What a win for Purdue in Tuscaloosa. After there was consternation and gnashing of teeth because (checks notes) Purdue trailed briefly in the second half at home against Oakland the Boilers went on the road and did something it has not done in 40+ years: win a non-conference true road game over a top 10 team. The last such win was in 1982 at Louisville.
Now, granted, there aren’t exactly a lot of chances to do that when Purdue usually only plays one true road game in the non-conference, but it is still a cool stat. This was everything you wanted in a college basketball game early in the year. It was two really good teams just going at it in a game that ultimately was for pride, as it doesn’t count in the conference standings for either. Even if Purdue had lost it was hardly a abad loss. Now the Boilermakers have a huge resume win that will only grow in value as the year goes on.
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Here is all our postgame video from Tuscaloosa with Casey and Drew.
T-Mill’s Thoughts:
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Braden Smith. That’s it. That’s all you need to say. The preseason favorite for National Player of the Year absolutely took this game over in the second half. 29 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. The assist numbers are down in his pursuit of that record, but who cares. He put the team on his back and jsut dominated the game.
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Trey Kaufman-Renn returns and was absolutely dominant in the first half as Purdue survived an onslaught of threes. It is concerning he went out late with the hip injury aggravated, but he will have some time to rest and heal it. Don’t be shocked if he sits vs. Akron on Sunday, but Purdue should be able to win at home against Akron without him. Oh, and the early three? That’s the proverbial, “Great, now we have to worry about something else,” for opponents.
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It wac concerning that Fletcher Loyer was a bit off, but he still had some good moments. His three with 5:39 left answered a big three at hte other end of the floor and pushed the lead back to six. I am not worried about him. It is a luxury to have three players like Purdue has in Smith, Loyer, and TKR.
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Omer Mayer had some really good minutes in the first half. In fact, that may have been why Braden was so fresh at the end.
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Oscar Cluff and Daniel Jacobsen are solid complimentary scorers and doing a lot of dirty work. They dominated the interior and led Purdue to a huge 52-28 edge on the glass. Let’s also not forget TKR’s 8 offensive boards. The center position was the main weakness last year. Now it is a strength.
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No Liam Murphy tonight. He will still get his chance.
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I feel like we wore Alabama down as the game went on. That is a team that was busting team on both ends of the floor and kinda ran out of gas. They were coming up short on threes late, btu they were expending a lot of energy on defense as well.
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I just can’t get over how good of a win this is. That is a team we could see again in March, or even April. They also had some motivation after losing to us the last two years. We’re favored to get a No. 1 seed, but this is the type of win that helps cement that.
