2/17/2025 Boilermaker Water Cooler Chat: Thanos Edition
Rants, ravings, and somewhat sensical opinions following the wild, wacky, and wide-wide world of Purdue sports.
I’ll readily admit that my grasp on popular culture is quite lacking, so bear with me. I am not much of a comic book fan, but I will take a stab at something here.
I remember a few years back, there was a movie filled with Marvel superheroes. Spiderman was there, Iron Man, Hulk. You might’ve heard of the “Avengers” who are a group of superheroes who go on to fight groups of dastardly bastard supervillain baddies. In the movie “Infinity War” the ultimate bad guy, Thanos, collected a bunch of magical stones, put them in an “infinity gauntlet” and snapped his fingers, wiping out half of the universe’s civilization in the process. Just that quickly, half of everything was gone.
Yeah, Purdue has a “Thanos problem.”
The Games:
#7 Purdue 73, #20 Michigan 75
The Boilers headed up north to Ann Arbor to take on (then) second place Michigan in a Tuesday tilt. What started out as a thriving Boilermaker performance, was quickly derailed. Paul Szelc, Larry Scirotto, and Steven Anderson snapped their fingers, wiping out half of the appropriate foul calls on Michigan, derailing what was once an entertaining basketball game.
The Boilers won the field-goal, 3 point shooting, rebounding, steals, points off turnovers, and points in paint battles, which are key to winning the game. What did they lose? One thing, really. Total fouls called against them (23-13), and free throw differential (8-26). Strange, as Purdue is one of the nation’s leaders in getting to the line and play a post centric offense…
Braden Smith went for 24 pts, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists, and narrowly missed a contested last second heave that would’ve won the game. Trey Kaufman-Renn added 22 pts and 7 rebounds, but was hampered with foul trouble. In fact, the entire Purdue front line fouled out in the game, with Furst joining TKR on the bench. Loyer scored a sturdy 15 points. The bench added nothing, and the Boilers fall on the road against a ranked foe.
#16 Wisconsin 94, #20 Purdue 84
On Saturday, Wisconsin had their turn with the infinity gauntlet. They snapped their fingers and simultaneously eliminated 1/2 of their own missed shots, and 1/2 of Purdue’s ability to play defense. What was left, was the Badgers shooting an astonishing 90.9% (20-22) from two point range, drilling 12 threes, and generally making fools of the Boilermaker defense… at Mackey none the less.
TKR had 30 pts, Loyer had 15, Cox had 13. No other statistics need to be discussed, because, this game was defense optional for the Boilermakers.
Purdue – Wisconsin Photo Gallery by Mark Elsner: https://iscpurdue.com/purdue-mens-basketball-vs-wisconsin-2-15-25/
Break It Down:
A week ago, Purdue was in the driver’s seat to win the Big Ten. Today, Purdue will need a miracle to get a share of the league title. What a difference a week makes. That is what happens when you lose to two teams that you are not supposed to lose to, and go 0-fer for the week… all while your peers in league keep winning.
What is frustrating is that this team is VERY good. You can’t play excellent defense for a month, and then, out of nowhere forget how to play. Maybe it just was a bad day, or maybe there is a mental block. Regardless, Purdue needs to circle the wagons. Purdue probably lost a seed-line this week for the NCAA tournament. Luckily there is opportunity to earn it back, but they are absolutely flirting with losing the geographic advantage for the Big Dance. Nobody who is looking to have a long run in the tournament wants that. Blame the back loaded schedule, blame the unbalanced schedule, blame the refs, whatever. Purdue needs to be tougher than the fray, and they are not.
One more thing, does anyone else remember how “Infinity War” ended? Half of humanity died. Total down note. The bad guys won. Not all was lost, however, as the next movie, “Endgame” a valiant comeback from certain peril brought the good guys back. Evil was eventually vanquished. What I am trying to say is, the story isn’t over, no matter how bleak it looks.
What Went Well:
- 26 ppg: For TKR this week, despite battling foul trouble. He continues to be rock solid.
- Offensive Box Score: If you look at the box scores, Purdue didn’t play particularly poorly this week. They only averaged 7.5 turnovers on the week. Averaged 79.5 pts. Shot well. Out rebounded their opponents. Unfortunately you can’t cherry pick the outcome of a game.
Opportunities for Improvement:
- Somebody Stop Him!: … but nobody could. Wisconsin just ate the once vaunted Purdue defense alive. Purdue could literally do nothing to stop the Badgers, and got humiliated on their home court. Not sure if it was effort, or scheme, or just one of those days. The bottom line is if Purdue plays defense like this for the rest of the season, they will lose far more than they win.
- 0: Bench points against Michigan. Inept officiating aside, had Purdue’s bench made one layup, the game would’ve been in overtime. If they had hit one three, Purdue would’ve won. They didn’t accomplish that. Purdue lost by 2.
- Big Ten: Continues to allow unserious and unprofessional officials trot around the nation and embarrass their product. They have all the money in the world from Fox, but refuse to hire competent, or for that matter, hold incompetent officials accountable for their terrible performance.
Big Man on Campus:
Due to popular demand, there will be no BMOC award this week. Coffee is for closers.
A Look Ahead:
Oh look, it doesn’t get easier this week! The (as of this writing #7) Purdue Boilermakers travel to (as of this writing) #11 Michigan State for a Tuesday tilt. Purdue will follow that up by traveling to Indiana on Sunday. Two road games against two teams that want nothing more than to beat Purdue… all while the Boilermakers appear to be skidding. Luckily, we all know that this Purdue team has some killers on it. Time for them to wake up, or this Big Ten season could get ugly.
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