Thoughts on an 81-69 loss for the Boilermakers:
The Purdue problem continues.
The Hoosiers have now lost 11 of their last 12 against the Boilermakers, including eight in a row. Tonight’s loss also pulls Archie Miller’s IU record against the Boilermakers to 0-6. Four of the losses come in Bloomington.
Once Purdue took a 7-6 lead at 16:48 on a second-chance lineup from Mason Gillis, the Hoosiers never took the lead again. Every time Indiana threatened to get over the hill, the Boilermakers had an answer. Purdue did not shoot it well from deep in the Big Ten game, as he entered the competition and struck out only 30.8 percent through five conference games. But this team has a lot of shooters and chose tonight in the Assembly Hall to hold their Big Ten breakout party. The Boilermakers made 11-of-17 (64.7 percent) from deep, including a 7-of-9 point (77.8 percent) in the first half to set the tone. Indiana did not get out to shooters early and Purdue made the Hoosiers pay.
Indiana held Trevion Williams to just 2 points from just 2 out of 5 shots in the first half. But Williams came alive in the final 20 minutes, hitting 7-out-10 after the break for 16 points. And although it was not a high volume, the three-point survey remained warm (4-of-8, 50 percent). Indiana, on the other hand, had the worst three-point shooting performance of the season. The Hoosiers scored just 3-out-18 (16.7 percent). In the second half, IU seemed allergic to even from the depths, as it cost just one attempt – a miss by Trey Galloway – outside the final 1:19 of the game when it desperately bombed away to try again in the game . Indiana also had a rough night off the line. The Hoosiers scored just 16-of-29 (55.2 percent) from the charity streak, their third worst performance of the season.
So this one is not too troublesome: shoot so poorly and you are not going to win many ten big matches.
Indiana’s offense also looked as stagnant as it sometimes did. This was especially true during a field drought of more than five minutes in the second half, as Purdue led 5-52 to 67-56, which kicked off the game pretty well. There just wasn’t much ball movement, cutting or cohesion in sets.
After Al Durham and Rob Phinisee picked it up during the last few games, they combined just eight points on three-to-ten shooting. Poor Franklin was back in the series and scored 14 points, but it was on an ineffective night. The sophomore hit just 6-of-15 off the field and missed all five of his three-point attempts. Purdue also burned Indiana down on the baseline tonight and hit a number of buckets on it en route to 1.15 points per possession for the evening.
A clunker like tonight is going to happen from time to time, especially from a team like Indiana that shooting is not considered a strong suit. But that it has to happen at home against Purdue is a bad thing. Furthermore, Indiana has now slipped out of the top-30 in KenPom (No. 36) with its offense down to No. 57 and the defense for the first time all season outside the top 20 (No. 22).
It’s a rough night for basketball in Indiana. And the Big Ten schedule gets even harder from here.
Filed to: Purdue Boilermakers