Purdue learned on Saturday what happens when one (or both) of its stars has a less-than-stellar evening.  While JaJuan Johnson and E’Twaun Moore combined for 29 points in Saturday’s 65-54 loss to Richmond, it took them 28 shots to get there.  The rest of the team wasn’t a lot better, either, scoring 25 points on 25 shots.  The only bright spot was John Hart, who scored 12 points on 8 shots.  Richmond’s strategy in this one was to dare Purdue to shoot from the outside.  For the most part, the Boilers refused to shoot a lot of threes, but they didn’t have success when they did (25 percent).  Richmond’s sagging defense made things tough for Purdue inside the arc as well, where they shot 45 percent.  While we’re quite a bit more pessimistic about Purdue than most others are, I don’t think it’s appropriate to draw any sweeping conclusions from this game.  This would hardly be the biggest upset over a legitimate top 10 team over the past couple of years, after all.  And Richmond is a good team.  But this may be a canary in a coal mine of sorts.  Richmond dominated this game from the opening tip, and Purdue’s offensive troubles stemmed mostly from an inability to find good shots, rather than an inability to make them.  Purdue’s toughest remaining non-conference test comes this Tuesday against Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.  If it turns out that Chris Mooney has laid the blueprint for stalling the Hummelless Purdue offense, then someone owes John Gasaway an apology.
 
Before succumbing to the Spiders, Purdue rolled over Southern Illinois 79-60.  The Salukis turned it over 25 times against the Boilers’ pressure defense which according to my calculator is not good.  I don’t think there will be many more times where the opponent coughs it up on over a third of its possessions, but certainly defense figures to be the means by which Matt Painter’s team will cope with Hummel’s absence.  
 
Michigan caught Syracause by surprise by nearly knocking off the Orange in a 53-50 loss.  It was a game that was all too typical of the Beilein era--the Wolverines won the turnover battle, never got to the free throw line, and shot the ball poorly.  But they were in the game against a top 10 team nonetheless, and that certainly didn’t sit well with Jim Boeheim, who had one of the better post-game quotes to describe his team’s defense (“Stupid.”).  Considering the opponent, there really ought to be a lot of positives to take from Michigan’s effort here, but the way that it happened was just not inspiring.  This was a defensive struggle, and John Beilien’s teams have never been elite defensively.  In other words, it was probably more bad offense than good defense.  If Lee Corso were here, however, I’d be hearing a “not-so-fast-my-friend” right about now.  The Wolverines have quietly started their season with a string of strong defensive performances.  There was no need to mention the locking down of South Carolina Upstate, but the performance against Syracuse is certainly more substantial.  Keep on eye on this--Beilein might actually be practicing some defense these days.

The good defense extended into Michigan’s second loss of the weekend, a 65-56 defeat in a 67 possession game.  This was definitely an odd game, as despite shooting a ton of threes (over 50 percent of UM’s attempts came from beyond the arc), the Wolverines feasted at the free throw line (26 attempts to UTEP’s 9 attempts).  If you’re an optimist, Michigan’s weekend was a good one.  The team nearly knocked off a top 10 team and then lost to a better-than-average mid-major.  If you’re a pessimistic, you don’t believe that an offensive-minded coach has suddenly put together an imposing defense, and that last year’s shooting woes did not depart with Manny Harris and DeShawn Sims.  

Wisconsin’s weekend ended on a sour note with a 58-51 loss to Notre Dame.  The story here was twofold: free throws and rebounds.  On the former, the Fighting Irish attempted 25 freebies to the Badgers’ 4 (all taken by Jon Leuer).  I’m sure Bo Ryan isn’t very happy about that, but then again half of Wisconsin’s field goal attempts were three pointers, and you usually won’t draw many fouls that way.  Not only that, but Mike Brey’s teams have a history of not fouling (or defending, for that matter, but that’s another story).  So the free throw disparity isn’t as crazy as it looks at first glance.  The second item is Wisconsin’s defensive rebounding.  Normally a strength, the Badgers collected just 63 percent of the available defensive rebounds.  This isn’t a huge concern--this was the 2nd best defensive rebounding team in the country last year, and neither Trevon Hughes or Jason Bohannon were big parts of that--but it obviously factored into this loss, one that will likely look pretty silly come March.  

Wisconsin also knocked off Boston College 65-55 on Friday in a very slow 55 possession game.  Bo ball was in full force, as the Badgers coughed it up just three times all game.  Jon Leuer led the way with 18 points on 12 shots.  With Wisconsin’s tempo coming to a crawl this season, I expect Leuer to go underrated all season long.  He’s not going to put up gaudy counting numbers when he’s only on the floor for 40 or so possessions a night, but that doesn’t make him any less effective.

Penn State lost a Mike Brey game 84-71 to Mississippi on Friday.  The Rebels rung up over 1.4 points per possession on the Nittany Lions, the worst defensive effort by PSU since Bush was still in office.  With numbers like this, there’s no pinpointing the problem, as the problem was everywhere.  But hey, at least the offense is doing great, right?  Talor Battle led the way with 26 on 12 shots.  The Nittany Lions also beat up on Furman 70-49 on Sunday.

The last time I saw a team get dismantled like SIU-Edwardsville did against Iowa, a cheat code was involved.  The Hawkeyes rung up 1.4 points per possession en route to a 111-50 victory.  There were six Iowa players in double figures, and none for SIUE.  The hardest part of this game for Fran McCaffrey’s squad will be picking out the handful of plays that will make it into the season highlight package.  Maybe they should just play the entire thing instead.

Also hitting triple digits was Indiana in a 100-66 win over Northwestern State.  Granted, it’s been against the directional school division, but IU’s turnover problem has receded over the last couple of games.  By no means does this mean that the problem’s solved, but at least it’s evidence that Tom Crean’s squad is capable of taking some care with the ball.  It also helps when you shoot 62 percent on two pointers.  Verdell Jones led the way with 24 points on 11 shots.

This win probability graph pretty well sums up Ohio State’s 66-45 win over Miami of Ohio.  One wonders if, when Miami pulled within seven points of OSU in the second half, Charlie Coles motivated his troops by pointing out that they had improved their chances of winning the game to about 4%.  David Lighty led the way with 21 points, 6 rebounds, and 6 assists.  

Illinois took care of business on the road with a 78-63 win over Western Michigan.  It’s early, but the Illini are showing a much-improved ability to force turnovers this season.  This is significant, as a lack of turnovers was a big part of why last year’s team was not up to snuff defensively for a typical Bruce Weber squad.  Of course, the turnovers didn’t stop WMU from scoring 1.0 points per possession in this one.  Still, on the year, it appears that Illinois has taken a step forward on defense.  Mike Tisdale led the way offensively, with 18 points to go with his standard 4 fouls.  

Northwestern held their second straight opponent to under a point per possession in a win over Creighton (65-52).  Creighton is a respectable team too, so this is certainly a good sign for the oft-beleaguered defense.  John Shurna continued his unconscious start to the season, with 40 points on 23 shots over the two games.

Michigan State defeated Tennessee Tech 73-55 in a sloppy game.  I usually don’t like waving warning signs in 18-point wins, but it’s worth mentioning that MSU has turned it over on at least 23 percent of its possessions against every single Division I opponent thus far.  I think we can safely say that we’ve found what will drive Spartan fans to bang their heads against walls during the season.  Durrell Summers led the way with 21 points on 11 shots.  

Tonight kicks off the Big Ten/ACC challenge, with Minnesota taking on Virginia (6 PM CT, ESPN2).  So far the Cavaliers have allowed opponents to shoot 47 percent from three, which means that Blake Hoffarber could go absolutely bonkers in this one.