Purdue Thumps Duke With A Superb Performance, 75-56

Next play.

Confession time: we’ve never much liked Purdue basketball. Rick Mount is the spiritual godfather of the program, or at least the relatively modern program (John Wooden was an All-American back in the day). Gene Keady’s team played like they thought they were supposed to be on the gridiron and Matt Painter, while he’s been solid, has had teams that usually underperformed in the postseason.

Last season you may remember, Purdue was seen as a juggernaut - until it wasn’t.

So far this season, Purdue is looking great and with back-to-back wins over Top Ten teams Gonzaga and Duke -and convincing wins at that - they’re looking very dangerous.

They’re also fun to watch.

It wasn't much fun to watch them as a Duke fan, but this team looks like it has special chemistry, and it showed it, winning 75-56.

Zach Edey was obviously a load. The 7-4, 295 lb. center got Duke in early foul trouble inside and eventually, Derick Lively and Kyle Filipowski fouled out. Ryan Young finished with three.

But it wasn’t just Edey.

Purdue’s offense was terrific and they are especially good at moving the ball and finding open shooters. And they don’t really care who gets what. That team is about winning.

They also hit three pointers, which Duke didn't. Purdue shot 7-18 while Duke was 2-19. And that’s nearly the margin of victory.

But Purdue also played solid defense.

Things looked especially grim just before halftime when Jeremy Roach came up limping. He kept playing then aggravated it and went to the locker room.

Fortunately he came back later.

There was good news though: Tyrese Proctor had a breakout game, scoring 16 and showing a lot of savvy. Dariq Whitehead and Derick Lively continue to come on. Whitehead just needs more reps. Lively was asked to guard a much bigger player - and he’s 7-1! - and had some moments.

Whitehead is coming on and soon he’ll be 100 percent.

None of that helps right now though. Duke was significantly outplayed for much of the game. The Blue Devils made a nice comeback and had the game in single digits before Purdue just shut Duke down in the stretch. Kyle Filipowski hit a free throw with 7:01 left and that was the proverbial that, as in th-th-th-that’s all folks.

Purdue was up 63-56 which was doable. Obviously though, you have to score.

Not much turnaround as Duke gets Ohio State in Cameron on Wednesday in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. We’ll have more on that presently.

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