Ray Floriani on Purdue/Oklahoma

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

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

NEW YORK CITY - While Black Friday shoppers blew their budgets to bailout levels. Purdue and Oklahoma battled in an intense, March-like Pre-season NIT final. The Sooners stopped Purdue 87-82 in overtime at Madison Square Garden.

The first half closed with the Boilermakers ahead 40-36. One of the main reasons was effective FG pct which saw Purdue shoot 63% to Oklahoma’s 38%. Boiler defense did a good job on Oklahoma’s 6-10 sophomore star Blake Griffin. Purdue doubled him low and limited him to 6 field goal attempts and 8 points.

First Half (39 possessions):

Team	Efficiency
Purdue	103
Oklahoma	92

The second half saw both teams battle even for 10 minutes. Oklahoma went to a zone out of a time out and the Boilers buried four treys to build a lead. The lead was still 9 points with just under 8 minutes to go. At that point the Oklahoma guards, notably Willie Warren (22 points) took advantage of the fact Blake was double teamed and used his quickness to penetrate . Warren’s penetrations ended in baskets or kick outs to open shooters. The Sooners rallied to force overtime. In the extra session , the Sooners scored two field goals but converted nine from the charity stripe for the win.

Game (81 possessions):

Team	Efficiency
Purdue	101
Oklahoma	107

Notes…Purdue’s E’Twaun Moore shared scoring honors with Warren with 22 points. Blake finished with 18 points and 21 rebounds.

Tournament MVP was Blake. All-tourney team also included Taylor Blake of Oklahoma (Blake’s brother), Moore of Putdue, Lawrence Kinnard (UAB) and BC’s Tyrese Rice.

Boilers finished with 57% eFG to Oklahoma’s 44%.

The difference in the game:

Team	OReb%
Purdue	25
Oklahoma	40

Team	TO Pct
Purdue	24
Oklahoma	17

The last figure was more suprising than rebounding as Purdue usually takes good care of the ball.

Another stat that jumped off the page…Oklahoma was 33 of 46 from the line to Purdue’s 4 of 5. Why? Look at the field goal attempts. Boilers attempted 42% of their shots beyond the arc to 31% for Oklahoma. In addition, many of the Sooner two point attempts were slashing drives to the hoop. Simply, getting to the basket will get you to the line quicker than shooting jump shots.

JaJuan Johnson of Purdue was not as effective as against UAB. He’s a sophomore and with young players you get nights like that.

Nemanja Calasan had a big night for the Boilers. He played Blake griffin on defense (with help from Robbie Hummel) and scored 20 points with 8 boards on the other end. A sterling outing.

Matt Painter was upset with officials over a few late game calls, especially one that gave OU a time out when they appeared to be losing the ball. Painter left the floor at the buzzer with a few choice words but in the press conference was very relaxed, composed and not critical of the officiating. “Calls are like injuries,” Painter said, “you can’t control them you just have to stay positive and battle.”

Quotable : “Purdue is a great team for us to stay together and pull this out tells a lot about our team.” - Blake Griffin of OU

Boston College defeated UAB 83-77 in the consolation.

Blake Griffin is a hard working, modest superstar. He never complains about calls or no calls. On one occasion he was fouled and the fouler got the worst of the contact. Griffin immediately made sure his opponent was all right. On one late game play he crashed into a baseline press table and two writers (yours truly was one). Post game he came over to make sure we were unhurt. Which, thankfully we were, and amazingly my digital camera even survived.

Painter noted next up is Duke on Tuesday. He did not complain but rather relishes the challenge. “They (Duke) always play hard and defend so well,” Painter said, “this will be another test to help our club.”