Best Game of the Year so Far

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The Purdue Tennessee game tonight was a real slugfest of two very good teams. It felt more like March than November. Both teams played great defense but each were still able to display their outstanding offensive abilities -- Purdue with great ball movement and deadeye shooting and Tennessee with great athleticism and drives to the basket.

The game came right down to the wire and in the end Purdue pulled it out by 1 point on a last minute missed three by Wayne Chism.

However, as good as these teams were -- and I think both of them could reach the FF in March -- they both have a glaring weakness that they will need to address to reach the promised land.

Purdue - As good as Kramer is at defense and hustle, it is very difficult to leave a player on the court for 30+ minutes that is not an offensive threat. It gives opponents too much defensive flexibility to overplay Hummel, Johnson and Moore. If Lewis Jackson is able to come back by March that may solve the problem but that remains unclear at this point.

Tennessee - As long and athletic as Tennessee is, at times they are a very undisciplined team. Part of their offense clearly is to play loose and drive the lane often. However, they also revert to street ball quite a bit. The drive and dish becomes sloppy and ends in turnovers or very poor shots. I like there scrappy defense but don't think they can win it all without better discipline on offense.

Overall though, it was a quite a game. Congrats to the tourney MVP E'Taun Moore who ended with 22 pts and also to Tennessee's Chism who played outstanding all game finishing with 24 pts.