Blurry Slideshow Picture Postgame of Biggie Swanigan and Purdue Steamrolling Norfolk State 91-45
Starters: PJ Thompson, Carsen Edwards, Dakota Mathias, Caleb Swanigan, Isaac Haas
Finishers: Grady Eifert, Jon McKeeman, Tommy Luce, Ryan Cline, Basil Smotherman (aka the Invincibles)
What happened?
Purdue dominated the Anteaters [CITATION NEEDED] of Norfolk State 91-45 in Mackey Arena, in the Boilermakers’ last nonconference game of the 2016-2017 season.
Caleb Swanigan continued to be a beautiful angel, finishing with 32 points (on 11-15 shooting) and 20 rebounds coming right off his 21 point, 21 rebound game against Western Illinois two days ago. This seems like a thing someone very good at basketball would do, and is the first back to back 20/20 game since some dude named Blake Griffin in 2008.
(Seriously, these are the points/rebounds numbers from Blake’s first six games of the ’08-’09 season: 24/18 vs American, 20/19 vs Miss Valley St, 25/21 vs Davidson, 35/21 vs Gardner-Webb, 32/15 vs UAB, and 18/21 vs Purdue. Holy hell.)
Biggie has been getting a lot of props from national media (he was #7 on Gary Parish’s NPOY list from earlier today), but I’ll go one step further with a completely unbiased opinion: Caleb Swanigan has been a 1st Team All American thus far, and has been the best forward in the country by a wide margin. All aboard the Biggie hype train.
This game was on BTN2Go, which has been a kind-of-but-not-really-justified-if-you-think-about-it purchase these last few years, when several games were only available through the BTN streaming-only service. But I couldn’t pull trigger on $10 for a single likely Purdue blowout win, so I did what any red blooded American with internet access would do: asked my twitter followers for a sketchy internet stream because none of us wanted to give BTN *even more* money than we already do to watch our favorite team finish the nonconference slate.
So, because most of y’all missed the game, and it’s almost family Christmas time, I’m going to pretend like I’m your great aunt making you sit through a slideshow full of pictures from our family trip to Mt Rushmore and the South Dakota Corn Palace.
Except instead of a stone George Washington, you get blurry screencaps of a beautiful and perfect Caleb Swanigan because even though @PurdueOnBTN has some free video clips available this is my own form of protest.
Here’s Biggie dunking:
Here’s Biggie dunking again:
Here’s a really blurry picture of a beautiful Biggie/PJ pick and pop:
Here’s a Biggie and-one:
Here’s a Biggie putback:
Here’s a blurry picture of Biggie being beautiful on the bench:
Here’s Biggie’s 19th rebound:
Here’s an angry Isaac:
If you missed the game, you’re totally caught up now.
Player of the Game:
Tommy Luce, duh.
The game was over when…
…Isaac Haas won the opening tip. Purdue started a bit slow, yeah, but this game was never in doubt.
The Good:
- Illegal streams that might destroy my computer and allow Russian hackers to access my prized fantasy football ranking system and WikiLeaks them to the public but are totally worth it for a BTN2Go game.
- Biggie being a beautiful bully. When Swanigan squares up against poor jabronis half his size, there’s absolutely no chance he’s taking it easy. Rest in peace, poor Jabronis [CITATION NEEDED] of Norfolk State.
- Isaac Haas had 12 points, 4 rebounds, and a block just in the first half. After Purdue forced the ball inside to him against Western Illinois, he slowly started to get his mojo back. Purdue is definitely going to need their Ent playing at full force when Big Ten season hits.
- Every time Tommy Luce gets in the game, I expect an Iverson-stepping-over-Lue moment, and it’s a wonderful feeling.
- I will continue to give PJ Thompson love every time he puts up a game like tonight: 7 assists, 3 steals, and 1 rebound with zero turnovers. Even though he only scored 4 points on 2-6 shooting (0-3 from beyond the arc), games when he facilitates flawlessly show why he’s been vital to Purdue’s success.
- Carsen Edwards is really fun to watch play the basketball.
The Bad:
- BTN PLUS IS THE WORST WHY WOULD I EVER PAY $10 FOR A SINGLE GAME WHY DO YOU HATE ME SO MUCH BTN WHYYYYYYY.
- It sounded like the BTN Plus announcers weren’t in the building, which is awesome access that can be expected from BTN after paying $10 for a single game.
- Purdue missed its first 8 three pointers. That’s not ideal entering Big Ten season, but it didn’t really hurt much against the mighty Buffalo [CITATION NEEDED] of Norfolk State. The Boilers finished 4-19 from beyond the arc, which won’t be great in a competitive game. Gotta get those misses out of the way during easy victories.
- Biggie only had 5 offensive rebounds, which means he definitely needs to stay another year at Purdue to practice fundamentals and uuh some other stuff and definitely shouldn’t go to the NBA.
The Ugly:
- As much as I enjoyed Biggie’s 20/20 night, he seemed to be visibly frustrated that he hung at 18 rebounds for a while, especially during timeouts late into the second half. Obviously, I was nowhere near the bench, so for all I know he could have been frustrated with something else in the game (or frustrated that game time interrupted his Westworld binge). It’s really the only issue I can point to in Biggie’s nonconference domination (outside the Louisville game).
- People already picking apart Biggie’s game translating to the NBA. Enjoy this dude dominating college, worry about the NBA later.
- It wasn’t that great of a look that Painter played Biggie and the starters deep into the second half of a blowout. I mean, I’m all aboard the “stop us if you don’t want us to run up the score” mindset. But this seemed a little karma-testing.
Moving Picture Thingy of the Night:
Tweet of the night:
