They’re the #1 team in the country for a reason
Week of 11/17 Games Thread
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You pretty much nailed it. They're extremely impressive.
It's about how you approach roster building. They retain their best players, we haven't.
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What a game between KSU-NEBBY.
I agree. To me the clear difference is their front line. Jacobsen, Wrenn, and Cluff are much more mobile than our big 3. I wish we had a more athletic front line and a big who can score against top teams in the lane. The Ivisic brothers are not dominant down low… too slow.and can’t elevate.
And if you looked at my previous post in this thread, I responded to another poster that Purdue would finish higher than us. We are good, but not elite. Purdue is a better team
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Curbelo Fanboy
BERTBALL IS LIFE
Well we can flush that Stl to Chicago to Indy path. Purdue will be the 1 seed in Chicago barring something unforeseen.
Purdue is really good no doubt. They are on their A game. TT is playing a D game! TT is shooting about as bad as it could be. I dont read that much into this game.
But… Purdue is deserving of their ranking. TT… wheels fell off the bus!
Fighter of the Nightman
- Chicago, IL
Hey, a #6 seed would theoretically be top 30 in the NET, and thus still a Quad 1 win … so good with me!!
No.
But it has become clear that they are better prepared for games and making in game adjustments than us.
Retention is almost impossible in the NIL era. How they continue to do it bewilders me. Then again, Keady to Painter, they do this EVERY year. Historically, they're doing it right. At least we're in the best position that we've ever been in (in school history) with our AD/Coaches.
I go back to the points maybe by insiders about peaking… Purdue is the #1 team in the country right now, but will they be in 2 or 3 months? The average NCAA champion improves by around 7 points in efficiency, does Purdue have that kind of growth in them?
This is me scrambling for the old orange tinted glasses after seeing Purdue clobber TTU
This is me scrambling for the old orange tinted glasses after seeing Purdue clobber TTU
Right now Purdue is playing better and likely is the better team. They are playing more as a team and that's kind of expected right now with the retention time and experience together. That does not mean they are the most talented team. I think we are but our talent can rise up and prevail with more time whole, together. That's what practice and the preseason is for. I honestly feel that position by postion the Illini have more talent and can improve if we just stay healthy get reps, time and grow together as a group. Thats what Purdue has done like it or not and now we have to close that gap with more talent., practice and these preseason games. I think we can. ILL..
Purdue is just one injury away from being a very average team. We saw this when TKR missed a game or two. Imagine if Brayden went down. Illinois is in a much better position in this regard as we have already seen this team can still be very dangerous even without key players (Tomi, Andrej, Petro, etc). It's a long season. Stuff happens. Purdue has been very fortunate in regard to the injury bug.
There are teams ready to go and play their best when the season starts, then there are teams playing their best at season's end. Very rarely does a team do both
I agree Wren and Cluff are more mobile and definitely more physical than Tomi and big Z but the twins are both ahead of Jacobson in the mobility department.
If you name the 5 best players in the last several years, the ones that come to mind are Ayo, Kofi, TSJ, Will and KJ, they all went to the NBA or graduated. I can also think of several that went elsewhere show the staff had good evaluations, at least compared to what the player thought or what was being $thrown at them (Coleman, Morez come to mind).
Not saying retention isn't an issue in today's game or that Illinois is the best at it, but there is enough money out there around the country with other top programs that we're going to have a ceiling where some guys either fit better somewhere else or go well above value. Another way I look at it, is that losing a player means you had good development and evaluation on a player that came here, but you still need a lot of value to compete. Next year could be tough because I see a lot of talent they've brought here that they'll want to keep. I think they're on it, but time will tell. Underwood lives and dies with his players. The last 5 season final KP ratings has one outside the top 20.
Painter is special and IMO doesn't get enough credit. Having his level of success going from the prior era to this one, you'd think he'd get more mention as one of the best in the business.
Agree- we really need to see us with Tomi healthy and Petrovic worked into the lineup before any definitive conclusions but Purdue is playing better than we are right now no doubt- they seem to be the type of team that will win even in off nights so I think they should be pretty heavy favorites for the Big Ten title. Who’s better in March is the real question and I still like our ceiling if we get everyone playing together and connected
Head to Head- They don’t have anyone that can guard Andrej and we don’t have anyone that can guard TKR. Jacobsen or Cluff will struggle with Big T on the perimeter, Boswell can make things difficult for Braden. The difference might be how Wagler and Mirk play on the offensive end and if we can keep up with them on the boards. We have the size in the front court to match up with them that few teams do, so I think we matchup pretty well head to head
Some of y’all should go make accounts on the Purdue forum and drool over there 
A few teams, like Duke and Houston, have more raw talent, but as of today, Purdue is playing the best.
They played awful vs Memphis only one day prior
TT came in to the game shooting like 40% from three and went 8-34 and got killed on the glass
I've seen Purdue struggle mightily against Memphis and Oakland now and also give up 80 points to Akron at home
I want to see more than this one game from them before I give up on the conference season like many on here already have
Ceilings for teams are what catches most fans' attention, but it seems like the floors are what ends up determining how far a team can go. Just going on early returns, it would seem like Purdue's floor is really high. I think the Illini's floor also is quite high. Alabama had something to do with it, but in many respects the Illini's performance was pretty close to their floor -- and they lost to a really good team by only 4 points. With a healthy Tomi and Petrovic, I am really curious to see what the gap will be between the Illini's floor and ceiling.
Purdue has experienced guard play. That goes a long way to propelling them to their lofty position early in the season.
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