12/16/2024 Boilermaker Water Cooler Chat: Chicken Little Edition
Rants, ravings, and somewhat sensical opinions following the wild, wacky, and wide-wide world of Purdue sports.
A long standing fable, Chicken Little, is a story of a young naïve chicken who instigates a panic. After being bonked on the head by a falling acorn in the forest, Chicken Little proclaims to the other birds that “the sky is falling” sparking anxiety across the kingdom. No, the sky wasn’t falling. In fact, an acorn falling off of a tree is something that happens. Frequently. It should be expected.
The unfounded hysteria rushes around the animal kingdom, creating angst, animosity, and fervent terror. One little chicken’s misguided observations ends up being its downfall, as the panic ended up costing the chicken her life.
The moral of the story, misguided consternation will consume you. Just because you think you are right, maybe, just maybe, your agitation is flat out incorrect.
The Game:
#17 Texas A&M 70, #11 Purdue 66
A game more resembling a rugby scrum than a basketball contest, TAMU brought the physicality to the Boilermakers. Purdue turned the ball over 16 times, surpassing the 14.5 threshold/tipping point where the Boilers often lose. Likewise, the Boilermakers were out rebounded by 11, outscored from the free throw line by 7, and never once looked comfortable on either end of the floor.
Braden Smith, TKR, Fletcher Loyer, and CJ Cox all scored in double figures. Colvin and Heide both had 9. Literally nobody else scored.
Game Pics by Mark Elsner
Break It Down:
My daughter played basketball, for one season, in middle school. Her heart wasn’t in it, and that’s ok. After one game, she was particularly frustrated, claiming that the girl guarding her was fouling her and the refs weren’t calling it. My reply was a simple, “…well then you foul her back.”
Listen folks, A&M beat the snot out of Purdue, and the officials weren’t calling it. Purdue plays in the B1G, and the officials stink. Poor officiating is a significant part of playing in this league, and the Boilers need to get used to it. If TAMU is going to smack you around, The Big Bad Burly Boilermakers need to smack back. Aggression cannot be one sided, and the Boilers need to show toughness, grit, and the willingness to strike back.
Long gone are the days where Purdue has the single most physically imposing player in the sport. Regardless, the Boilers have to show fight in the face of someone bringing a fight to you.
What Went Well:
- CJ Cox: Showed some much needed life from the Purdue bench. With 10 points on 4/6 shooting and hitting 2 threes he provided a spark.
- Fletcher Loyer: Showed some spark taking the ball to the hole on Saturday, including a highlight reel up and under layup on a fast break.
- 90%: From the free throw line is a great performance. Normally shooting this percentage from the line, considering that the Boilers are a post-heavy team, should put Purdue in position to win. But…
Opportunities for Improvement:
- 10 total: Free throws shot by the Boilermakers, in an ultra physical game. As previously mentioned Purdue has a dominant force in the post who touches the ball frequently, but didn’t get the calls that are normally made. It was very peculiar, as there were stretches in the game where players were getting hammered to the ground on consecutive plays, but the whistles were being swallowed. Even stranger…
- 0: Free throw attempts with Purdue in the bonus. You read that right, Purdue never made it to the bonus this game, as Texas A&M were only called for 11 fouls the entire contest. 5 in the first half, 6 in the second. For a game that featured an ultra-physical A&M defense, with Purdue feeding TKR, and Fletcher taking the ball to the rim, you’d think the fouls would rack up. They didn’t. Which is unfortunate because…
- 16: Turnovers were caused due to this ultra-physical defense. This statistic is the death knell for the Boilermakers. When you are not getting to the line, and you are not efficient in your offense, you need to be able to control possession of the ball. The combination of all three of these factors led to the Boilermakers dropping a game that they absolutely should have won, had they played to their averages.
Big Man on Campus:
Due to popular demand, there will be no BMOC award this week. Coffee is for closers.
One More Thing:
Call me an old man who shakes his fist at the clouds, but I want to say that “I told you so” to some of the naysayers. I predicted that, without guard rails, NIL was going to ruin college sports. I’ve watched college sports for the greater part of 4 decades, leaning that direction from the money-hungry selfishness that I perceive from professional sports.
Look where we are now. Because the NCAA never put in the proper guard rails for NIL, we have super teams being created. We have players transferring multiple times, hunting out the biggest paycheck. We have entire, BOWL ELIGIBLE, football teams like Marshall who are declining their bowl appearance because they do not have enough players to field a team, due to the transfer portal. We have high school seniors getting offered more money to play college sports than NBA and NFL rookie contracts. We have players more faithful to their paycheck than to their team. Purdue has a player who have been in the Boilermaker bloodline for generations, leaving his home town to find greener pastures. This whole thing is chaos.
I am perfectly fine with players getting fairly compensated for autograph signings and working summer camps. I do not blame these kids for trying to find the best for their families. Millions of dollars is absolutely life changing, so go ahead and make that bank. I absolutely do not blame the athletes one bit.
I blame the NCAA for having zero foresight. They saw this coming from a mile away and declined to do a modicum of preparation. Zero guard rails. Zero attempt to stop it.
A Look Ahead:
The (as of this writing) #11 Purdue Boilermakers have another light week, with only 1 game on the slate. The Boilermakers will travel to Birmingham, Alabama to take on (as of this writing) the #2 ranked Auburn Tigers. I am of the belief that Auburn is absolutely the best team in the nation, and even though this is a “neutral” sight game, it will be a tall task for the Boilermakers to take care of business. Saturday at 4:30, we will see how the Boilers will fare.
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