Reflections on an 81-69 defeat for the Boilermakers:
Purdue’s problem continues.
The Hoosiers are now losing 11 of the last 12 against the Boilermakers, including eight in a row. Tonight’s loss also pulled Archie Miller’s IU record against the Boilermakers to 0-6. Four of those losses occurred in Bloomington.
Once Purdue took a 7-6 lead at the 16:48 mark on a Mason Gillis second chance tray, the Hoosiers never took the lead again. Every time Indiana threatened to overcome the obstacle, the Boilermakers had an answer. Purdue did not play well in the Big Ten game, as he entered the competition reaching just 30.8 percent in five conference games. But this team has a lot of snipers and chose tonight inside Assembly Hall to have their Big Ten escape party. Boilermakers did 11 out of 17 (64.7 percent) of the depths, including a 7 out of 9 mark (77.8 percent) in the first half to set the tone. Indiana did not release the snipers early and Purdue made the Hoosiers pay.
Indiana held Trevion Williams with just six points in the first half on 2 of 5 shots. But Williams came alive in the final 20 minutes, scoring 7 out of 10 after the break for 16 points. And although it was not a high volume, the 3-point shot remained warm (4 out of 8, 50 percent). Indiana, on the other hand, had its worst 3-point shooting performance of the season. The Hoosiers hit only 3 out of 18 (16.7%). In the second half, IU seemed allergic to even shooting from a distance, as it only took one attempt – a failure by Trey Galloway – out of the final 1:19 of the competition, when he exploded in despair to try to return to the competition. Indiana also had a rough night on the line. The Hoosiers hit just 16 of 29 (55.2 percent) in the charity band, their third worst performance of the season.
So this is not very complicated: shoot badly and you will not win many games in the Big Ten.
Indiana’s attack also looked as stagnant as it has been all season. This was especially true during a drought of more than five minutes of field goal in the second half, when Purdue took the lead to 67-56 with 5:22 left, which put the game aside forever. There was simply not much ball movement, cut or cohesion in the sets.
After catching him in the last few bouts, Al Durham and Rob Phinisee combined for just eight points out of 3 out of 10 shots. Armaan Franklin was back on the team and scored 14 points, but came in an inefficient night. The sophomore scored just 6 out of 15 on the field and missed all five attempts at 3 points. Purdue also set Indiana on fire in off-field games tonight, scoring a series of buckets on them en route to 1.15 points for possession for the night.
A clunker like tonight will happen from time to time, especially from a team like Indiana that doesn’t count the kick as a strong one. But to happen against Purdue at home is a bad appearance. In addition, Indiana has now dropped from the top 30 at KenPom (No. 36) with its attack dropping to No. 57 and the defense out of the top 20 for the first time in the entire season (No. 22).
It’s a tough night for Indiana basketball. And Big Ten programming gets even more difficult from here.
Filed under: Purdue Boilermakers