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Game Preview: Gophers at Purdue 3/9/13
03/08/2013, 1:00pm CST
By J.B. Bauer
Gophers Searching for Elusive Road Win
Senior D.J. Byrd and his Purdue Boilermakers (14-16, 7-9) host the Minnesota Golden Gophers (20-10, 8-9) in the regular season finale for both teams. The game is schedule for 11am CT and can be seen on the Big Ten Network.
http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/236566?referrer_id=388419
Game Preview: rv/rv Minnesota (20-10, 8-9) at Purdue (14-16, 7-10) 3/9/13
Their conference records are similar, but Minnesota and Purdue are in very different places.
The Boilermakers have reasons to feel encouraged after elevating their play recently. On Sunday they went to Madison and beat the Badgers 69-56. Then on Wednesday they nearly pulled off an upset of Michigan after falling behind 21-9 midway through the first half.
Head coach Matt Painter has several talented true freshmen in the rotation and knew this season would have its challenges. However his team is showing that next year has promise and they’ll be looking to end this year on a good note.
Minnesota’s nonconference schedule put them into a strong position to make the NCAA tournament, but they’ve struggled in Big Ten road games.
The Gophers, 1-7 when traveling to play a conference foe, were 15-1 and the No. 8 ranked team in the nation two months ago. Now they need a victory in Purdue just to reach .500 in conference and are facing the possibility of not even having a top 8 seed in next week’s Big Ten tournament.
It’s anybody’s guess how Minnesota will respond Saturday or even who will play. In their first game against Nebraska the normal starting five played 139 minutes despite an early emptying of the bench in a blowout win.
In a closely contested rematch this week in Lincoln, five of the reserves who saw court time in the first game against the Huskers didn’t play at all. Nonetheless, Coach Tubby Smith played his normal starting five only 122 minutes.
A VERY DIFFERENT PURDUE
Purdue lost three important seniors last spring: Robbie Hummel, Lew Jackson and Ryne Smith. Those three helped the Boilermakers run the 8th most efficient offense in the nation according to KenPom.com. Uncharacteristic of Matt Painter teams over the past several years, their defense wasn’t good and rank just 88th.
In 2012-13 their defense has improved to a mediocre 42nd, but the offense has plummeted to 127. A season ago this was a team that shot the 3-pointer well and rarely turned the ball over. This year, Purdue rarely and relatively poorly shoots 3-pointers and their turnover rate has spiked up from 13.6% to 19.6%.
Despite their 14-16 record coming into Saturday’s game, Purdue is playing better of late. They are a young team, but at this point in the season their freshman aren’t new to college basketball.
You’d almost have to call any Minnesota game a toss-up, but this one especially deserves that designation with both teams lacking much consistency week to week.
KEY PLAYERS
Terone Johnson (13.5p, 4.8r) is the team’s most frequent shooter, but he’s only shooting 45.6% eFG this season. The junior guard’s 2-point field goal shooting has dropped from 53.0% a year ago to 42.6%, but he’s improved his 3-point shooting to 36.2% (34/94 3FG) from 31.0%.
Terone has been inconsistent but is capable of a very strong performance on any given night. After shooting 0-for-6 in a loss to Iowa, Terone scored 16 in Purdue’s road win at Wisconsin and put up 32 points Wednesday a loss at home to Michigan.
His brother, freshman Ronnie Johnson (9.5p, 3.6r, 4.0a), was given the keys to run the point immediately upon joining the team this summer. He’s shown some promise and has an assist to turnover ratio of 1.5 to 1 (1.8 to 1 in Big Ten games), but hasn’t been able to find his shot very often. He’s not much of a 3-point threat (5/33 for 15.2%) and makes less than 40% of his 2-point field goal attempts.
Ronnie has reached double figure scoring in 17 of 30 games thanks in part to his ability to draw contact and get to the free throw line (although he’s shooting just 58.5% from the charity stripe). Ronnie has attempted free throws in each of his last 22 games. Minnesota’s Dre Hollins will want to avoid early foul trouble.
D.J. Byrd (9.7p, 3.9r) is the only Purdue senior who plays meaningful minutes. After knocking down 43.0% of his 3-pointers (65/151) a year ago, he made only 33.3% against nonconference competition. In Big Ten games, however, Byrd has shot 38.2% from deep and he remains a threat as evidenced by a 6-of-9 performance at Wisconsin.
Big A.J. Hammons (10.5p, 6.2r) is a 7-foot, 280 pound freshman that the Gophers’ staff pursued. He’s been solid for the Boilermakers and does the things you’d want from a guy his size: rebounds well, blocks shots and draws contact. His game performances have ranged from being a nonfactor (for example, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 0 blocks in 24 minutes against Michigan one night) to looking like an all-conference player (less than a week later, 30 points, 5 rebounds, 5 blocks in 28 minutes against Indiana).
Another freshman guard, Raphael Davis (5.3p, 3.7r), has good size at 6’5” and could turn out having quite a nice career. He’s not a great outside shooter, but can score a number of different ways and is able to score through contact with his strong physique.
03/08/2013, 1:00pm CST
By J.B. Bauer
Gophers Searching for Elusive Road Win
Senior D.J. Byrd and his Purdue Boilermakers (14-16, 7-9) host the Minnesota Golden Gophers (20-10, 8-9) in the regular season finale for both teams. The game is schedule for 11am CT and can be seen on the Big Ten Network.
http://www.gopherhole.com/news_article/show/236566?referrer_id=388419
Game Preview: rv/rv Minnesota (20-10, 8-9) at Purdue (14-16, 7-10) 3/9/13
Their conference records are similar, but Minnesota and Purdue are in very different places.
The Boilermakers have reasons to feel encouraged after elevating their play recently. On Sunday they went to Madison and beat the Badgers 69-56. Then on Wednesday they nearly pulled off an upset of Michigan after falling behind 21-9 midway through the first half.
Head coach Matt Painter has several talented true freshmen in the rotation and knew this season would have its challenges. However his team is showing that next year has promise and they’ll be looking to end this year on a good note.
Minnesota’s nonconference schedule put them into a strong position to make the NCAA tournament, but they’ve struggled in Big Ten road games.
The Gophers, 1-7 when traveling to play a conference foe, were 15-1 and the No. 8 ranked team in the nation two months ago. Now they need a victory in Purdue just to reach .500 in conference and are facing the possibility of not even having a top 8 seed in next week’s Big Ten tournament.
It’s anybody’s guess how Minnesota will respond Saturday or even who will play. In their first game against Nebraska the normal starting five played 139 minutes despite an early emptying of the bench in a blowout win.
In a closely contested rematch this week in Lincoln, five of the reserves who saw court time in the first game against the Huskers didn’t play at all. Nonetheless, Coach Tubby Smith played his normal starting five only 122 minutes.
A VERY DIFFERENT PURDUE
Purdue lost three important seniors last spring: Robbie Hummel, Lew Jackson and Ryne Smith. Those three helped the Boilermakers run the 8th most efficient offense in the nation according to KenPom.com. Uncharacteristic of Matt Painter teams over the past several years, their defense wasn’t good and rank just 88th.
In 2012-13 their defense has improved to a mediocre 42nd, but the offense has plummeted to 127. A season ago this was a team that shot the 3-pointer well and rarely turned the ball over. This year, Purdue rarely and relatively poorly shoots 3-pointers and their turnover rate has spiked up from 13.6% to 19.6%.
Despite their 14-16 record coming into Saturday’s game, Purdue is playing better of late. They are a young team, but at this point in the season their freshman aren’t new to college basketball.
You’d almost have to call any Minnesota game a toss-up, but this one especially deserves that designation with both teams lacking much consistency week to week.
KEY PLAYERS
Terone Johnson (13.5p, 4.8r) is the team’s most frequent shooter, but he’s only shooting 45.6% eFG this season. The junior guard’s 2-point field goal shooting has dropped from 53.0% a year ago to 42.6%, but he’s improved his 3-point shooting to 36.2% (34/94 3FG) from 31.0%.
Terone has been inconsistent but is capable of a very strong performance on any given night. After shooting 0-for-6 in a loss to Iowa, Terone scored 16 in Purdue’s road win at Wisconsin and put up 32 points Wednesday a loss at home to Michigan.
His brother, freshman Ronnie Johnson (9.5p, 3.6r, 4.0a), was given the keys to run the point immediately upon joining the team this summer. He’s shown some promise and has an assist to turnover ratio of 1.5 to 1 (1.8 to 1 in Big Ten games), but hasn’t been able to find his shot very often. He’s not much of a 3-point threat (5/33 for 15.2%) and makes less than 40% of his 2-point field goal attempts.
Ronnie has reached double figure scoring in 17 of 30 games thanks in part to his ability to draw contact and get to the free throw line (although he’s shooting just 58.5% from the charity stripe). Ronnie has attempted free throws in each of his last 22 games. Minnesota’s Dre Hollins will want to avoid early foul trouble.
D.J. Byrd (9.7p, 3.9r) is the only Purdue senior who plays meaningful minutes. After knocking down 43.0% of his 3-pointers (65/151) a year ago, he made only 33.3% against nonconference competition. In Big Ten games, however, Byrd has shot 38.2% from deep and he remains a threat as evidenced by a 6-of-9 performance at Wisconsin.
Big A.J. Hammons (10.5p, 6.2r) is a 7-foot, 280 pound freshman that the Gophers’ staff pursued. He’s been solid for the Boilermakers and does the things you’d want from a guy his size: rebounds well, blocks shots and draws contact. His game performances have ranged from being a nonfactor (for example, 2 points, 2 rebounds, 0 blocks in 24 minutes against Michigan one night) to looking like an all-conference player (less than a week later, 30 points, 5 rebounds, 5 blocks in 28 minutes against Indiana).
Another freshman guard, Raphael Davis (5.3p, 3.7r), has good size at 6’5” and could turn out having quite a nice career. He’s not a great outside shooter, but can score a number of different ways and is able to score through contact with his strong physique.