Playing for 101

With Purdue being left off the NCAA bracket and the NIT bracket this year, Purdue has dropped to the CBI tournament. With a disappointing loss in Chicago to Nebraska we knew Purdue wouldn't get the NIT. It was only a matter of if we would accept the bid to play in the CBI. A lot of people were for both sides. Some people wanted to just end the season and move on the off-season. Others wanted to view the extra possible games as more practice and time for the players to get more game experience. Around 10 pm eastern time we all found out that Purdue would be playing Western Illinois Wednesday night at 7 pm.

I personally like that we are playing in the CBI. Yes, we are opening up ourselves to having to hear the chants of "CBI" from other teams next year but we can handle that. This will be a time for Purdue to work on  getting better. Our Freshman will only get better with more playing time and these are quality opponents. Most of the schools in the CBI with the exception of Texas are solid mid-major teams.

I look for Purdue to use this tournament as a spring board for the 2013-2014 season. Teams like Oregon and VCU were in the CBI and look at where their programs are today, they are both dancing in the NCAA. VCU especially, after winning the CBI went to the Final Four next year only to fall short against a Cinderella Butler team. Now, I'm not saying Purdue will win the Big Ten and get a 1 seed in the NCAA tourney next year but I think this can only be a positive.

So Purdue will open Wednesday against Western Illinois. The game will be on TV as AXStv has coverage of the whole tournament. From what I have seen on Twitter, most people with digital/satellite cable get AXStv. As far as tickets go, VIP students are free (non VIP are $5), Upper bowl is $10 General Admission, Lower bowl bench seats (reserved) are $15 and JPC seats (reserved) are $25. We may be disappointed that we are playing in the CBI and for good reason. However, that doesn't mean we shouldn't go support them. So get cheer on the Boilers as DJ and Dru get at least one more home game. While the other players get more practice with Painter and experience against quality opponents. Boiler Up!

Boilers End Regular Season On High Note

Three weeks ago, Purdue was playing at Indiana and was obviously out matched by them. There was one difference though in that game. Purdue didn’t give up at all. They fought even when they were down almost 30 points they still tried. Now, looking ahead to Chicago, Purdue is one of the more dangerous teams in the tourney. With the win today against Minnesota, Purdue finishes B1G play at 8-10 in the conference. Purdue won 3 of its last 5 games and came very close to beating Michigan if not for the insane effort of Trey Burke would have won that game easily.

What changed in the last 5 games? Well Purdue finally started acting as a team. The ball movement on offense, the hustle on both ends and talking more on defense has shown this team what is capable when they play to their full potential. Even AJ Hammons dove after a loose ball today and was out running people down the court for dunks. One guy who has really turned it on is Rapheal Davis. Against Michigan Davis had 15 points and 9 rebounds. Today against Minnesota Davis had 18 points and 4 rebounds. His tenacity on defense and emotional leadership on and off the court is really starting to pay off.

Ray D Strutting his stuff against Michigan

Today was a beautiful game from all aspects. Every starter was in the double digits for points and as a team we had 20 assists and shot 54% from the field. The hustle was there as Ronnie was running transition game perfectly. I saw something from Ronnie today that I absolutely loved. When he was running the fast breaks, he read the defense and wasn’t forcing passes or taking ill-advised shots. He was letting the game come to him. He has grown in just the few months that he has been on this team and has a chance to be one of the best point guards ever to play at Purdue.

This is a team playing like a team

Now looking forward to the Big Ten Tournament. With Purdue’s win today and Iowa just beating Nebraska, two different things can happen. Purdue will either be the 7 or 8 seed. If Ohio State beats Illinois tomorrow Purdue is the 7^th seed and would play Nebraska. Should Illinois pull off the upset and beat the Buckeyes, Purdue would then fall to the 8^th seed and once again play Minnesota for the right to play the Indiana Hoosiers. This team is playing its best basketball of the season hands down. The offense is clicking and the defense is getting in peoples face. If Purdue can stay hot they could make a run in Chicago. I firmly believe that Purdue can get out of the first round no matter what their matchup is. We’ve beaten Minnesota and Nebraska this season pretty handedly. Now depending on if we can get to the second round, things get a lot more interesting. The top 5 teams in the conference don’t need to win to get into the tourney and most of them are guaranteed to be 4 seeds or higher. So Purdue could be lurking dangerously in the waters waiting to pounce on unsuspecting opponents. Purdue literally has nothing to lose. There is the chance still of the CBI or NIT but until we lose in Chicago, Purdue could still go dancing.

At the Senior day festivities today Matt Painter said these words “We continue to fight and have a lot of basketball left.”

Boiler Up!

We're Not Dead Yet

Looks like Purdue avoided the death cart from Monty Python today. Purdue finally played a full 40 minute basketball game this evening beating Northwestern 74-43. It may not have been perfect but it was certainly an improvement from the last couple of games. Purdue played like it actually gave a crap about this game. They came out with intensity that let them get to a very early 22-7 lead 8 minutes into the game. From there Purdue pretty much coasted to a nice W. The defense was there, the hustle was there and the shots were falling. Just to show how the shots were falling for Purdue today, both Ronnie and Terone had virtual circus shots drop that probably shouldn’t have gone in. Here are some of the positives for the Boilers 31 point victory.

Passing: Purdue showed a vast improvement in the passing game today. I counted at least 10 possessions where Purdue reversed the ball twice and was able to put Northwestern’s zone out of position. The passing led to a lot of open looks or a matchup advantage for Purdue that would lead to a bucket.

Terone was on fire today!

Shot Selection: The Boilers shot a solid 53% from the court today, including 47% from behind the arc. Typically in the last couple of Purdue games, if you’re like me, you’ve been pulling your hair out with some of the shots they have put up. Today Purdue kept those shots to a minimum and was able to turn those shots into 74 points. Terone especially was on it today hitting 4-5 three pointers. If he can continue to knockdown these shots he will become that much more dangerous. People will have to close out perfectly against him. If they fall for the pump fake Terone will blow right by them. If they close out to soft, Terone will pull up and put the ball in the net.

We finally had people playing with heart today

Hustle: Finally! After months of asking and begging for it, Purdue finally outhustled a team. We had a plus 20 rebound advantage, if that doesn’t say hustle, I don’t know what does. Purdue was being aggressive and jumping the passing lanes, going after the loose balls and following their shots. This is the type of attitude that we need on a nightly basis. Terone was quoted after the game saying more guys are showing up to the gym earlier and staying later. Maybe after reading all the tweets and posts on the internet about the “immaturity” of this team finally pissed them off enough to put the work in.

After today’s win, Purdue is now in a 3 way tie for 7^th place in the Big Ten. The other teams Purdue is tied with are Iowa and Minnesota. Purdue is at Iowa the Wednesday and they host Minnesota on Senior night in just less than 2 weeks. If Purdue can get the 7^th seed or even the 6^th seed in the B1G tourney it would be huge for their post-season chances. If we can get the 7^th seed we would most likely either play Nebraska (who we beat handily) or Northwestern (who we just throttled). If we could win that opening round game then that would put Purdue at 16-16 with a matchup against a top team like Michigan or Wisconsin. The NIT is still very much a possibility.

So here’s to a big win today and a hope for the rest of the season. We can still do this Boilers, we can still do this. Boiler Up!

Welcome To The Furnace!

It is only February and Coach Hazell is already changing Purdue’s football program in a positive light. Hazell has given Ross-Ade Stadium its own nickname. He has dubbed it “The Furnace” because opponents will be “thrown into the fire” when they play the Boilers.

As of right now, I think this is a great idea. It only creates excitement around the program that was being put to shame when they had maybe 1,000 people for shout at the homecoming game last season. Yes, it was raining and Purdue was getting blown out yet again but that was a complete disappointment and I think it put the final nail in the Danny Hope coffin.

So let’s compare “The Furnace” to other nicknames for stadiums around the country.

The Swamp in Gainesville, Florida

The Swamp, Florida Gators – It’s the best nickname for a stadium in my opinion. It actually reflects the area around Gainesville and makes sense when you look at it compared to their nickname the Gators. It is such a perfect fit that it’s number 1 in my book.

The Sea of Red

The Sea of Red, Nebraska Cornhuskers – Nebraska’s home field is one of the most intimidating places to play football in the Midwest. Nebraska currently has sold out 325 games in a row. The record started in 1962! That is 40 years of consecutive sellouts, if Purdue were to even get more than one sellout a season, it would be a positive.

The Big House in Ann Arbor

The Big House, Michigan Wolverines – The name is pretty self-explanatory. When you can put 106,000 people into a stadium it’s just insane. To put that into perspective, if you took the amount of Purdue student enrollment around 42,000 students you would have to take that number and double it and then add another 20,000.

So will Ross-Ade live up to its new nickname The Furnace? We will find out in just 7 months. However, this is a non-team related change that Hazell has made and it has put some excitement back into the fan base. Just wait until he gets his hands on this team in spring ball and gets to form them for the upcoming season! Boiler Up!

Struggling Boilers Fall Again

With a 28 point loss to the Hoosiers today the Boilers bring their record to a rough 12-14 on the season. It hasn't been pretty and today was no exception. Everyone had blown assignments on defense, bad turnovers and shots that should never be taken. There was a point where Purdue had the ball down 10 in the first half with at least a glimmer of hope to keep it competitive but 2 quick IU buckets and that went away. Purdue was never really in this game. We had more disappointing performances from AJ Hammons and Ronnie Johnson today. Neither player got going and as a result our offense was stagnant for long stretches.

Purdue's bench watches as IU sweeps the Boilers on the season

Some of the positives from the game today (if that's what you can call them) was the play of the Sandi "Croation Sensation" Marcius. He had a couple nice buckets, a pair of rebounds and a block. He even went after the hustle play and risked his body to go get a loose ball. I don't care that he didn't hold onto the ball, what I care about is that someone valued the ball more than their own body. Our whole team needs to have that mentality if we are going to improve this off-season.

Purdue has 5 games remaining this season. At this point if Purdue even wants to make the NIT we need to go at least 4-1. We have home games against Northwestern, Michigan and Minnesota as well as road games against Iowa and Wisconsin. I believe that Purdue has at least a chance in all of these games except the Michigan game. There was a gap in which Purdue showed that they wanted to play today but it only lasted about 5 minutes. We need to take those 5 minutes and extend it to 40 minutes of hell for the other team. We don't have a "It's Time to Play Hard" clock for nothing in Mackey Arena. We need to have some resemblance of a team, we have 8 days to figure it out. As always Purdue fans we are ever grateful, ever true. Boiler Up!

Showing Heart

The only two people that showed any kind of passion on Wednesday were Matt Painter and Sandi. Sandi came in and played solid minutes and was productive on both ends. He even gave a nice up and under layup in the 2nd half that had many people asking where that has been all season.

Painter got his moneys worth

Then there is Matt Painter who for the first time in his career I believe was ejected with 8 minutes to go in the 2nd half. He has simply had enough of the mistakes that this team is making. They simply aren't learning from the past games and are falling into the same holes. Their is inconsistency to the extreme with certain players. Listening to Painter in the post game press conference he said "I'm tired of hearing we're young. Its a young game." We as fans have been saying this all season. Basketball is an effort game and this Purdue team isn't showing any effort at all. When you allow that many offensive rebounds and second chance points the other team isn't beating, you're beating yourself.

I hope that the Painter ejection is going to light some kind of fire underneath this team because if it doesn't they are in for a world of hurt against Indiana on Saturday. If you think the 37 point loss in Mackey was bad wait until we get to the Hall of Calls in Bloomington.

We all still need to support this team for the rest of the season, however we need to have a different perspective. We need to look at the rest of these games as learning opportunities. We play one of the toughest remaining schedules in the country. These will all be chances for our guys to get more minutes and be in more situations to prepare for next year.

Always remember Boilers, Ever Grateful, Ever True!

NOTICE: jbrunner Signing Off

To the growing Boilermaker Blitz readership; 

I appreciate what everyone has done to help this site grow. 

Today, my new employer (won't mention, don't want to associate this site with it) has asked me to not take part in this website as it violates their conflict of interest code. Because this employer is giving me an opportunity to grow the skills that I want to have as a sports journalist, I'm more than happy to take hold of it and do what I can.

It's been one hell of a ride in the last 6 months. When I started this blog in August, it meant the world to me. I wasn't sure if The Blitz could succeed...but now I'm completely sure that it can. If we continue to grow from the 200+/day mark, it will only get better. 

For that reason, the Blitz will stay on. Nick Konkel, a Purdue student, has offered to take over the site as I pursue another opportunity. I don't agree with the policy, but it's not for me to decide. He will add one or two more writers and hopefully keep everything going strong. 

I hope to hear from everyone soon...and I should still be on Twitter (@BoilerOfLegend). Thank you for your support in this tough decision. 

-jbrunner