Hoopraker

The present and the future of the conference meet tonight when Matt Painter takes his young Purdue Boilermakers (10-4) into the heart of Spartan Country for a crash course in hard hat Big Ten Basketball. Along with the Kohl Center, the Breslin Center, catalyzed by its Izzone student section, is the most passionate basketball atmosphere in the Conference. For the Boilermakers, it’s an opportunity for rapid maturation.

Spartan Challenge

Evident from a near miss at the hands of the Golden Gophers, the Spartans are very good but not yet dominant. Faced with a quick and perimeter oriented Minnesota lineup in the second half on Saturday night, the Spartans needed an extraordinary effort from Raymar Morgan withstand the charge and prevailed.

Still, the Spartans have the depth and talent to preserver droughts. And they rebound like madmen, averaging nearly 41 boards a game, 11 more than its opponents. Such fundamentals refined by excellent coaching and great effort afford the Spartans leeway when, as often happens, shots don’t always fall through the nylon.

Purdue Preparation

In a prescient effort to prepare his freshmen for games like tonight’s, Painter took Purdue to Clemson and Missouri and played Louisville in Conseco. The Boilermakers are step beyond the Gophers and while far removed from the team led by Carl Landry that took Florida to the wall, they have the talent to compete. Tonight, we’ll see whether they have the composure to focus.

Zoning In

In Saturday’s win over Michigan, the Boilermakers turned the page on poor free throw and inconsistent three point shooting by hitting nine three pointers and 16/21 from the line. The beneficiary of numerous open looks set up by deft extra passes from Robbie Hummel, Chris Kramer, and E’twann Moore, Keaton Grant continues his sophomore season emergence as a legitimate scorer and lock down defender.  His growth is critical as the season churns.

Where outside shooting came around, Purdue’s post play remained stagnant against the Wolverines.  Against Michigan State, and for the remainder of the conference season, Purdue will need JaJuan Johnson and Nemanja Calasan to contribute in all aspects of the game, from passing and rebounding to defending and scoring.  Both are talented players and certainly capable for developing into strong Big Ten post players. They’ll need to show some development tonight.

However it crumbles for Purdue tonight, win or lose, they’ll be better tomorrow because of tonight.  Matt Painter will make sure of it.

Posted by TD Lawlor on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 5:57 pm.