Purdue Remains Undistracted by Brohm Rumors; Lays Waste to Davidson, 79-58
(Photo Credit: J&C)
Clearly, Purdue is able to tune out the distractions of the Jeff Brohm to Louisville rumors. Perhaps it’s being far away in South Carolina that helps. Perhaps Jeff Brohm hasn’t had all that much impact on Purdue athletics as a whole as we thought. Regardless of the reason, Purdue put on another metronomic performance tonight in the Stiletto State and crushed Steph Curry’s alma mater by 21.
Carsen led the way again with 29 this time on 11/21 shooting, including 6/11 from deep, to go along with four rebounds, three assists and a steal. Boogie then chastised himself during the postgame interview by talking about how he still has so much to improve on, citing his four turnovers. While I would agree that turnovers aren’t great, if he’s going to shoot at this clip, it’s going to be a fun ride this season.
Purdue is now 4-0 on the young season and will be playing in the Charleston Classic championship game on Sunday night against Virginia Tech. Tech is ranked #16 so it will be a great test in the early going here to see what this team is made of and if they can continue this nice start.
Tonight Purdue looked like glass monsters, outrebounding Davidson 45-28. Every starter had at least four rebs and six of the seven bench players also nabbed rebounds (the only exception was Tommy Luce, who visited Club Trillion tonight). The Boilers actually didn’t shoot as well as Davidson, going 41.8% from the floor while the Wildcats fired at a 44.2% rate. Interesting to win by 21 doing that. Purdue was six points higher from three, but even there they were only at 38%.
Ryan Cline was again aggressive out there, firing up 15 shots – 12 from outside – while scoring 12 and grabbing six boards, second only to 1987 YMCA Rec League Champion Team Captain Evan Boudreaux’s seven boards (in just 19 minutes). Speaking of minutes, Grady Eifert ran for ¾ of the game tonight, playing 30 minutes and scoring five points, grabbing five rebounds and not turning the ball over even once. The former preferred walk-on is clearly going to be important this year, as he’s already logging way, way above his prior minutes averages. I hope he’s in cardio shape. One wonders if Boudreaux will eventually begin taking Grady’s minutes.
Speaking of Boudreaux, I mentioned he only played 19 minutes off the bench but managed to pull down a team-high seven rebounds. Well, he also netted 12 points on 3/7 shooting and a 5/5 performance from the line. Plus everyone is definitely having fun with his old man YMCA look. Check the replies to this one:
Always pays his YMCA dues on time. Remembers his locker combo. https://t.co/1n1SUP1Wol
— Boiled Sports (@BoiledSports) November 17, 2018
Or this one:
I bet even the coaching staff isn't allowed to touch his thermostat in Mackey arena.
— Jeff Brohm = Boilermaker (@mattbo324) November 17, 2018
I hope if Evan sees these he understands we’re all having some fun and love guys who look like him. Just ask our buddy Brian Cardinal.
Nojel had another quietly useful game, shooting 100% from the floor for six points, to go along with six rebounds, two assists and a steal. A Purdue-like, hardworking performance.
Purdue seemed to again have this game in hand the entire time, really, though Davidson did manage to close it to seven points at the half (33-26). Then Purdue exploded for 46 in the second half and it was really never close after the break.
I said it on twitter but maybe the thing that last year’s squad was missing was the alpha dog. None of those seniors were really completely take-charge guys. Prior to that, Biggie was there. And not Carsen Edwards is the absolutely unquestioned leader and go-to guy and he loves it. This allows Purdue to be confident that they have that last shot guy and a guy who could take over at any given moment. It allows Ryan Cline to be comfortable knowing he can take shots but doesn’t have to be the primary option. Having a weapon like Carsen just does so much for a team and really makes how far this squad an go pretty open-ended.
As I said, next up is the title game for this tournament. Let’s see if Purdue can make it a clean sweep in the Amaretto State. (Calcutta state? I’m close, for sure.)
