FanHouse ETwaunMoore

The scrappy Purdue Boilermakers forced the top-seeded Connecticut Huskies to slow down and play a defensive-oriented game Thursday night in the Sweet 16. In the process, though, they learned a couple things. First of all, you can't spot a team of UConn's caliber an 8-0 lead. Secondly, they don't have a Hasheem Thabeet in the Big Ten.

The 7'3" Tanzanian behemoth stuffed the stat sheet as much as he affected Purdue's game with his presence. Thabeet put together a sparkling 15-point, 15-rebound, 4-block effort, while also putting the handcuffs on Purdue's post-scoring.

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The Purdue Boilermakers are finding their stride at the right time. After losing three of their last four regular season games, they steamrolled their way through their first two opponents of the Big Ten Tournament. Sunday, they took down a tenacious Ohio State team that was on quite a roll of its own -- having won four straight, including Saturday's win over Michigan State.

The Boilers shot a pretty lousy 34.9 percent from the floor, but E'Twaun Moore picked up the slack for his teammates with his long range stroke. He hit five of 10 from behind the arc en route to his team-high 17 points.

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A few weeks ago I did a halfway point roundup for the Big Ten, in which I buried Wisconsin and hailed Penn State to no end. Boy, do I look like an idiot now. Since then, Penn State crumbled, while Wisconsin has done a 180.

The Nittany Lions were embarrassed by Michigan, lost at home to Wisconsin, and handily lost at Purdue. They now sit just 6-6 in conference play, and their RPI has plunged into the 80s. With road trips to Illinois and Ohio State -- not to mention hosting Illinois and Minnesota -- it would appear they are fading back into obscurity.

Illinois really needed a bounce-back win after that bad loss in Wisconsin Thursday night. Sunday they got it in the form of a 66-48 trouncing of Purdue. The Illini stifled the Boilers' offensive attack, holding them to just 32-percent shooting, including a dismal 2-of-15 from behind the arc.

Of course, Purdue also missed the presence of their best player, Robbie Hummel. This is a bad sign for them moving forward, because they do not play well without the sophomore swingman. Purdue is 16-3 with Hummel in the lineup and 1-3 without him this season.

This was supposed to the be the year Purdue made the leap into the elite of college basketball. They still can, after all, there is still some college football to be played. It's way early to be counting teams out. The Purdue Boilermakers, however, have some things that need to be ironed out if they want more than a nice little Sweet 16 squad.

In their past two games, Purdue has played top-flight competition.

In their past two games, Purdue has been exposed for their two major flaws.

Now, before all the Purdue fans start flipping out and calling me out for being an IU grad -- which I am, so it's not news to me -- please realize the relative terms I'm using here. Purdue is a very solid basketball team. They handled a quality opponent in Boston College without much headache.

I'm merely pointing out that if Purdue wants to jump into the echelon with college basketball's elite that they need to do something about two aspects of their game.

The game hinged upon if outside shooting could trump an inside game. It worked for most of regulation for the Purdue Boilermakers, but the three-point shooting well ran dry late in the game, Robbie Hummell fouled out, and the Oklahoma Sooners rode the back of the Griffin family to victory in the NIT Season Tip-Off Championship today.

With all the defensive attention inside on Blake Griffin -- and rightfully so -- his brother Taylor stepped up for the Sooners with a 19 point, seven rebound effort. Oh, don't worry; Blake got his, too, as he compiled 18 points and 22 rebounds, despite being double and triple-teamed routinely. Freshman guard Willie Warren threw in 22 points of his own, benefitting from the attention the inside game was getting.

At one point, Purdue led by nine and had hit half of their three point attempts. Alas, they missed their last seven attempts from behind the arc, and the points in the paint and free throw discrepancies caught up with them.

If there's one weak spot on the 10th ranked Purdue Boilermakers right now, it's definitely their lack of bulk on the inside. The Boilers aren't short, but the size of their bigs who garner playing time doesn't involve as many lbs as some other teams. Today, they face a very tough test when butting heads with 11th ranked Oklahoma.

Not sure if you've heard of him, but Blake Griffin is a decent basketball player. He hung 32 and 15 on UAB earlier this week, and he's going to be throwing his massive 6'9" 245 lb frame tonight. Purdue's game plan should be to do everything they can to shut Griffin down and make the guards beat them. Purdue's perimeter defense -- led by reigning Big Ten defensive player of the year, Chris Kramer -- is superb. JaJuan Johnson isn't going to be able to handle Griffin on his own, so the Boilers should send a variety of different double-teams down low in an effort to force as many passes as possible from the stout Griffin.