Purdue 81, Rutgers 65: Postgame Video

One down, 19 to go.

The expectation of a 27th Big Ten Men’s Basketball Championship has come naturally this season. Purdue has higher goals, sure, but winning yet another Big Ten championship (a sixth under Matt Painter) is still really nice. We can never take those for granted, and a third in four seasons is pretty impressive.

Tonight Purdue went on the road and notched the first of many conference wins this year. As we know, taking care of business away from home is the key to winning these championships, so a 16 point road win, even over one of the teams at the bottom of the league, always feels good.

This one was a bit of a laugher. Rutgers got within a point midway through the first half before Purdue just hit the accelerator and ran away. With 7:37 left Rutgets cut it to 20-19, but a 13-1 run quickly erased any hopes of a third Scarlet Knight victory over a No. 1 ranked Purdue team. Trey Kaufman-Renn and Braden Smith were the best players on the floor by far, and their collective 11 assists got everyone else involved.

Before getting to the postgame video, some quick thoughts:

• Gicarri Harris with a bit of a break out game, especially in the first half. If he is coming off the bench and hitting threes it only makes Purdue more dangerous.

• Speaing of shooting open threes, welcome back Liam Murphy. He returned from injurt with Jack Benter out due to illness and played some solid minutes.

• A bit of a rough game for Fletch, but he still finished with 12 points.

• Tonight it felt like Purdue just toyed with Rutgers. They played so in control that even with a bit of a sloppy second half the game never felt like it was in danger.

• Oscar Cluff feels like the perfect transfer for this team with Daniel Jacobsen back from injury. He plays like he has been at Purdue for a lot more than 8 games now.

• Braden notches eight more assists and stays right on pace for the NCAA record. He could have banked a couple more if not for some poor second half finishes. He is now 247 away from the record with anywhere from 25 of 32 games left. If he keeps up his nine per game average Purdue would need to play at least five postseason games (B1G and NCAA Tourney combined) to get the record.

• First place in the Big Ten feels good on December 2nd.

Matt Painter

Trey Kaufman-Renn

Braden Smith

Gicarri Harris