Ohio State vs. Purdue Running Blog

The best game of the year is about to start, and here are some notes. John Diebler has his right hand wrapped up because he hurt his thumb. OSU is 15-0 at home this year and shooting 53% there. Purdue has never won at Value City Arena, Here we go.

- Purdue picks up an offensive foul on Dallas and already got a lay up against the feared OSU 1-3-1 zone. OSU looks bad on offense to start. Moore buries an open 3. 3 possessions for Purdue, 2 real good shots, and one strip. Missed 3 by Lighty and OSU is now out of the zone.

- After being down 7-0, Evan Turner scores the next 4 points. I think his offensive rebounding goes really unnoticed when people talk about his game. He usually gets 4-6 points a game on rebounds and put backs. JuJuan Johnson has 6 points to lead Purdue, he is a cruising. Another jumper from him. 8 points now, and look for Purdue to try to get him the ball inside to get the second foul on Lauderdale. Purdue is playing really tough defense, just waiting for the refs to start calling fouls on reaches to bring this back in.

- Purdue hasn't missed a shot, but really all of them have been easy jumpers. Now they have missed two back to back contested shots by Hummel and Johnson. Here are some surprising stats from the first match-up against these 2 teams, Purdue was up 12 at half, and Robbie Hummel had 29 points in the first half!!! Turner followed that up with 23 in the second half while Hummel only had 6. 16-9 Purdue right now.

- Kramer just threw a 120 foot inbound pass, the problem is that the court is only 94 feet. 18-9 right now, and OSU looks terrible on offense, kinda how Illinois came out against them on Sunday. Turner with a drive and 1. Really makes you feel like you can never put OSU away because Turner can score at will. You have to make him a jump shooter. Keaton Grant hits a 3 and gets a foul on Diebler. If you look closely, you can call a foul on a ton of 3 point shots because the defender will always hit the shooter on their follow through. 26-14 after another Turner drive. He will be really good in the NBA.

- Only one substitution so far for OSU, this team has to get run down at the end of the season, they also now have 9 turnovers and only 14 points in 15 minutes. Dallas Lauderdale has not done anything yet, but on the bright side, he will qualify for Social Security next year when he turns 65.

- Evan Turner's go to move is to drive right to the top of the key and then spin back left into the lane and drive. He has done this 4 times so far and Purdue hasn't stopped them once. The half-time score in 36-23 Purdue at the half. The reason that Purdue is the best team in the Big Ten is because they are up 13 on the road, yet Hummel hasn't scored. E'twaun Moore isn't playing great, but Keaton Grant and Johnson are carrying Purdue. If Moore was 2 inches taller, he would be going pro right now. He can drive, and he can definitely shoot, but at 6'3 he is not quick enough.
Ohio State has only one assist in the first half, and Turner already has 13 and 5. He will get close to 30 tonight, because him driving to the hoop is the only offense that OSU has. Purdue is actually implementing Illinois' gameplan by letting Turner get to where he wants to go, but staying on the shooters. Buford, Diebler and Lighty are 3-10 collectively.

- The Evan Turner is now starting. He has dribbled into the lane and got fouled 2 times in a row. How the shit is this only the second sell out of the season for OSU?? I'm gonna go out on a limb and say when you have a National Player of the Year candidate that goes to a school that has 75,000 students in a town that does not have a pro team, if you don't come out and watch a RANKED team that is trying to win a BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIP, you have terrible fans.

- The USA is up 6-5 against Switzerland in the 10th end with the hammer in their curling match. If you are up with the hammer in the 10th, you win 90% of the time, in case you were wondering. They really need this win.

- I love Moore's mid range jumpshot, it is fantastic. OSU's offense now consists of Turner driving the lane and getting fouled, but now he has 3 fouls. 6 point game now, as Turner just buried a 3. Where have you gone JuJuan Johnson?? The only knock I have on him is that he doesn't post hard, instead he tries to use angles to get easy lay-ins. This works really well when Purdue is moving the ball, but they need to get the ball inside, if you don't then all you do is move the ball around the perimeter and jack up a shitty shot as the shot clock runs out..... which just happened. Turner now has 22 points and has scored the 9 of their last 11 points.

- As soon as I bitched about it, Johnson gets the ball on the block and gets the shot and 1. I am now sending in my application for a Division 1 basketball coach, maybe I can take over for Ernie Kent at Oregon, because he needs to be fired. You don't need to recruit there with all of that Phil Knight Nike money pouring in. Turner another drive and lay-in he now has 24 of OSU's 39 points.. He might drop 40. Johnson answers with a jumper, he has 22. Purdue 48 - OSU 39 with 12 to go...

- Does wasting a timeout with 12 minutes left because you can't inbound the ball make sense?? Nope, I didn't think so either. Another foul on a 3 point attempt, this time by Purdue on Buford. Stop touching 3 point shooters!!!

- Robbie Hummel apparently could win an Oscar for Big Ten Player of the Year. No I didn't write that wrong, that is what the announcer just said. Does that mean that he does a great job of acting like he should be a good player?? No Clue.

- Purdue gets an offensive foul, and Buford buries a wide open 3, then Hummel turns the ball over. OSU within 4 now, 48-44. The terrible fans are now really into the game. This is a perfect time to call a timeout, but wait.... Purdue only has 2 left. Can't go 10 minutes on the road with only one timeout. Nice work d-bags!! Oh, and there was a foul on the turnover, now OSU is in the bonus. I'm calling it right now, OSU will win, and Turner will shoot at least 8 free throws down the stretch.

- Dallas not only hits Johnson's hand on a jump shot, but also runs him over, but there is no call because this occurs 30 times a game, Buford hits a long 2, and now Painter has to call a timeout. 48-44 Purdue, 10 to go, and Purdue has only scored 12 points in the second half. OSU is trapping full court now, and Purdue only has 1 timeout. Way too much one on one with Purdue right now, no ball movement on offense.

- OSU know turning into jump shooters. Why the hell do you not let Turner drive and create now? Lighty, Buford, and Diebler all took 3's without Turner even looking to drive. Why?? 52-46 Purdue with 6:30 to go.

- Turner hits a jumper, but he hasn't gone to the hoop in about 4 minutes now. Another jumpshot misses for Turner. And for the record, Jim Jackson and I are the exact same page with Evan Turner. OSU had all of the momentum in this game 5 minutes ago, but they were never able to take the lead. 6 missed jumpshots later, Purdue builds a 6 point lead. Turner missed another 3!!! What the hell is he doing???

- Chris Kramer gets a nice lay-in and then concusses himself. I was trying soooooooo hard not to talk about him, but dammit, know I have to. When players like him, Lucas Johnson and every other "hustle" player has an injury that gets so much attention it drives me crazy. They are not INJURIES, they are SELF-INFLICTED WOUNDS. When a person hangs himself, you don't say the rope murdered them do you?? Diving 7 rows into the crowd to save a ball on the opening tip is not great basketball, it is stupid. The reason that these players always risk injury is because they don't really mean a ton to the over-all game. You never saw Michael Jordan dive into the crowd did you?? Does that mean that Lucas or Kramer tried harder than Jordan, or that the game means more to them??

- Turner just picked up his 4th foul, but I can assure you that he could stab Robbie Hummel and they still wouldn't foul him out. It is now an 8 point lead for Purdue, 58-50 with 3 left. Buford takes another 3 and misses, and Lighty bails him out with the offensive rebound and foul.

- I don't understand what I am seeing, Turner has not gone to the hoop in about 8 minutes, the entire offense is drive and kick outs to Buford or Diebler. Does Matta not have any short term memory?? Did he forget that nobody on Purdue could guard Turner 1 on 1 and he was getting to the rim or the line every time he tried?? Now 60-53 Purdue with a minute. Turner gives the ball up again and Buford misses a floater, but Dallas bails them out with a put back. Those were his first points of the game. 5 point game, and Kramer is at the line with 58 seconds left.

- Turner finally goes to the hole, and guess what?? He scores!!!! Amazing!! It's almost like he could do that anytime he wants to. 3 point game and Turner gets a rebound 15 seconds left and all hell breaks loose. He passes ahead to Buford, who drives in for a layin that gets blocked. Diebler gets the loose ball and hands off to Lighty, who gives the ball back to Diebler and he dribbles to an open look, but misses a 3. I'm gonna guess that if Matta had his choice, he would have Diebler shoot the 3 to tie, but I really want to know if Matta had another time out? Any chance that OSU had was completely blown by Matta. OSU had all of the momentum and was in the Bonus with 10 minutes left and Evan Turner only went to the basket ONE TIME!!! They gave the game away.

- On a side note, while Painter was doing his post game interview with Charrisa Thompson, you clearly see a Purdue benchwarmer check out her ass as he walks by. You have to remember that these players are also college kids.