Team on the Rise: The Purdue Boilermakers

Purdue was the second place team coming out of the Big Ten and earned the sixth seed in the West Region for the upcoming 2008 NCAA tournament. Success like this isn’t exactly anything to raise attention with, but that doesn’t mean that it won’t translate to success on the big stage. They have the right tools to come up big when they need to and they will show it come the tournament.

Let’s start with their defense. In big games possession is huge and turnovers can cost a team the game, luckily this is what puts the Boilermakers ahead of the crowd. They have five players who have over 30 steals, led by sophomore Chris Kramer with 67 steals.

Kramer also earned the Big Ten Defensive player of the year award for his work in making Purdue’s defense a force to be reckoned with (61.2 points against per game average). Scoring may win games, but defense keeps you from losing. If Purdue plays staunch defense like they have all season and creates turnovers, they will be a handful for any team.

This isn’t to say that the Boilermakers don’t have an offense. They have three of the league’s five best three-point shooters percentage wise. Their swingman Robbie Hummel stands at 6 foot 8 inches and shoots 45.8 percent from beyond the arc, Guard Keaton Grant has a 44.6 percent three point shooting percentage with a 10.7 points per game average, and Freshman E’Twaun Moore averages 12.7 points per game and hits 42.6 percent of his three point shots.

Robbie Hummel could take over a game if he gets hot. He is a great all around player that is very athletic. Evidence of this is his ability to play forward or guard. His only downside is his lack of experience as he is only a freshman.

Their first-round match-up against Baylor has some people talking upset, let me silence those voices right now. Baylor is an offensive team that lacks a good defense (74.4 points against per game) and how do you stop a team like that? Make them turn the ball-over and play defense. Purdue has all the tools to do this and should contain the 11th seed as they move onto what should be a match-up with the third seed Xavier.

Xavier is a good team, no one can deny that, but Purdue may just be more than they can handle. So can Purdue pull off the upset? Let’s look at how each team has done in a similar situation to this earlier in the season.

Purdue beat now third seed in the Midwest region Wisconsin both times they met in the regular season while Xavier lost to the East region’s 11th seed Saint Joseph’s two out of three times in their regular season. They also only averaged 59.5 points in the two losses against a Hawk’s defense that gives up an average of 67.3 points against per game.

Time for Cinderella to find her slippers.