Gophs @ Boilers - While the Paint Crew is Away, can the Gophers play?

With the Gophers, headed down to West Lafayette, real Big Ten play starts tonight at Mackey Arena. With all due respect to the Nittany Lions and Hawkeyes, you are marginal Big Ten foes this year. Our beloved Gophers are expected to beat you this year. That's just how it is. Not so with the Boilermakers though. Purdue is clearly the best team Minnesota has faced to date this season.

Purdue is undefeated, and the well-deserved #4 ranked team in the country (and possibly higher after this week given UNC's loss to CoC), and has taken down some top tier competition already this year, taking down Bruce Pearl's Volunteers on the road, and handling Bob Huggin's Mountaineers just recently at home (Purdue's last game). They also have a few common opponents with the Gophers in South Dakota State, St. Joes, and Iowa. Iowa gave the Boilers a bit of a first half scare last week, but the Hawkeyes went back to what they know (sucking) in the 2nd half. Still, despite being a B-10 road game, Purdue didn't utterly dominate the game as expected. Some speculated that the Boilers were looking ahead to their matchup with unbeaten West Virginia. Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, now that Purdue is officially a game into the B-10 schedule, they likely won't overlook the Gophers, even with a road trip to Wisconsin looming on Saturday.

The Gophers, unlike Purdue, haven't faced a hostile crowd all year - the closest thing coming during the B-10/ACC challenge in front of 5,000+ U of Miami fans. And Iowa on the road last Saturday was like a visit to the city morgue. Tonight will be a markedly different environment for the Gophs to play in. Purdue's student body is still on break, and we can only hope the bulk of those 'Paint Crew' kids will opt not to come back to campus for this game. (Note that Gopher Bandanna Guy did not abandon his Gophers over the winter break when he was a student, even driving a total of 10+ hours to illegally park for 2 hours in Minneapolis and watch Clem and friends take down the Sam Okey-led badgers in 1997 - oh wait, that season never happened, I forgot...).

With the potential of a partial Paint Crew tonight, can the Gophs get it done? I don't feel real good about this game, now that it is almost certain that Ralph the 3rd is out tonight. But perhaps going small and up tempo is the key here, as Myron Medcalf suggests. I agree with Myron that we won't beat the likes of Purdue or Michigan State with our halfcourt sets. Hell, we couldn't even beat Portland State that way. So I also say let's roll the dice and go up-tempo. Generate turnovers and push the ball up court.

Colton will have the starting matchup with center JaJuan Johnson, and while I like Colt 45, he's just not quick or skilled enough to slow him down. If that matchup gets exploited early (most likely in the form of 3 early Iverson fouls), then let's swing DJ off Hummel, and put him down on the blocks with JaJuan, and hope that his wingspan can make up for the 3" height differential. Then spread the floor and start running! Utilize our depth and try to wear them down in a running match.

Still, Purdue has such good frontline talent that this strategy could blowup in our faces by giving the Boilers lots of early and easy looks at the hoop. The last thing we want is Robbie Hummel getting warmed up with some uncontested jumpers offered up by an over aggressive trapping defense. No doubt head coach Matt Painter has looked long and hard at the Iowa game tape, and will be ready for us. Given this, I don't feel comfortable calling for the upset, signature win of the season.

Prediction: Purdue 74, Minnesota 67
Gopher Player of the Game - Lawrence Westbrook, 18 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists
Boiler Player of the Game - JaJuan Johnson, 22 points, 11 rebounds, 3 blocks

And hey, anybody else think the Purdue Pete pic at the top of this post looks just a bit like Gene Keady with scowl (AKA Keady's normal expression)? And who brandishes a hammer while playing hoops? As if the hardhat, giant black 'P' and the gold uni didn't tell us this was the Boilermakers, he needs a hammer too?

Go Gophs!