In the waning seconds of 9th ranked Purdue's 87-82 overtime loss Saturday afternoon to 13th ranked Oklahoma, Matt Painter completely lost it. With a reddened face, Painter berated the officiating crew for (probably) a couple questionable calls towards the end of the NIT Season tip-off championship. At least I hope he was yelling at the officiating crew.
It had to be a tough loss for Purdue. They controlled the tempo of the game and led throughout and even after OU took a late lead, they had a chance to tie the game up at the end of the overtime session. But miscommunication--and a fouled out Robbie Hummel--knocked Purdue out. With Hummel out, Purdue lacked an interior presence, not that they were an inside-oriented team to begin with. (Though I should note that senior center Nemanja Calasan was perhaps Purdue's best player yesterday).
Things have been rocky in West Lafayette early in the season. The team's go-to scorer, E'Twuan Moore was reprimanded earlier this year for an apparent exchange at practice. Here's a taste from the local reporters.
During the postgame press conference, neither confirmed nor denied a verbal exchange during practice Wednesday.
"How you perform in practice is going to lead to how many minutes you play or if you start," Painter said when asked why Moore did not start against Detroit.
...
Painter was asked if Moore was OK with not starting.
"I really don't care," Painter said. "I'm talking about the five guys I thought deserved to start. You have to reward guys."
I could be wrong, but I sensed a tense Purdue team in the waning minutes of its loss to Oklahoma yesterday. Could this still young team be struggling with lofty expectations? They have Duke at home next and something tells me that won't be pretty.
Michigan State Shocked, Bounces Back
It wasn't even really close on Thanksgiving when Gary Williams' Terrapins did anything they wanted against Michigan State. No doubt that MSU played poorly. Kalin Lucas shot 3-11. Raymar Morgan played just 14 minutes after getting into foul trouble.
With big man Goran Suton out for at least another week with a knee injury, Tom Izzo expected to find leadership from Morgan.
Izzo was bothered by the actions of Morgan, who he felt should be experienced enough to avoid such errors. He also was called for traveling earlier in the game, an issue that has plagued him in past years.
“He’s got to realize that if it’s a bad call, not a bad call… whatever it is, he’s got to play smarter,” Izzo said. “There were some things early on where he just put us in a position by not being as aggressive as he needed to be defensively before guys got the ball. Raymar’s got to learn how to adjust to that. It seems like we’ve been talking about that for a few years.”
Morgan is very, very talented. Lucas and Travis Walton are nice and Suton will be very good when he's back. But Michigan State is also very young. We'll see how this plays out as the season progresses.
The Spartans did bounce back yesterday to beat Oklahoma State 94-79. Morgan had 29 points.
Minnesota Product Leading Iowa
West Virginia had no problem with Iowa Friday night, but one Hawkeye stood out. Freshman Anthony Tucker of Minnetonka played 34 minutes, shot 8-12 and 6-9 from three to lead Iowa with 24 points.
Not too shabby for a young man who at one time had a Minnesota scholarship offer before it was pulled back by Monson's regime. It doesn't appear Tubby's crew ever offered Tucker. This wasn't an aberration either. Tucker has been in double-digits in each of Iowa's six games.
Another Minnesota product, forward Andrew Brommer from Roesmount, played a season-high 22 minutes in the WVU win.
Finally ....
- Hoopraker states that Ohio State big man BJ Mullens isn't ready yet. For those of you wanting to see more from Ralph Sampson III, well, it's obvious big men take some time to develop.
- Illinois staved off Kent State (also known as "Can't Read, Can't Write, Kent State," according to Ohio University grad Miss PJS) in overtime yesterday. Mike Tisdale was big down the stretch for the Illini. This really ought to be the year we actually beat Illinois.
- And lastly, be sure to stop back for a game thread this afternoon at 1 p.m. central time as Tubby's Gophers take on North Dakota State in a game that might be closer then you would imagine.