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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 17 • 4 N obody here is trying to defile your Cheerios. If you're still swooning over Purdue's surreal win at Penn State — or ever were — I'm not here to play buzzkill. If your heart's still aflutter over Kendall Ste- phens' Reggie Miller-ish heroics or Purdue's subsequent domination of overtime in State College, live it up. But the voice of reason here must point out that winning while playing badly is a double-edged sword. Not that it was all bad against a Nittany Lion team that's winless in the Big Ten for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it has surrounded the Big Ten's lead - ing scorer, D.J. Newbill, with a col- lection of cardboard cut-outs and stuffed jerseys, which I guess is a big part of the reason D.J. Newbill is the Big Ten's leading scorer. Purdue beat Penn State. But to beat most anyone else this season from this day forward, it has to be better. Get this: Stephens and A.J. Hammons were together at the tops of their games for maybe the first time this season, and Purdue still needed a minor miracle to win. Thank heavens for missed free throws. I know: Big Ten road wins are valued by coach - es like that stamp with the upside-down airplane on it. But that doesn't mean it's OK to make them harder than necessary. Purdue's turnover affliction has reared its ugly head again. The Boilermakers are fouling too much. Decision-making with the game on the line at Penn State was scat- tershot. The three-point shooting has been inconsistent. So has the foul shooting from a team whose numbers, aside from two guys, are rock-solid. It's difficult to say Penn State should have won this game. The plays that decided the outcome were plays Purdue made, whether it was Jon Octeus' back- to-back three-pointers, Vince Ed- wards' three-point play in the final minutes (courtesy of Octeus), Ham- mons' deflection on the rebound of the final missed free throw or the heroics that followed from Ste- phens. But Penn State had this game and let it slip away, the way bad teams have a funny way of doing to perpetuate their bad-ness. Purdue should be better than what it showed for the majority of regulation in State College. Col- lectively and individually, you have seen a higher level of performance, one that can be reasonably expect- ed on a regular basis. But there appear to be concen- tration issues at play here, inconsis- tencies not just from game to game but series to series. They're evident in Hammons repeatedly fumbling good passes around the basket — he has no such problem in just-get- ball mode on the defensive boards — or in solid free-throw shooters going into inexplicable downturns in unison. Or in Purdue bailing oppo- nents out with cheap, unneeded fouls at the end of shot clocks, or in Boilermaker players taking a great shot one possession, a not-so- great one the next, or in lapses in the "detail" Matt Painter keeps say- ing is needed for his team to thrive defensively. Sometimes, for lack of a better term, these guys just spaz out. At Penn State, they got away with it, because they played an op- ponent incapable of delivering any kind of finishing blow. If issues persist, Purdue may not get away with such things the rest of the season. The Boilermakers must not let a positive outcome overshadow that reality. j Neubert can be contacted at BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com. F R O M E D I T O R B R I A N N E U B E R T Winning Ugly CERAMIC • ENGINEERED HARDWOOD LAMINATES • MARBLE CARPETING Specializing in • Homes • Businesses • Churches • Schools Where Contractors Buy Their Flooring Builders! Call our Contract Department and ask for our Contract Specialist 3437 State Road 26 E. 765-447-9393 800-403-6889 FAX 765-448-9978 Across from the Post Office GO BOILERS