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.
The win likely locks down a four-seed for the Boilers, and they are coming in with the swagger of the team which found itself in the top 10 of many preseason polls. In fact, these last three games are probably the first time all year the team has played to those lofty preseason expectations. As we said yesterday, they are going to be a real tough out in the tournament -- and the Sweet 16 matchup against a one-seed would be a doozy.
From the perspective of Ohio State, it's awfully tough to call this loss disappointing. Obviously, once you make the championship game of your conference you want to win, but they had already exceeded expectations. Coming into the conference tournament, there was a chance a first-round loss to Wisconsin might squeeze them out of the NCAAs -- and teams like Mississippi State and USC have really tightened the bubble in the past day -- instead they locked themselves into an eight or nine seed. One thing is for sure: Whoever draws Ohio State in the first round is going to have their hands full, especially with Evan Turner.
The stellar sophomore -- who made All-Big Ten first team -- once again packed the stat sheet Sunday. He went for 22 points and 10 rebounds. He consistently fought through double-teams and sliced through a packed lane to the hoop.
And now, both teams shift their focus almost immediately to the NCAA Selection Show, where they'll find out who they play in the first round either Thursday or Friday.
