There have been many changes inside Mackey Arena to start this new Purdue men’s basketball season. Most notable are the new LED(?) lights that go up and down the handrails. They were used during pre-game presentations, after free throws and after three-point shots. Free chicken is no longer the prize to be won for the opponent’s missed free throws, but rather mozzarella bites from Azipp Pizza (a top-notch pizzeria in my opinion). The video cards are either new or just have a new gold border. Anyway, they look good. Lilly now has her name on the ground for an untold amount of money. But perhaps more importantly, Purdue has four new starters.
John Wooden Memorial Player of the Match (JWMPOTG): I have to give it to Daniel Jacobsen but honestly, I shouldn’t give it to anyone at Purdue. What a waste it was.
It became obvious pretty early in this one that this Purdue team is still struggling to find itself, especially on offense. At the under-16 timeout, the score was 2-2. When you lose four starters, you have to assume things might be a little tough to start the year and they certainly were tonight. Purdue was only able to muster 32 points in the first 20 minutes. Purdue was led by star Daniel Jacobsen who had 11 points. Jacobsen also takes the place of “Purdue player who gets the shit kicked out of him” on every possession. But, with seemingly 50 pounds of added muscle, he’s been able to handle it, even though it’s only been two games. Other highlights of the first half included Caden Pierce and his five rebounds. He’s aggressive on the boards and really flies at them on the defensive side of the court. You have to love your efforts. Then there is one of my personal favorites that I think gets overlooked when talking about this team, Jack Benter who went 2-4 from three in the first half while the rest of the team went 2-9. I have to say I don’t like it. I also don’t like that CJ Cox went into halftime with just one point after being 1-2 at the line. Cox is supposed to be the leader of this team and I’m not saying he needs to score 20 points per game, but he needs to be a consistent threat for this team to reach its potential. What I liked was the fact that Purdue only committed two turnovers in the first 20 minutes.
Neither good nor bad, but it’s just worth noting that in the first 20 minutes, Raleigh Burgess was the substitute and Enzo Shahrvin didn’t come into the game. He didn’t impress in the Gonzaga game and apparently Burgess did enough to outplay him early in the rotation. I agree with this decision, but if Enzo is going to be useful to this team, he needs to get some playing minutes against Purdue’s inferior opponents and Valpo is definitely a lesser opponent. As bad as Purdue shot from deep in the first half, remembering they were 4-13, Valpo was only 1-11. It’s pretty incredible. Purdue headed into halftime with a 32-20 lead in one game after an offensive performance only a mother could love.
If you’re wondering about the mood of the second half, just look at this image from the show. That really sums it up.
Purdue played 30 minutes of basketball after halftime and it was an ugly 30 minutes of basketball. It’s really hard to put into words how horrible the last 30 minutes of basketball were. This Purdue team is in big trouble if this is the kind of effort we can expect to see the game come and go. I’m not going to go over the entirety of this second half but I just want to highlight a few notable points.
Gn sports
