Purdue wins Paradise Jam Tournament 73-72

by Will on Nov 23, 2009 11:17 PM EST in Tennessee Volunteer Basketball Comment 16 comments

More photos » Brennan Linsley - AP

This picture tells the story: the game was close and hard fought, and I guarantee a foul was called on this play.

When they put tournaments like this together, often times the fields are stacked with two really good teams, and you hope neither slips up en route to the finals. The Paradise Jam got their wish when #6 Purdue and #9 Tennessee made it to tonight's championship game unscathed, and then the first top ten matchup of the young college basketball season delivered, and then some.

In a game that neither team led by more than six points, Purdue survived despite missing three out of their final four free throws, escaping when we got fizzle instead of CHI$$LE!. Wayne Chism's three pointer with five seconds left was way off, and the ensuing scrap for the rebound essentially ran out the rest of the clock, with Purdue controlling as the clock struck zero.

The story of the game seemed destined to be the officiating, not because it was poor but because it was overbearing: 48 fouls in 40 minutes of play, evenly divided with each team picking up 12 in both halves. While Purdue struggled late to finish 19 of 26 at the line (73.1%), a huge bright spot for the Vols came at the line, where notoriously bad Tennessee went 23 of 28, 82.1%.

The lead story there and everywhere is, again, Wayne Chism: the senior went 7-7 at the line, 8-13 from the floor to finish with 24 points. Just as big was a sensational block he made just a few possessions earlier to keep Tennessee in the game, as the Vols almost rallied from down six in the final two minutes. Despite his missed three with five seconds left - and the debate will continue about whether he should've taken it or went to the hole - Chism played a great, great ballgame.

On the other end of the spectrum, we'd like to welcome back to the floor the questions about Scotty Hopson's consistency. After averaging 22 per game in his first three, Hopson has gone 5 of 20 in the last 48 hours, missing from almost everywhere and turning the ball over too much. The competition level for Tennessee goes back down (home against College of Charleston Friday night, followed by ETSU, MTSU in Nashville, and Wyoming before traveling to LA to face USC on December 19), and Hopson needs to find his stroke again and maintain it. It was encouraging to see Tennessee go toe-to-toe with the #6 team in the country when Hopson played so poorly...we'd just all rather see him play well instead, and then we can start winning more of these.

In the end, this was an incredible game that felt like March in November. Hats off to Purdue for getting it done, and hopefully both of the teams we saw on the floor tonight are as good as we think they are - E'Twaun Moore and Robbie Hummel certainly looked like major players. For the Vols, it's the first teaching moment in a loss this season...but there was a lot to like as well. The Vols know they can play with some of the nation's best...now it's time to get better, so next time we're on the right side of the final outcome.

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Too many mistakes

are young players have a long way to go. Overall, I’m encouraged. That is a great team, and we didn’t play very good could easily have won.

Theme of the day: TAKE IT TO THE HOOP!

by golfballs03 on Nov 23, 2009 11:22 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

We didn't play a perfect game or anything...

But I disagree that we didn’t play well. I thought we played well enough to win a game of that caliber, in general. We might have played as well as we did tonight three times last year, and I think I’m being generous with that. We deserved to be in that game, and we were, obviously. It’s not like Purdue played poorly, either. I think we could probably beat everybody on our schedule except Kansas and perhaps Kentucky in Lexington playing like we did tonight.

by nirwin on Nov 24, 2009 1:51 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

we're playing better than kentucky right now

I said we didn’t play very good – but we played hard. We missed too many open shots, couldn’t finish near the rim, shot poorly from 3 point range, and got out-rebounded. Just because we finished within 1 of the #6 team doesn’t mean you can’t expect better. I know we can play better than that. Our younger players still have a long way to go. Goins didn’t seem like he was on the same page at times, McBee looked a little tentative on offense (he was tenacious on D), and Hopson is still way too inconsistent.

But as I said, I am encouraged by how hard we played – we could have easily won just because of that.

by golfballs03 on Nov 24, 2009 8:16 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

On Hopson

it is very interesting to see such a streaky performance thus far. they worked on his mechanics to try and flatten out his shot trajectory in order to make his shot more consistent… but i’m not sure it worked! between the ECU and DePaul game – it was day and night

by golfballs03 on Nov 23, 2009 11:37 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

Did anyone hear the Bruce Pearl Show?

the online stream wasn’t working

by golfballs03 on Nov 24, 2009 12:03 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Lesson learned, though,

Purdue did better with the tightness of the foul calling than Tennessee did. Their two interior players ended up benched because of it and lost a lot of potential time, but the team did a good overall job of fighting through the calls. I thought UT ended up hesitant on offense (and, to a lesser degree, on defense), and that offensive hesitation threw off the perimeter play. They ended up cycling the ball around the outside (a lot) and got sloppy with their passing. Most of the turnovers were their own fault.

That may be the strictest officiating UT ever sees this year, but it’s something they’ll need to learn to play through. They have the depth for it (as does Purdue).

And if I could change one thing, I’d have UT driving more and setting more screens on offense. Those were the places the officials were most whistle-happy, and they could have earned a lot more trips to the line that way. It’s rare that you can build a game strategy around drawing fouls, but last night could have done it. We might have been able to get one or two more of their guys out of the game – or at least up to 4 fouls and on their heels.

Just to be clear, though: I don’t at all think it was the officiating that beat us. It was our tendency to tighten up when play is constantly interrupted and (more importantly) that 8-minute cold streak in the second half where they didn’t score a field goal.

by Hooper on Nov 24, 2009 8:26 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

i completely agree

through Purdue’s first 3 games, they sent A LOT of players to the free-throw line (opposing teams averaged a pair of free throws for every 3 FG attempts). We could have attacked more to exploit their tendency to foul (and, last night, the ref’s tendency to blow the whistle)

by golfballs03 on Nov 24, 2009 8:34 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

If I could change one thing...

… it would have been to have an actual plan for the last play. I’m hoping “Wayne Chism jack up an ill-advised three” was not what Pearl was looking for there. That would be Les Miles-ish.

Lou Brock loves Lamp.

by birdjam on Nov 24, 2009 9:13 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I thought the officiating was poor

Not unfair, but just bad. They were calling way too much ticky-tack stuff virtually the entire game and it disrupted the flow of the game. Toward the end of the game, they stopped calling ticky-tack stuff and went too far in the other direction, I thought, not calling what should have been fouls down the stretch.

The bad officiating didn’t harm or benefit either team, but it made the game much less fun to watch than I thought it could have been.

Lou Brock loves Lamp.

by birdjam on Nov 24, 2009 9:07 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

agree

by golfballs03 on Nov 24, 2009 9:31 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

also agree.

It’s just difficult to say that without sounding like we’re blaming the officials for the loss. (Which you clearly aren’t.)

by Hooper on Nov 24, 2009 11:48 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Nah, the refs sucked but they sucked fairly.

Could have been worse, I suppose.

Lou Brock loves Lamp.

by birdjam on Nov 24, 2009 12:07 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Better than last year

There were some things I didn’t like with how the Vols played last night, mainly how they didn’t adjust very well to all the fouls being called. Also, they seem to have a non-existent half court offense. We pass it around a lot but any presence of screens, curls or anything like that seems minimal. We can press and out run 80-90% of the teams we play this year, but for tough games like this one we’ve got to develop a better offense when the game slows down.

However, I do love how well we shot free throws and how we played tough. I’ve seen past UT teams that would’ve folded getting down by 5 or 6 against a really good team. We hung in there till the very end and I think we have the chance to have a really great year (especially if we can ever get Hopson to play consistently!)

by Solid Orange on Nov 24, 2009 9:59 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

We clearly weren't trying to win the game.

Just keep it close and shorten it.

"I can't hear you, Rocky Top is playing."

by Getoffmyvols on Nov 24, 2009 10:00 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

yeah...

Going for the moral victory. ;-)

"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." A. Bartlett Giamatti

by sddbaker on Nov 24, 2009 11:14 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs