Ray Floriani on Purdue/Boston College

Soaking up the action in New York on Wednesday was Ray Floriani, a writer for several sites focused on college hoops.

By Ray Floriani, Basketball Times, Hoopville, College Chalk Talk

NEW YORK CITY - The New Jersey Transit announcer said there would be a slight delay getting into New York. “Thank you for your patience and we apologize for the inconvenience. “What patience? I am as patient as Rick Mount (showing my age) with the green light and a three point arc. My 5:50 out of Lyndhurst should have had me at MSG by 6:20. We got there 7:30. I did get to see the latter part of a closely contested first half and thankfully all of that decisive last 20 minutes.

Purdue defeated Boston College on Wednesday 71-64 , to advance to Friday’s Pre-Season NIT final at Madison Square Garden.

The first half was close with Purdue leading 34-30. Tempo free stats really didn’t give a discernable discrepancy. Only noticeable stat at all was Purdue’s E’Twaun Moore taking 39 % of the Boilermaker attempts, (6 of 12) to lead all scorers with 14 points.

Team	Efficiency
Purdue	100
BC	88

(34 possessions).

The second half saw Purdue open a lead largely due to defense. “We got too aggressive (one on one) on some of our sets and weren’t patient, BC coach Al Skinner said. “But give Purdue’s defense a lot of credit for that.”

Team	Efficiency
Purdue	106
BC	96

Another tempo free stat that stood out on the final box was TO pct : BC 24% to Purdue’s careful 13%. The Eagles of the ACC took care of the ball in the first half but finished with 16 turnovers (10 following intermission).

Other notes and related observations…

Impressed with Robbie Hummel of Purdue (10 pts 7 boards). A 6-8 forward, Hummel entered the game shooting 50% of his attempts from beyond the arc. He’s versatile though as the team’s third leading rebounded and the owner of a gaudy 3:1 assist/TO ratio.

The defending of Tyrese Rice of BC. The explosive Eagle guard finished with a team high 17 points but was 4 0f 12 from the floor and really didn’t get a chance to dominate.

Balance. Purdue had 4 players in double figures led by Moore’s 19 points.

JaJuan Johnson, a 6-10 sophomore, had some nice power moves and finished with 12 points 6 rebounds.

Chemistry. Unless you spend appreciable time around or covering a team, chemistry might be hard to pin down. One hint that Purdue has it is the fact they communicate very well on defense. And it’s positive and informative (like warning about screens) communication not negative.

Purdue lost the rebounding battle 39-34. Boilermaker coach Matt Painter was concerned about BC’s inside strength so despite the deficit, Painter felt his team competed hard. Turnovers, or paucity of them (9) were also pleasing to Painter. The Purdue mentor felt that BC’s trimming a healthy double digit lead midway through the second half to 6 late in the contest was a good test. “Our guys hadn’t been tested like that this year,” Painter said. “We handled the (late game)situation with the clock fairly well but we have some work to do.”

Quotable : “we want to prove last year wasn’t a fluke. We can compete with anyone in the country.” - Purdue guard Keaton Grant