Purdue Basketball: Statement Game – One Way or the Other

I started on my usual Maryland preview and concluded that it doesn’t matter. In the grand scheme of things, none of this matters, but nothing matters less than who plays for Maryland basketball in 2026 (no offense intended). In fact, maybe it’s time for Purdue to stop spending so much focus on the big-brained scouting report basketball where they crunch the numbers and decide the Oscar Cluff, in fact, is the guy you want on Keaton Wagler, or the “let that guy shoot open shots” strategy that has ended with that guy hitting open shots.

This is a statement game for the Boilermakers, one way or another.

Personally, I hope that statement is “we’re tired of playing just good enough to win.”

Maryland is not a good basketball team this year. They are 1-8 in the Big 10, and Michigan State just treated them like a JV team, beating them 48-91 in the Breslin Center. I watched the first half of that game, and a 43-point loss doesn’t do justice to the gulf in quality between the two squads. I’ve never seen a game that deserved a mercy-ruled game more than that game. Maryland should have skipped the locker room and headed straight to the bus at halftime because not only did they lack the talent and teamwork to hang with Michigan State, but they also lacked any interest in competing.

If this Purdue team is interested in coming close to matching the pre-season / November hype, it’s time to take basketball seriously again. It’s fun to spray the ball around on offense and get everyone 12-foot jumpers, and when that’s working, it looks great. When it’s not working, it allows teams that otherwise shouldn’t compete to hang in the game when the Boilermakers inevitably hit a cold-shooting streak. In retrospect, all the early-season games where this team refused to blow out opponents who had no business on the court with them were bigger warning signs than I originally suspected.

This team, for reasons I can’t quite understand, isn’t locked in as it should be. They coast when it’s time to land the knockout punch. The second half of the Washington game was the perfect example of what’s wrong with this team. They took a 45-28-point lead into the locker room, decided the game was over, and got punked by the Huskies in the second half, 45-36. Washington center Franck Kepnang outworked the front court on his own in the second half, and Purdue was OK with that because they had a comfortable lead.

When this team turns it on, they’re capable of winning a National Championship, but they seem to only turn it on when they feel it’s necessary. Playing hard feels more like something they’re forced to do a couple of times in a game so they can get back to doing fun stuff. When Wagler was personally incinerating the “Defense Lives Here” sign, no one felt personally offended that a freshman was doing whatever he wanted to on their home court and smiling and laughing while he did it. I understand that it’s a new era of college basketball where everyone is friends from AAU, and the name on the back of the jersey is more important than the front, but the idea of someone doing that in Mackey against a Gene Keady team is unfathomable.

This is a game Purdue should come out and dominate. Maryland is one of the worst teams in major college basketball. That’s not, like, my opinion, man, that’s what the stats and subsequent game outcomes indicate. Purdue needs to win this game by 20+. If they don’t, it’s because they didn’t put in the required effort to beat them by 20+. If that’s the statement this team makes, I’ll have to rethink my entire outlook on this team, which is something I haven’t had to do with Purdue basketball for a long time.

I’m still cautiously optimistic that this team can figure out what’s missing. I called it toughness in my last preview, and some folks didn’t agree. Painter came out and said Indiana “out-toughed” Purdue. That’s what I saw as well. I’ve seen it all season.

It’s time to get tough today.