Big Ten gone next year.
The actual violations for recruiting may not be much; I think its the fact that he lied directly to IU and the NCAA about it that has everyone’s panties in a bunch.
Shit!!! What a tough loss IU suffered last night. A Brian Butch banked three pointer won the game. Heartbreak city!!! I’m not counting the Hoosier out for the Big Ten Title, but they have a serious uphill climb and everything is imploding as I type. They still have two games with State, Purdue and the rest of their schedule they should handle. Purdue is pretty much through the tough part of their schedule with the excpetion of the IU game. So next Tuesday is do or die for the Hoosiers assuming they beat State (which I definitely am not assuming). Then we need Wisconsin to drop another game as they have the tiebreaker over us. Damn this sucks.