Purdue Beats Butler For A Second Time This Year To Get To The Sweet 16

That was a pretty good game to get us started for another day of watching hoops. It was close the whole way, with Purdue stretching the lead to 10 once in the second half, before Butler immediately answered with a 4-0 run. However, it was still Purdue who advanced to the Sweet 16 with a 76-73 victory.

Matt Haarms played a really good game as he stepped in to the starting lineup with Isaac Haas not getting his brace cleared by the NCAA. He finished with 7 points and 6 rebounds, but was solid on the defensive side of the ball. In fact, Butler was able to take advantage when Painter decided to go with essentially a 5 guard lineup late in the game. Ultimately though it was a Dakota Mathias three late to seal the game, which we need to address.

The end of the game was bizarre. I mentioned Painter’s decision to go with the small ball lineup. Then Butler just started settling for jumpers, the worst one being Kelan Martin’s stepback three over PJ Thompson with just over 30 seconds to go. Then after that miss, Butler looked like it was going to defend through the shot clock. They eventually fouled at about the 27 second mark or so to get to 6 team fouls. Then they just didn’t foul again. That’s what I don’t get. You’d be sending Purdue to the line with plenty of time to deal with a two possession game if they hit both free throws. Instead, Purdue milked the clock and Mathias hit a dagger three on an elevator screen.

Butler had a chance to tie it still though after PJ Thompson missed the front of end of a one-and-one with less than two seconds ago. Unfortunately for Butler fans, this look was all too familiar as it just missed a running half court(ish) shot.

Purdue moves to the Sweet 16 now to play Texas Tech in Boston.