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volume 23, EX 20 • feb. 4, 2013 Inside | Boilers lose two straight 7-8 | Women beat IU 15 Manuel feature 16 | Purdue introduces 'Legacy Fund' 22-25 Looking for answers in a hurry BY BRIAN NEUBERT BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com old saying There's anseem." asthat goes, "Things are never as good they seem or as bad as they Purdue is badly hoping the latter portion turns out to be true, as it staggers out of a disastrous week in which Indiana handed it the worst home defeat in program history, followed by an equally noncompetitive loss at Northwestern. A week ago at this time, the Boilermakers were winners of four of their last five, the lone loss coming on the home floor of a Michigan team that was about to be ranked No. 1 nationally. And Purdue led that game at halftime. The point being, things were looking up. But following the 97-60 loss to IU and 75-60 defeat at Northwestern, things have taken a terrible, terrible turn for the worse. "We have to do a better job competing and we have to do a better job of executing on both ends of the court," Coach Matt Painter said of his team, which sits at 11-11 heading into Indiana, there's a lot of issues there. But it has to start with playing hard and competing and simply doing a better job of doing our job. "But I do think it's correctable." After the Northwestern game, the Boilermaker coach was a bit more revealing during his post-game spiel. "You'd think after getting beat by 37 points on your home court to your rival school, you'd have more fight to start the game," Painter said, referring to Northwestern's 12-0 lead to start. "But it really says a lot to where we are with our immaturity. "There's no question it falls on me. We've had the issue the whole year, though, and not just the past week. We didn't just come down with the flu in the past week. We have to do a better job of building a habit. That's what you try to Tom Campbell Coach Matt Painter throws up his hands during the Indiana game, do as a coach, you build habits on and off the court, so that you have as he and his Boilermakers search for answers following a twogame losing streak. discipline. It's just something we have to stay with. You don't just the back half of the Big Ten schedule. give in to it." "That's where it starts, just playing hard. The lone bright spot of the past week When you get beat the way we did by THE Numbers 2 2.7 2.8 2.9 Number of freshmen — A.J. Hammons and Kentucky's Nerlens Noel — in the power six conferences who average 10 points, six rebounds and two blocks per game. Defensive rebounds per game Sam Ostarello averages compared to her closest Big Ten competitor heading into Monday night's game with Penn State. The average made three-point field goals per game by D.J. Byrd, tops in conference play. The average blocked shots per game by Hammons in league play, also tops in the Big Ten in conference action. was the play of freshman center A.J. Hammons, who was named Big Ten Freshman-of-the-Week after totaling 49 points between the two games, though his best week comes with a bit of a qualifier after he was late for the team bus and didn't start in Evanston. "Building a habit," as Painter says. During its run of four wins in five games, Purdue made strides on defense. But whatever step forward was taken then was negated by the significant step backward taken in the past few days. The past two first halves, Purdue yielded 47 and 43 points, respectively. The 50 points IU scored in the second half were the most points scored in a half GoldanDBlack express • volume 23, express 20 • 1