m e n ' s
b a s k e t b a l l
u p d a t e
CONSISTENTLY INCONSISTENT
Purdue has been all over the map during non-conference play
BY BRIAN NEUBERT
BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com
T
hrough 12 games, Purdue's 9-3,
well ahead of where it was at this
time a year ago, but a fact that rings
hollow with the Boilermakers and
those with a stake in their success.
To this point, Purdue's yet to register
a win that in the long run likely will be
considered a "quality" one.
Coach Matt Painter's team has been
maddeningly inconsistent, never more
so than at the Old Spice Classic in Florida, where it lost two of three games,
playing entirely differently from one
half to the next in all three of those
games.
Most recently, Purdue dropped to 0-3
in the Crossroads Classic with a frustrating 76-70 loss to Butler, before the
Boilermakers returned home to beat
Maryland-Eastern Shore in their second-to-last non-conference game.
The Boilermakers' trip to West Virginia for a Dec. 22 date loomed as their
last chance for a particularly notable
pre-conference victory.
Tom Campbell
Terone Johnson and the Boilermakers have been inconsistent, to say the least,
"I didn't think we'd have lost three
games if I'd looked at the whole sched- through the first 12 games of the season. But the record, 9-3, gives them hope of
ule (before the season)," point guard reaching the NCAA Tournament.
Ronnie Johnson said. "This is definitely not where I wanted to be and there were a few
CONSISTENCY
games I thought we could have won. We have to learn
Purdue's weaved erratically from solid play to not-sofrom those games and bring that into the Big Ten and solid play, on not just a game-to-game basis, but half-tohopefully we can knock off some of those highly ranked half and possession-by-possession.
teams."
The Boilermakers have struggled to find an equilibriAt this point, if Purdue is going to find its way back to um when they've needed one most.
the NCAA Tournament, it seems like it's going to have to
"We don't handle runs," Painter said. "Instead of it being
do just that.
a 6-0 run, we allow it to be a 12-2 run. We have to be able to
Below, we look at some of the storylines of the season cut runs off and be more consistent as a team."
to date.
Purdue's been a mixed bag when it's come to situa-
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