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Boilers double-up Bulldogs, 80-40

Aneesh the Swamy

Starters: Vince Edwards, AJ Hammons, Jon Octeus, Kendall Stephens, Ray Davis Finishers: Penny Brown, Stephen Toyra, Jacquil Taylor, Isaac Haas, Jon McKeeman* *TRILLION ALERT

 

What happened?

The Boilers kicked off the season on a pretty enjoyable note, doubling up the Samford Bulldogs 80-40 in Mackey Arena. Though the tin dome wasn’t as raucous as I would have hoped, it did seem like the confines of home (and the new roster additions/subtractions) have done wonders changing the culture of the Purdue locker room over the summer.

The biggest takeaway for me was the amount of willing passing on the team. Almost to a fault, the guys would pass up open shots for even cleaner looks without any regard for their own stats. I know, I know, let’s wait until they play a more talented team before ushering such platitudes, but boy is it refreshing to see a team that openly loves playing with each other.

To me, the star of the game was Vince Edwards. “But Aneesh,” you might say, “you haven’t talked about your love for Vince Edwards enough. Please continue to creepily announce your feelings for a freshman basketball player on this forum.” If you insist, fictional conversation partner. Vince started the game with a strong drive from the elbow, and finished with a 13 point, 8 rebound stat line on 5-7 shooting (2-3 from beyond the arc). Dude was just in control of everything today, and looked every bit of the instant-impact four star recruit he was branded. Ohmanohmanohman I’m too excited.

Though Hammons didn’t put up a monstrous stat line (5 points, 3 rebounds on 2-5 shooting), he tallied four blocks and had some great defensive sequences, particularly in coordinating the help-defense and covering for his teammates’ mistakes. He also unleashed a powerful drop step-elbow combo, and a finesses baseline turnaround jumper that looked absolutely pure. I really do think we’re in for a monster Hammons year.

All in all, it was a great way to start the season. The Boilers play the IUPUI Jaguars at 3pm on Sunday, 11/16. Allegedly, it will be broadcast on BTN, but you never know. I’ve decided to make things ultra-gif heavy during games that aren’t easily watchable, so this post has a ton of links to moving pictures. Check out my Giphy links for everything noteworthy, and the YouTube page for short clips. I’ll be tweeting out a number of them moving pictures, so if you enjoy ‘em give me a shamelessly plugged follow. If not, go eat some cabbage.

 

The game was over when…

uuh, tipoff?

 

The Good:

 

The Bad:

  • Early defensive rebounding
  • BTN camerawork, and…like…90% of everything associated with BTN.
  • Hammons getting beat along the baseline when he rotates to the corner of a zone defense.
  • Taylor’s offensive skills
  • Mathias’ really bad halfcourt violation
  • Haas falling asleep on a few defensive sequences

 

The Ugly:

  • Smotherman first three, which hit nothing but glass.
  • Bryson driving. Sometimes works, sometimes doesn’t, always looks like a stampeding flamingo.

 

Moving Picture Thingy of the Night:

 

Tweet(s) of the night: