For much of the season, the Purdue Boilermakers have failed to meet lofty preseason expectations. Of course, they've had to deal with the constant injury issues in the back of Robbie Hummel -- the preseason Big Ten player of the year. Even when Hummel played, there were stretches where he was noticeably hampered by the back woes and wasn't playing up to par. If the past two games in the Big Ten Tournament are any indication, though, Hummel and the Boilers are back. They will be a very dangerous out in the NCAA Tournament if this carries over, because they currently look like the team who was in most preseason top 10 lists.
Saturday, the Boilermakers controlled Illinois from start to finish in the conference tournament semis. Hummel had 19 points and 10 rebounds. All-Big Ten first-teamer JaJuan Johnson contributed 20 points of his own.
The story here, though, is how stellar Purdue looked, especially in the first half. As they built a 20-point halftime lead, they were simply in a different league than the Illini. If Hummel truly is finally healthy, after getting some much needed rest through some of February, Matt Painter has to look like a genius for how he's dealt with Hummel. The team now sports a 22-6 record with Hummel in the lineup, and remember, he wasn't healthy for the loss at Michigan. He was awful against Northwestern and at Michigan State, too, and he didn't look healthy at all. Now he does.
The bottom line is that if Hummel plays like this to lead the Boilers, they are capable of knocking off any team in the country. When they slide into a four or five seed, we're looking at a helluva game in the Sweet 16 against a one-seed.
As for Illinois, they simply ran into a buzzsaw. Sure, they could have played better, but Purdue was on a different level Saturday. They should get a slight mental boost next week if Chester Frazier can really come back so quickly from hand surgery. Bruce Weber's Illini should grab a six, seven or eight seed in the Big Dance, which is a far cry from where the expectations were just four months ago. The season has to be considered a rousing success in Champaign.
