1/12/2025 Boilermaker Water Cooler Chat: Dominance Edition
Rants, ravings, and somewhat sensical opinions following the wild, wacky, and wide-wide world of Purdue sports.
This past summer, I was visiting my family in Michigan for the 4th of July holiday. During that trip, we played some Mario Kart on the newest high-tech videogame monstrosity. In the past, there have been plenty of times where I have lost spectacularly, plenty of times where I have won some and lost some. That trip, however, it was pure dominance.
“You merely adopted Mario Kart, I was born in it…” I mumbled in my best Bane impression, having won my 5th straight Family Star-Cup Championship. I laughed manically as my nieces and nephews were flying off of Rainbow Road, I shot green shells with incredible precision, and when I got a red shell… Forget about it! It was sheer dominance. The rest of the trip became, “How can we possibly beat Uncle Ben at Mario Kart?” from my kids, my nieces and nephews. Everything was going right, and nobody was in my league.
Purdue is, currently “July 4th, 2024 Ben Kolodzinski Mario Kart” level of dominance at the moment. I am here for it! (Editor’s Note: We will not be discussing the 2024 Christmas Ben Kolodzinski Mario Kart performance.)
The Games:
#20 Purdue 68, Rutgers 50
Purdue, in recent years, has not played well in New Jersey. In case you were wondering, they once hit a half court shot against Purdue, assuming you don’t remember. Yadda yadda yadda… Caleb Furst yammo’ed over a future lottery pick’s head in the early minutes to set the tone, Purdue never trailed, and the state of New Jersey will never recover.
TKR and Braden Smith both had 16 points (Trey in only 20 minutes due to foul trouble), with Smith adding 14 assists. Loyer added 13. Boilers shot a mere 16.7% from three, lost the rebound margin, but still dominated on the road.
Nebraska 68, #20 Purdue 104
Remember how I said that Purdue dominated Rutgers while only shooting 16-something % from 3? Well, water finds level. Purdue hit 19 threes behind an astounding 57.6% clip, dominated the rebound battle, and assisted on 32 of 41 (78%) of their made shots. Yeah, that’ll keep Mackey Arena happy.
CJ Cox had a career high 23 points, drilling 5 three pointers. Loyer had 19, TKR had 15, and Myles Colvin had 14. Braden Smith only had 8 points, but dished out a gaudy 14 assists.
14 players played, 13 scored, as Purdue (sometimes literally) flew up and down the court to another dominant victory!
Purdue – Nebraska Photo Gallery by Mark Elsner: https://iscpurdue.com/purdue-mens-basketball-vs-nebraska-1-12-25/
Break It Down:
I, like many other media folk, highlight the scoring outputs during dominant victories. Understandable, with great margins comes great scoring (or whatever Peter Parker said). This week is not about offense, as impressive as it has been. This week is the return of the “Defense Lives Here” mantra for Matt Painter’s squad.
We saw it against Northwestern’s dual headed monster, Purdue shut them down. This week, against Rutgers Trapezoid Twins of Terror, Purdue shut them down. If it wasn’t for Connor Essegian bombing away meaningless spinning step-back threes while down 30-something points, Purdue shut down the entirety of Nebraska. Defense has moved back in, baby!
Causation or correlation is irrelevant. The shift of putting Furst and Cox into the starting lineup, while giving the Boilers an athletic punch from the bench in Colvin and Heide, has ignited something on the defensive end. Against Rutgers, The Boilermakers forced 16 turnovers. Against Nebraska, Purdue forced 17. Boilers are going to win lots of games if they keep this defensive mojo going.
What Went Well:
- 33: Forced Turnovers in two contests, leading to 26 points in two contests is excellent.
- 50 to 18: Assist to turnover ratio for the Boilermakers spanning the last two games.
- Dunk City: Whether or not it is Caleb Furst jamming on a future NBA lottery pick against Rutgers, or Heide AND Colvin flying through the air on nearly identical half-court “alley” to reverse dunk “oops” against Nebraska, there has been no lack of emphatic finishes at the rim this week. While each is only worth 2 points, the momentum garnered from an “alpha” dunk affects the game immeasurably.
Opportunities for Improvement:
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Big Men on Campus:
This week, we will have Co-Big Man on Campus awards. 1) We have Caleb Furst, who might not be stuffing the stat sheet, but is in a sustained stretch of highly impactful play. His heart, energy, and toughness have been a shot in the arm. 2) We have CJ Cox, who scorched the nets against Nebraska. His career high 23 points continues to remind the Boilermaker faithful, as well as the rest of the Big Ten, that he can get hot in a hurry, and punish the opposing team.
A Look Ahead:
The (as of this writing) #20 Purdue Boilermakers make their first West Coast road trip, taking on Washington on 1/15 for a (GASP) 9:30 pm tip. Following that, the Boilers will travel south to (as of this writing) #15 Oregon for a 3pm tipoff on Saturday 1/18. While Purdue should be favorites against Washington, playing a tough, ranked team like Oregon on the road is always tough. The Ducks should be a favorite against the Boilers.
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