Another tale of two halves.
Our boys did this a good (BAD, ACTUALLY) amount of times last year, too.
Which may be a reason to look on the bright side, but let’s just hit ourselves right in the collective chin and say how much that, well, sucked:
- In this four-game winless stretch, the Boilermakers seem to fold under pressure whenever a big lead is neutralized. If they lose big momentum, at they seem totally incapable of re-taking any of that lost momentum.
The following mindset is glaringly obvious, but I spin ye a yarn:
One of my favorite youth coaches called timeout after the opposing team went on a 16-0 run.
We had an eight point lead and suddenly an eight point deficit. Surely it’s more simple than this on the court, but that coach said “I just saw them erase an eight-point lead. You guys can do that, too.”
Well, he screamed it, and there were some adult words, but still.
2. What can Purdue seem to do when they lost confidence at any point in the second half?
That is the million dollar question. I really think the answer lies in the experience gained in having goofed up in situations like that. You’d just like to THINK that they would NOT do this SO OFTEN.
That and, duh, practice. Passing drills galore after a game filled with unforced errors like that. The words “careless passing” break my heart.
No real secret to this. It’s just is the biggest collective mistake that is keeps freakin’ happening and now I will never stop worrying even when the Boilermakers have a 13-point lead. I hate that feeling. Just the fact that it’s not-that-uncommon…maddening.
2a. I will say this once. I rarely if ever questioned the coaching staff’s ability to adjust and play for the long con both in individual games and in the long run of a season.
I am worried about in-game adjustments right now.
3. Trey Kaufman-Renn can’t be effective he he keeps getting into foul trouble early. Question refereeing all you want, it’s always highly questionable to the point where both Big 10 teams’s fan bases are regularly chanting BS and playing it off as “push it.”
He needs to be a bigger part of the game in the terms of minutes played. He can’t play important middle stretches of the game when he’s already at three fouls with a few minutes left in the first half. Simply put: he has, at times, gotten a little careless with contact in the four-game skid (and, unfortunately, across the course if this season).
That’s it. TKR stay out of foul trouble in general, please and thank you in advance.
4. Of the four players with the four most minutes on court, Fletcher Loyer was the only one with a rating over 100. His very efficient 154 was next to three offensive ratings in the 60’s.
That is not even worth me saying “that’s suboptimal” (while saying nothing disparaging) but I will say this:
I bet very few basketball games without a Jimmer-esque performance are won that way. VERY few.
5. Ending with a semi-positive:
Pretty solid game shooting from three, but yes, it would have been really nice to be upper-level hot-handed yesterday afternoon. You can’t have that many unforced errors and not be shooting lights out.
The Boilermakers shot 43.8% from three. That’s 7 for 16. The team’s season average is 37.9, already good enough for 22nd best in the country, so again, nice, but WOULD HAVE BEEN COOL IF blah blah blah.
6. Actually we’ll end on an actual positive note: Loyer’s easily the player of the game, that’s obvious, I didn’t need to say it I just wanted to highlight good ol’ Fletcher Loyer.
The junior guard had 20 points on 4 of 7 shooting, adding 6 of his 7 free throw attempts. He tallied two assists and three rebounds. Two of those shot attempts were threes and he knocked both of them down.
Aside from Camden Heide’s insanely efficient offensive rating of 244 (he made his only FTA for his only point of the game), Loyer had the team’s highest offensive rating of 154. Very efficient game, only one turnover, great shooting from his sweet spots, very solid outing for #2.
Regroup, my friends. Boiler Up. UCLA at home on Friday.