Feature image from @ESPNStatsInfo

Starters: PJ Thompson, Carsen Edwards, Dakota Mathias, Vince(nt) Edwards, Isaac Haas
Finishers: PJ Thompson, Ryan Cline, Carsen Edwards, Dakota Mathias, Vince(nt) Edwards

What happened?

Woo boy. In a sentence? Purdue had a 14 point first half lead, then eeked out a December 1st conference game, at Maryland, with a Friday night crowd that finished a lot louder than they started:

(That’s right…a conference game the week after Thanksgiving. I have thoughts. See the “Bad” section below.)

Maryland is one of the few teams that can match Purdue’s size at the center position, with 6’10” freshman tank Bruno Fernando and 7’1” monstrous senior Michal Cekovsky taking turns on Isaac Haas. But, right from the opening tip, Purdue went right to the paint.

Purdue ran its offense through Haas and the big fella stepped up, hitting his first four shots from the field and driving Purdue to an early double-digit lead. Dakota Mathias’ en fuego first  ten minutes stretched the lead as well, going 5/5 for 12 points (2/2 from three), with 3 rebounds and 3 assists to complement Isaac’s dominance in the paint. All Maryland fans could muster was a weak “You are ugly” chant at Haas, which both lacks creativity and is objectively not true.

The Boilers were rolling, Maryland couldn’t buy a bucket, and everything went happily ever after without even a bit of stress to speak of. There was no evil in the world, Jeff Brohm signed a lifetime contract with Purdue, and everything was good.

Haha.

Purdue went scoreless between the 9min and 5min marks of the first half, coinciding with Nojel Eastern and Ryan Cline’s minutes on the floor. In that span, the Terrapins scored all of 5 points (the B1Gest basketball), but built momentum that would pay off.

Thankfully, PJ/Mathias/Haas’ re-entry got the inside-out game going again, but Maryland made the most out of their newfound confidence. They crashed the offensive glass hard (10 offensive rebounds in the first half), made the most out of the resulting fouls, and cut Purdue’s lead to 6 at halftime.

Maryland picked up right where they left off, taking their first lead of the game within a minute after halftime. Terrapin faithful were roaring, and things were shaping up for a rough road loss for the Boilermakers.

But Purdue kept going into Haas, and this time Maryland HC Mark Turgeon lost his cool. Haas drew a (well-earned) foul, Turgeon drew a technical, and the crowd was silenced after two Vince Edwards free throws. And, from the 17 minute mark on, Vince was alive.

Vince was draining threes, dishing dimes, and crashing the glass. Haas kept Maryland’s centers in foul trouble. Carsen Edwards was breaking ankles on fast breaks, and Purdue went on an 11-0 run immediately after getting punched in the mouth in a B10 road game.

Another bench-driven scoring lull (see “Bad”) kept Maryland in the game, and Haas went down holding his knee with 8 minutes left. Purdue fan PTSD struck for a few minutes as Maryland kept the game a one-scoring affair…and then, Superman walked onto the court.

That’s right. Isaac Haas, who has had an unbelievably frustrating first month of the season, jogs back onto the floor with 6 minutes left and puts Purdue on his chiseled shoulders.

Immediate offensive rebound, leading to Carsen free throws. A 1996 Shaq-esque dropstep dunk. A two-handed volleyball spike of a block, immediately followed by a swished baseline hook. In the following two minutes, Haas notched 7 points, 3 rebounds, 1 block, and 1 steal, and helped propel Purdue to an 8 point lead with under a minute left.

Purdue played the free throw game, iced the win, and went home happily ever after, without a bit of stress to speak of.

Haha.

Nope.

Anthony Cowan, sophomore and four-star 2016 recruit, decided that if none of his teammates would help score (preseason First Team All-B10 forward Justin Jackson finished with 5 points), he’d just do it all on his own. 52 seconds left, Cowan draws an and-one from beyond the arc. 42 seconds left, Cowan draws an and-one on a layup, fouling Matt Haarms out. 34 seconds left, Cowan steals the ball that Carsen threw away (after a non-called foul).

All of a sudden, it was a 3 point game with 30 second left, and Maryland had the ball.

The game was over when…

…Maryland’s baseline out-of-bounds play resulted in a missed corner three, Vince dove on the floor for the loose ball, the jump ball arrow was in Purdue’s favor, and PJ sunk two free throws to ice the game.

Good lord, it’s so stressful every time.  As J Money said to the BS group chat after the game, “Purdue is definitely the good team we thought they were, because even when they don’t play a perfect game and make stupid mistakes, they still beat quality opponents.”

Player of the Game:

The best game he’s ever played, statline-comparisons be damned. For the first time in his career, Isaac Haas was Purdue’s only traditional center, and Matt Painter chose to lean heavily on him against a Maryland team that could alternate two equally-massive dudes his way.

21 points on 10/13 shooting, 5 rebounds, and only 2 fouls and 2 turnovers in 27 minutes, along with utter domination during the game’s most crucial stretch. This was the Haas that Purdue fans were hoping to see most nights during his senior year. Add another highlight-reel night to Handsome Isaac’s NBA draft file.

Also, this:

Handsome Haas might be frustrating at times, but he’s got golden moments on the floor, and continues to be undefeated off of it.

The Good:

• Isaac Haas. This is exactly what we were hoping to get from The Handsome Drago Ent during his senior year. He seems to do this against teams with traditional centers, but really struggles against undersized, athletic teams. (See: the Tennessee game.) I just hope we get a few more of these performances later this season.
• Dakota Mathias. 20 points on 7/10 shooting (4/6 from three), 5 rebounds, 9 assists, and some very good defense for most of the night. Somehow, Mathias is even better than his improvement last year.
• Anthony Cowan is straight up awesome and has won me over and I hope he dominates for Maryland in all non-Purdue games. Maryland was dead, and he nearly singlehandedly brought dug them out a win.
• Carsen Edwards. Cold blooded 18 points and a tough 6 rebounds, and could get to the line any time he wanted. Carsen was the unsung hero of the game. I’m so excited to root for two and a half more years of Carsen that I’m going to pretend like there isn’t a chance he leaves for the NBA after his junior year.
• Maryland’s band plays the Power Rangers and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme songs, and I enjoy it very much.

The Bad:

• Big Ten games the week after Thanksgiving. Allow me a rant – these two early conference games are because Big Ten brass made the smart decision to play their conference tournament in the hallowed B10 territory of…New York City? And, because the Mighty Big East won’t move their conference tournament played at Madison Square Garden, the Measly Big Ten has to hold their conference tournament a week early. That means a week of B10 conference games needed to be shifted from March to…December? It also means teams might have over two weeks between the end of the regular season and beginning of March Madness, which very well might result in rust-induced losses to worse teams. Shoutout to the Big Ten’s NYC money grab. By the way, Jim Delany’s salary is over $2 million per year, and will receive $20 million in future bonus payments.
• Purdue’s entire bench – Nojel Eastern, Ryan Cline, Grady Eifert, and Matt Haarms. They didn’t score a single point, and when several of them were on the floor at once Purdue went into an instant scoring drought. I don’t think this will be a season-long problem (Boilerdowd disagrees, and brings up some fair points), but it’s going to be a point to watch all season.
• Rebounding is gonna be a thing all season. Allowing 10 first half offensive rebounds (and 16 total) would have been unthinkable during the Swanigan era. Purdue gets minimal rebounding from the center position, leaving the entire burden on Vince Edwards. He grabbed an impressive 11 tonight, but he’s going to need some help crashing the offensive glass if Purdue is going to solve its biggest weakness going forward.

The Ugly:

• Vince Edwards. Ok, this isn’t quite fair – Vince was tremendous after Turgeon’s technical foul early in the second half. He finished with a strong 10 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, and played all 40 minutes of the game. But let’s check on his halftime stats: 3pts, 4rbs, 2asts, 1/5 shooting. One Half Vince strikes again. I’ve been the driver of the Vince Edwards bandwagon for five years strong, but here’s the blunt truth: he’s an All Big-Ten caliber player, will be an NBA draft pick, and needs to play like a star if Purdue is going to go far this year. That means asserting his will for the entire game.
• Matt Haarms gets extra mentions here. Each time he was on the floor, it was for defensive purposes, and seemingly blocked a shot within 30 seconds of stepping on the floor. He’s a rim-protecting game changer and I didn’t think that would be his game at all. And then…he started losing discipline and fouling, and passed up several wide-open jumpers, and clanked a few fantastic pick-and-roll opportunities. We really saw both sides of Haarms tonight – budding star, and not-there-yet freshman.
• Jacquil Taylor – Is he still too injured to get minutes?

Moving Picture Thingy of the Night:

I could watch this 1000000 times.

Tweet of the night: