Takeaways from Ohio State loss

Our post-game analysis following 11th-ranked Purdue’s 73-70 loss to Ohio State Tuesday night in Mackey Arena.

PDF: Purdue-Ohio State statistics | Stat blast | Photo gallery |

PUTTING THE L IN SCHEDULE

Everyone in the league has to deal with this so this is not a sob story for Purdue, but this was 100-percent a legs game.

If you watched the second half of this game, you saw an inexplicably flat Purdue team, one that hasn’t been flat in weeks and is almost never flat on its home floor. Braden Smith, a player Purdue asks everything of, who rarely comes off the floor, was 3-of-14, and somehow his team was better (on the scoreboard) with him playing only half the first half. A defense that emerged of late as the best analytics-based unit in the league gave up 45 points after halftime to one of the league’s worst statistical offenses. Purdue got outrebounded, shot badly from three-point range and missed a slew of high-percentage shots at the basket.

Purdue was clearly gassed after halftime. Maybe having a robust lead compounded the listlessness, but listlessness it was.

No one will ever come out and say it, but if you saw the game, you saw it, and there’s not much else in terms of rational reasoning to explain the sudden about-face from the seven-and-a-half games prior into that listless group that never gives up 20-2 runs on its home floor.

If you’re looking at this through any lens that doesn’t involve myopic anger, you saw the realities of a fifth game being played in the span of 13 days, from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Northwest, for a team that has been giving really exemplary effort. Again, this is what TV’s football money has done to Big Ten basketball. Illinois swept its trip to Oregon and Washington and then lost to USC at home two games later. Michigan lost at hopeless Minnesota two games after winning at USC and UCLA.

Purdue loses at home three days after winning at Oregon. It caught up to all of them.

These are not coincidences and they will happen to everyone, especially the name-brands who TV will want in specific slots.

To be clear: This is not a Purdue-exclusive problem. It is everyone’s problem.

But it is a problem.

The Big Ten is playing too many games in too short a season, too spread out geographically, too many TV interests to prioritize and there are no solutions, because playing fewer games or doing away with the Big Ten Tournament to extend the schedule would cost people money.

Purdue gets its first day off since Jan. 6 — remember, the NCAA mandates days off for a reason — Saturday after Friday night’s game vs. Michigan. There is absolutely no reason, logic says, that Purdue should have to play Friday night on short turnaround again when it has a whole week off. The game should be Saturday or Sunday.

But the only reason that matters is this: TV wanted Purdue-Michigan on Friday night, just like NBC had to have this game tonight for Peacock.

It’s too much, and you will see more outcomes like the ones Purdue, Illinois and Michigan have already eaten.

The schedule is going to determine who wins these league titles more and more.

GICARRI HARRIS AND CJ COX

Lost in the second half turn of events was the contributions of the two freshman guards to put Purdue into position to win.

Gicarri Harris was excellent tonight, as he has really emerged lately, as he settles in. CJ Cox sparked Purdue in the first half as well, when Purdue really needed them due to Smith’s foul trouble, Ohio State’s full-court defense and the Bruce Thornton matchup.

Purdue wins this game and those guys are the story, because Purdue was good enough with them running the show in the first half to be up 16 in the final seconds; when Purdue got back to its normal core after halftime, you saw what happened.

Probably not a coincidence that young players who don’t log huge minutes every game shined.

AN ALTERNATE WAY TO LOOK AT IT

Purdue was clearly fried in the second half, too much so to match the desperate energy Ohio State had to play with. It shot badly again.

But look what it took for Ohio State to win here. A 30-percent three-point shooting team had to shoot nearly 50 percent and make four — four! — buzzer-beating threes to win. That’s 12 points, and that’s the game.

There’s a certain flukiness to that, but the Buckeyes are built for one-on-one play and it probably showed up a bit in that regard. Still, not something likely to happen very often.

Ohio State shooting a mile over its head was also counter-balanced by Purdue getting an astonishing 30 points off turnovers.

Make no mistake: The Buckeyes earned this but clearly there were extenuating circumstances for Purdue.