Purdue falls to Michigan State, 75-66 in East Lansing
Sometimes late-mid-season skids can prove fruitful? Let’s hope?
Purdue dropped its third straight game, falling on the road to Michigan State, 75-66
At the end of the day, Purdue’s two-man show on offense was no match for Michigan State’s depth of talent. The Spartans had four players end the game in double digits, and Purdue could only muster two. Purdue needed their Big Three to step up on the road and Fletcher Loyer was missing in action on offense all night, partly because he couldn’t get open, and partly because of Purdue’s myopic high pick and roll offense focuses so heavily on Loyer and Kaufmann-Renn that Loyer mostly hangs out in the corner waiting for a pass that never comes. Don’t let his eight points fool you, that last three would be scored fielders indifference in baseball. Five points from Loyer when the game was in question won’t cut it on the road in the Big Ten.
A Michigan State second half run was inevitable, and when they punched Purdue in the mouth with a 10 – 0 run straight out of the locker room to push the lead to 11 with 17:33 to go, the Boilermakers were cooked. Smith and Kaufman-Renn put up a tough fight and even managed to close the gap to four points at the 2:26 mark, but whenever it seemed like Purdue was poised to ignite, the Spartans were ready with a fire extinguisher. Jaden Akins took over the game late, scored six of Michigan State’s last eight points, and sent Purdue back to West Lafayette to lick their wounds and prepare for their upcoming game in The Hall of Calls against a depressing Indiana team, who have lost eight of their last ten games, but whose two wins came against Ohio State and Michigan State on the road. I clearly don’t understand how basketball works anymore, and I have no idea what either team is going to look like on Sunday.
Matt Painter is tinkering with his lineup late into the season and still hasn’t settled on what to do at the four where Caleb Furst and Camden Heide log the majority of the minutes, neither of whom look completely comfortable in the role. Tonight, Will Berg, a guy long since buried on the bench, came into the game and contributed some decent minutes. Maybe he’s a guy that can provide something down the stretch down low, even if it’s only a couple fouls.
CJ Cox continues to run hot at home and cold on the road and I’m wondering if there comes a time when Cox comes off the bench in road games, with Harris taking his place in the starting lineup to try and shake something loose. I’d love Myles Colvin to continue to show signs of life, but he was literally knocked out of the game on a screen that announcer Robbie Hummell accurately assessed as “probably not being set when you look at it again” in what I assume was intentional understatement as Colvin did battle with the imaginary birds circling his head on the way to the bench.
Still, with all that said, hope springs eternal. Basketball is a game of runs, and Purdue has the talent to catch one like they did earlier in the season. When it’s firing on all cylinders, the back court that was good enough to drop 34 combined points on Alabama earlier this season, is good enough to knock off any team on a given night. Smith and Loyer have alternated bad games recently, but Indiana seems like a good place for them to get back in synch.
Hot take, still think this backcourt could lead the Boilermakers on a deep run in the tournament, and that’s Painter’s end game, but I’d feel a whole lot better about things if they got things together in Bloomington on Sunday.