On Monday, the Purdue Boilermakers traveled to Champaign, Illinois and knocked off the Fighting Illini 96-88 in double overtime. The win was arguably one of the most impressive wins so far in the college basketball season and one of the most entertaining games too.
On Tuesday’s edition of the Ride With JMV, the voice of the Boilermakers in Rob Blackman pointed out that Matt Painter’s fourth-ranked Boilermakers had multiple chance of defeating Illinois before the second overtime.
“If you really think about it, Purdue should have won that game in regulation. Jaden Ivey misses a crucial front end of a one-and-one. If makes only one, then you feel pretty good that Purdue wins in regulation. Then at the end of the first overtime, Sasha Stefonovic missed a crucial free throw that probably seals the deal at the end of the first overtime. The good news though for those guys is the fact they came back and made huge plays the rest of the way even after they missed crucial free throws. In the Big Ten, if you can win a game on the road, no matter how you go about it, you just want to win and get out of there with a victory and that’s what Purdue did.”
The Boilermakers face another challenge in their next contest on Thursday. They travel to the other Assembly Hall in Bloomington to take on the Indiana Hoosiers. Purdue hasn’t lost to Indiana since 2016, but one of the challenges that comes with road games in the Big Ten is the crowd.
“There was a ten minute segment during practice today where Purdue piped in artificial crowd noise and cranked that thing up to about 98 decibels. You literally could not hear yourself think. Purdue is trying their best to prep for what they’re going to get there Thursday night down in Bloomington.” Says Blackman.
You can listen to JMV’s full conversation with Blackman by listening below!
