More questions than answers out of Indy. Plus a palindrome score!
A game between Michigan and Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament was always going to be a slugfest. I’m still not sure how Purdue managed to beat the Wolverines by 27 at Mackey Arena, but perhaps it gave me a false sense of how this Purdue team would do against Michigan on a neutral court. That’s on me.
Purdue started the game strong on the back of Trey Kaufman-Renn pouring in four points and grabbing three rebounds in less than two minutes. After that though, Purdue’s offense looked like it was stuck in literal mud. A lot of credit has to go to the Michigan defense who was making Purdue work for every single opportunity. You could tell that the Purdue offense was out of sorts when on their first 10 made baskets they had just two assists, both from Braden Smith. Trey Kaufman-Renn in particular was battling down low each time down the floor and even had the chair pulled out from under him on one play, masterfully so, for a travel.
Purdue let Michigan take a lead in the first half on the back of their rebounding. At one point Purdue was being outrebounded 16 to 9. However, it was rebounding that would help bring Purdue back in the game. Caleb Furst and Trey Kaufman-Renn started grabbing rebounds and giving Purdue additional chances. Both Furst and TKR grabbed six rebounds in the first half to even up the rebounds at 20 at halftime. The Purdue crowd came alive at the end after Myles Colvin was called for a rather questionable foul call that resulted in two points for Michigan. On the very next possession Colvin drained a three to cut the Michigan lead to 40-36. Braden Smith had a very tough shot to try to bring it within one but it fell just short of making the crowd erupt.
John Wooden Memorial Player of the Game (JWMPOTG) – Trey Kaufman-Renn wins this one by default. He finished the game with 24 points and 9 rebounds but it wasn’t near enough for the Boilermakers.
Michigan came out in the second half and did just about everything right. They stepped on Purdue’s neck to start the half hitting their first five shots including two threes. Purdue would fight back here and there to get the lead down to single digits but the game was essentially over after the first few minutes of the half. It’s a shame because we got a good shooting performance from Myles Colvin that was wasted by a very poor second half.
Purdue too often found themselves in a two man game with Braden Smith looking for TKR and TKR doing his best down low. However, if you’re really only getting the ball to two players you are giving the defense a pretty good idea of what they need to do to stop you. Michigan did just that. In the second half TKR and Smith went 5-18 from the field. That’s just not going to cut it from your two stars.
I know there’s a certain segment of the fan base that hates these tournaments and wish Purdue would just not give it 100% out there. For a moment I was a member of that segment. Fletcher Loyer went down after trying to save a ball with just about 13 minutes left in the game. It looked bad at first viewing. Hell, even on second viewing it looked bad. I had a good vantage on the Purdue bench from my seat and rather than watching the game I just watched Loyer on the bench for a few minutes. He held it gingerly as he walked off the floor and wasn’t bending it but after a few minutes he started bending it and would eventually come back into the game. It was a huge sigh of relief moment for all of Boilermaker Nation as Purdue will desperately need their third scorer if they hope to make any noise in March Madness.
Michigan looked unbeatable in the second half, thanks in large part to Purdue’s defense. Michigan shot a blistering 65% from the floor in the second half. Compare that to Purdue’s 33% and you’ve got a good idea of why Purdue was not able to keep up with the Wolverines in that second half.
Somehow, Purdue leaves Indianapolis with more questions than answers after going 1-1 and losing to Michigan for the second time. We’ve seen these problems from Purdue in the back half of the season here with the defense not being able to stop anyone and the offense looking a bit stagnant. At this point in the season, with just one game guaranteed, I wouldn’t expect any sudden epiphanies to emerge that will change Purdue’s fortunes. We will find out who Purdue plays and where they play them on Sunday.