Bad feelings from an 0-2 start were erased by a dominating win over Wisconsin over the weekend. However, watching the Boilers claw back against a putrid Northwestern team tonight made me wonder what the ceiling is for this team.
Purdue had to claw back against a Northwestern team that is just 3-35 in their last 38 Big 10 gamesThe fact is, the rest of this Purdue team doesn't exactly scream Championship contender:
As good as E'Twaun Moore is (and will be), the kid is passive to a fault. He disappears for long stretches and the offense struggles. If he was more aggressive and looked for his shot, he could score 20 a night without breaking a sweat.
Robbie Hummel is a do-it-all player, but he isn't a prolific scorer and can't be relied on to score anything more than 15 points a night.
JaJuan Johnson is improving, but he's still a 25 pounds and 12 months away from developing into a dominant low-post scorer.
Chris Kramer is Dane Fife without a jump shot.
Nemanja Calasan is a 6'9 Charmin-soft shooting guard.
Keaton Grant is a streak shooter, and that's being generous considering he's shooting just 32% from the field this season and 29% from beyond the arc.
Lewis Jackson plays out-of-control at 100 mph in the fast lane while everyone else is going 65.
Marcus Green fills his role well, but he's just that: a role player.
Maybe I'm wrong about Purdue, and maybe they'll win the Big Ten and make an NCAA Tourney run. But, with the vast improvement of the Conference - specifically Illinois, Minnesota, and Penn State - and a brutal stretch coming up (road games at Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Ohio State in a five-game span), Purdue's Big Ten title hopes could vanish early.
They're a year away.
come on, that was obviously written by an IU/ND fan. Not one player on Purdue's roster has a positive attribute? That is crazy that they could beat Boston College (who beat a decent team in UNC), took Oklahoma to the wire and got the shaft with the refs, pounded Davidson to the point that at half-time of the Duke game their coach said they were still feeling the effects of the Purdue game, which was a week and a half earlier, and just beat Wisconsin. This isn't the IU squad we are talking about here.
ReplyDeleteFirst off allegiances have nothing to do with it. If you were impressed with Purdue's come-from-behind win against a Northwestern team that is one of the three or four worst BCS Conference teams in America, then that's fine. I wasn't, and I expect better from this Purdue team that should be one of the best teams in the Big Ten.
ReplyDelete"Not one player on Purdue's roster has a positive attribute"
Where do I say that? I said that E'Twaun Moore is going to be a star but that he needs to be more aggressive. I said that Robbie Hummel is a great all-around player but he's not a guy that is going to get 20 points a night. I compared Chris Kramer to Dane Fife (because both are outstanding defenders) but Kramer isn't a scorer (4.3 ppg this season). That's not knocking them, that's just the reality.
BC is an OK win - not a marquee win. Just because BC upset Carolina, doesn't make them great. They also lost to Harvard and Saint Louis. Wisconsin and Davidson are borderline Top 25 teams at best.
Purdue is underachieving right now and I don't see how you could argue against that.
The first comment was obviously written by a PU fan. Last night's game was pathetic, no arguing against it. I'm with Schultz saying that they aren't living up to their lofty expectations one bit, and that a serious run is a year away. They are good, don't get me wrong...but they definitely have an uphill battle.
ReplyDeleteI am not arguing that they aren't underachieving, because they are. I didn't say that you said "Not one player on Purdue has a positive attribute", I said that based on what you wrote about each player. But nevermind that, Northwestern beat Minnesota last night, so they can't be as bad of a team as you are making them out to be.
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