It’s Saturday and it’s March. My son watches college basketball avidly. Perhaps I catch some of his fever. Recently while watching Purdue sportswriter Brian Neubert discuss Purdue’s 82-58 loss to Michigan on YouTube, I was surprised, pleasantly, to find my son’s comment highlighted. It is worth keeping in mind as the college teams play their hearts out in hopes to be named on Selection Sunday. Here’s Ed Roberts’ comment:
I have been a die-hard Purdue fan for all my life (40 plus yrs and counting). Yes, Purdue just had a horrible loss. Yes, the scheduling was bizarre for this week. Yes, everything was exposed. But consider this (for anybody inclined to write them off). A huge blowout loss like this (vs. a loss by one or two) can be just with the doctor ordered & used as a motivating factor for future success.
Over the years, Purdue has experienced a loss or two like this sometime mid- to- late in the season and played better afterwards. A bad loss is humbling and is a wake-up call for any team that is talented and as deep as Purdue. Heck it just happened to Duke the other night after Coach k's final trip to North Carolina. They fell victim to the proverbial 'trap game' their next time out. Here in February - after a long season already, it is not uncommon to see a lot of these top-tier upsets. This week alone, we saw Auburn, Xavier, Houston, Kansas, etc. all going down. Should they be counted out? Absolutely not! With these setbacks, these are the teams that will likely go even deeper in the tournament. Why? Because these teams have successful leaders who know how to take a negative and turn it into a positive.
Really successful teams need a loss like this to confirm they're not invincible and that nothing is really a true issue. It exposes the flaws that the metrics have already factored in. The only difference is that the loss is tangible and not some defensive deficiency number that can change one game to the next. The loss is real! A great coach like Matt Painter will use this as a motivating factor. I have seen this in the past many times. In my opinion, it is one of the necessary ingredients for a team's (future) success – and perhaps the more lopsided the better! So do not despair.
Painter will use this to reinforce the idea that being # 1 on offense is not sufficient to win an NCAA championship and that his team should continue to be "hyper-aware" game in and game out. Forget about the podcasts proclaiming that Purdue is 'broken' and that XYZ is the best team in the country. This is all about ratings and whatever. Remember that Matt Painter is an elite coach and that his team is an elite team with a unique approach. Watch out Maryland and everybody else. Purdue will bounce back hard after this!
As you note, Ed Roberts is a Purdue fan, but he’s opened-minded. He’ll champion other teams depending on the tournaments. So will I. And from time to time, I will defer to him for opinions about sports, politics, and/or the economy, three subjects he finds interesting.
I have been a die-hard Purdue fan for all my life (40 plus yrs and counting). Yes, Purdue just had a horrible loss. Yes, the scheduling was bizarre for this week. Yes, everything was exposed. But consider this (for anybody inclined to write them off). A huge blowout loss like this (vs. a loss by one or two) can be just with the doctor ordered & used as a motivating factor for future success.
Over the years, Purdue has experienced a loss or two like this sometime mid- to- late in the season and played better afterwards. A bad loss is humbling and is a wake-up call for any team that is talented and as deep as Purdue. Heck it just happened to Duke the other night after Coach k's final trip to North Carolina. They fell victim to the proverbial 'trap game' their next time out. Here in February - after a long season already, it is not uncommon to see a lot of these top-tier upsets. This week alone, we saw Auburn, Xavier, Houston, Kansas, etc. all going down. Should they be counted out? Absolutely not! With these setbacks, these are the teams that will likely go even deeper in the tournament. Why? Because these teams have successful leaders who know how to take a negative and turn it into a positive.
Really successful teams need a loss like this to confirm they're not invincible and that nothing is really a true issue. It exposes the flaws that the metrics have already factored in. The only difference is that the loss is tangible and not some defensive deficiency number that can change one game to the next. The loss is real! A great coach like Matt Painter will use this as a motivating factor. I have seen this in the past many times. In my opinion, it is one of the necessary ingredients for a team's (future) success – and perhaps the more lopsided the better! So do not despair.
Painter will use this to reinforce the idea that being # 1 on offense is not sufficient to win an NCAA championship and that his team should continue to be "hyper-aware" game in and game out. Forget about the podcasts proclaiming that Purdue is 'broken' and that XYZ is the best team in the country. This is all about ratings and whatever. Remember that Matt Painter is an elite coach and that his team is an elite team with a unique approach. Watch out Maryland and everybody else. Purdue will bounce back hard after this!
As you note, Ed Roberts is a Purdue fan, but he’s opened-minded. He’ll champion other teams depending on the tournaments. So will I. And from time to time, I will defer to him for opinions about sports, politics, and/or the economy, three subjects he finds interesting.
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