It certainly wasn't pretty and we almost let it get away after losing most of our 17 point lead, but we closed it out with some great defense and hitting our last 10 FTs in a row over the last 4:30, when we made zero field goals (over the last 6:44 actually). 16-5/7-3 and alone in 3rd place halfway through the B1G schedule. Who really and truly thought we'd see that? Amazing. Would love to finish 7-3 and be a 4-seed, but that might be tough with a tougher schedule and at this point, all I care about is making the tourney for the first time in forever, so let's at least go 4-6 to get to 20-11/11-9 and lock up a bid.
Great team defense tonight, holding Purdue to 41% and 27% from deep, although we did get outrebounded 39-29, surprisingly - it didn't seem that bad live. I was a bit disappointed in frittering away the lead, especially when I really thought we were playing so well and we missed a couple of layups, but ted team - we're not always going to dominate, but we held on and won. The one thing I was yelling for us to do in the last 7-8 minutes was to go inside to Harper more, especially once they had 2 guys with 4 fouls and given we weren't getting good shots, but we didn't seem to do that much.
While Caleb obviously gets kudos for his FTs and 16 points/7 boards, for me, I was happiest to see Geo play his best game since his injury with 10 points on 3-6 shooting, including 2-3 treys (after going 6-26/3-14 from three his first 4 games back). He just looked more comfortable and had a pretty good all around game. We're going to need him at back to normal for the last 10 games. Mathis with another great start with 9 points early on, then no more points - he's been shooting really well, so maybe he should take some more shots.
The team offense was also nice to see with both Harper and Yeboah also getting 10 points, so almost 5 with double figures and Myles had a decent game with 7/7 and 2 blocks/2 steals/2 assists. JY had some nice plays in the first half, but way too many TOs tonight with 5. First bad game in awhile and he should bounce back, although that reverse layup was gorgeous. Mulcahy had a quiet game and Shaq was ok for 17 minutes. On to MSG for what I still think will largely be a home game. Can't wait!
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=401166195
And here are a couple of pix from after the game...
Great team defense tonight, holding Purdue to 41% and 27% from deep, although we did get outrebounded 39-29, surprisingly - it didn't seem that bad live. I was a bit disappointed in frittering away the lead, especially when I really thought we were playing so well and we missed a couple of layups, but ted team - we're not always going to dominate, but we held on and won. The one thing I was yelling for us to do in the last 7-8 minutes was to go inside to Harper more, especially once they had 2 guys with 4 fouls and given we weren't getting good shots, but we didn't seem to do that much.
While Caleb obviously gets kudos for his FTs and 16 points/7 boards, for me, I was happiest to see Geo play his best game since his injury with 10 points on 3-6 shooting, including 2-3 treys (after going 6-26/3-14 from three his first 4 games back). He just looked more comfortable and had a pretty good all around game. We're going to need him at back to normal for the last 10 games. Mathis with another great start with 9 points early on, then no more points - he's been shooting really well, so maybe he should take some more shots.
The team offense was also nice to see with both Harper and Yeboah also getting 10 points, so almost 5 with double figures and Myles had a decent game with 7/7 and 2 blocks/2 steals/2 assists. JY had some nice plays in the first half, but way too many TOs tonight with 5. First bad game in awhile and he should bounce back, although that reverse layup was gorgeous. Mulcahy had a quiet game and Shaq was ok for 17 minutes. On to MSG for what I still think will largely be a home game. Can't wait!
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/boxscore?gameId=401166195
And here are a couple of pix from after the game...
