I plan these roundtables out a few days before they get posted so that the rest of the staff has time to get back to me. That means I sent this question out on Monday, prior to yesterday’s loss to IU and that these answers were returned to me before the loss to IU. Let’s keep that in mind.
Here’s what I asked: Given the two game slump, and the play of other teams around college basketball, have your expectations for this team changed?
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Ledman:
Since I’m the one in charge I’m doing mine now and therefore I have the knowledge of the IU game outcome. Yes, my expectations have changed and they’ve changed drastically. Before this now three game skid I thought Purdue was the odds on favorite to win the Big Ten, and I made a sizable bet to back that up, now I find it extremely unlikely that they win the conference. With three losses already and the league leaders with just one it’s going to be tough, but not impossible, to catch up. Regarding my national expectations? I think that if Purdue gets it together they can still make the Final Four but where I would’ve placed it at maybe 75% chance Purdue made the Final Four (high I know but that’s truly how high I was on this team) I’d now place it closer to 5%. That’s a hell of a hit.
Jed:
Yes and no. Allow me to explain.
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Before the season started, Purdue was one of the few teams that you could point to and definitively know what they would likely be this season. Returning four starters from a S16 team that took Houston down to the wire didn’t need much thought and adding Oscar Cliff allowed most everyone to place them preseason #1. Most people knew team like Michigan, BYU, Arizona, and MSU would be good, but I’m not sure people thought they would be THIS good.
There are always points in season where teams struggle and then either improve or fall off the deep end. If you are a downer about the last several games, you probably think the wheels have come flying off and multiple players need to be replaced in the starting lineup. That doesn’t need to happen. On the flip side, fans will say it’s only important to play your best in March when the games count. Also not true.
Purdue still have the ability to achieve the goals they have set for themselves in winning a B1G championship, winning the B1G Tournament, and making the Final Four in Indy. They are fully capable of doing just that but need to work through the struggles of the mid-season like most every team does.
The team is far too experienced, skilled, and capable of not making a jump at some point once they figure it out. The goals are still right in front of them, they just need to get back to playing the way that for them there: good defense that transitioned into elite offense.
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Travis:
Absolutely not.
Look, it is frustrating. Purdue just dropped two games where it led at the last media stop. It has also beens truggling a bit even before this losing streak. Still, we know what this team is capable of. We know it has a roster better than like 97% of the rest of college basketball. It has talent, depth, and experience that is unparalelled. All three losses have had a common theme:
– Fletcher has been terrible
– TKR has not been great (though he was okay vs. UCLA)
– Purdue’s defense has been absolutely awful against random guys who go off.
The big three “random guys who go off are Milan Momcilovic for Iowa State, Donovan Dent for UCLA, and Keaton Wegler for Illinois. Throw out the Iowa State game because mostly everyone was bad in that one and it was Purdue’s worst offensive performance of the season. It is very much an outlier. Against UCLA and Illinois Purdue defense was awful. It wasn’t just the switches that it kept getting burned on. It was the way Purdue was not even tryin to deny the ball to Dent and Wegler. In crunch time Purdue did nothing to deny them the basketball and they were able to walk it up the floor and set up the offense in rhythm. Wegler played an absolutely incredible game, but Dent? He had been pretty bad for weeks and inconsistent all year. Even with Dent and Wegler turning in heroic performances Purdue was not that far off from a win in each.
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I attribute all three losses more to Purdue playing poorly than the opposition flat out beating us. “But Wegler, Dent, and Momcilovic are NBA guys!” Well, that means nothing. The mere existence of franchises like the Clippers, Magic, Wizards, Hornets, Pelicans, Kings, Nets, Bulls, 76ers, Hawks, and Knicks is proof that the NBA has absolutely zero idea how to evaluate talent, as none of those teams can ever be taken seriously as contenders. They are good players, but Purdue did nothing to make them uncomfortable. Of the three I would say Wegler was the only one that reached the level of, “This guy is just on fire and we have to deal with it now”.
I get it. It sucks right now, but it sucks because we know this team can be better. We know this team should have won each of the last two games. We have seen what this team can be and we know it can be better. Yes, the top of the Big Ten this year is absolutely brutal with five legit Final Four contenders, but we’re still one of those five. There is still a lot of basketball to play and I trust Painter and Co. to turn this thing around.
Hopefully it starts tonight because losing to a Bubble at best IU team would be crippling in the Big Ten race.
Drew:
My expectations haven’t changed, but my thoughts on how this team achieved them has shifted some.
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Purdue is going to have to outscore teams hitting jump shots. They can’t score in the paint against bigger front courts, and they go away from the initial pick and roll action without much provocation.
Braden won’t have to go full Carsen Edwards for Purdue to win in March. This team has more overall talent on offense but they desperately need Loyer to do his best Ryan Cline.
Finding a lock down G-League wing defender and a friendly local judge could also help matters (to quote Nelly: I’m just kiddin’ like Jason (oh), unless you wanna do it). Yes, I’m old ok.
Ryan:
No. I will not sit here and pretend that Purdue is the top team in the nation at the moment but given the talent, experience, and unity of this team, a deep postseason run is still my expectation. I think it’s fair to say that this team (at 17-3 mind you) is underperforming by a fairly wide margin. A 2 game skid does not make me reconsider where I expect this team to be when March comes around. Yes, a Big Ten Championship will be harder to achieve considering the 2-game hole Purdue is in but the top 5 teams will start feeding off each other moving forward. There is a path for Purdue but ultimately, the overarching expectations will come in the tournament where Purdue should still be a favorite.
