Indiana Basketball: Jordan Taylor Torches Indiana in 77-67 loss

Indiana did a good job containing Wisconsin’s Jon Leuer on Thursday night. Unfortunately, Wisconsin’s other Player of the Year Candidate chose tonight to have a career high. Jordan Taylor exploded for a career high 39 points as the Badgers earned an 77-67 win over Indiana in the final game at Assembly Hall this season.

Taylor was simply sensational for the Badgers hitting 11 of 19 shots from the field, including 7 of 8 three-pointers and 10 of 10 free throws. Indiana was able to get as close as one at 46-45 with just over 11 minutes left, but Will Sheehey missed a tying free throw and Taylor scored Wisconsin’s next 17 points in a 17-5 Badger run that allowed them to take control of the game.

Verdell Jones III led the Hoosiers with 18 points, while Jeremiah Rivers scored six in his final game as Indiana’s lone senior.

The #10 Wisconsin Badgers are in quite a battle at the half against Indiana. Wisconsin only leads 32-28, but Jordan Taylor has already scored 17 points to keep them in front of the Hoosiers.

Indiana has gotten 10 points from Christian Watford, as both teams have been contend to play a deliberate pace. Wisconsin has been patient and has turned the ball over just once, but they have failed to get big ten Player of the Year candidate Jon Leuer. He has only two points so far.

The Indiana Hoosiers will host their final game of the season tonight at Assembly Hall, and Jeremiah Rivers will be playing his final game in a Hoosier uniform. The Hoosiers are seeking their third win over a ranked opponent at home when Wisconsin comes to town tonight. From The Crimson Quarry:

As many of you already know tonight is senior night and the only senior on our current roster is transfer student Jeremiah Rivers. Rivers came to Bloomington as a transfer from Georgetown where he was unhappy with his playing time. As mainly a defensive specialist with not a great ability to create his own shots it was going to be hard for him to consistently find playing time in DC. So he made his way to Bloomington where his hard nosed defense and raw emotions would be enough to crack the lineup in a rebuilding program.

Jeremiah’s two years here have been one of mixed results. When he first arrived there seemed to be a bit of a false expectation of what he would bring to the program. I get the notion that many thought he was going to an instant impact player to be the veteran leadership and scorer for the next two years of the rebuild. He was not that but he was much more than many give him credit for.

Jeremiah was one of those intangible type players. It is hard to describe in results what he brought to the team the last two years but he definitely brought something. Jeremiah had the “it” factor that countless coaches and color analysts have tried to describe for years but couldn’t settle on words that made sense. Glue guy is the best term I have heard as of yet. So we’ll go with that.

Senior Night in West Lafayette for JaJuan Johnson and E`Twaun Moore did not start exactly as expected, but in the end Purdue’s accomplished duo pulled off a feat that had not been done in West Lafayette in 42 years. The pair combined for 41 points and got a career high 16 from D.J. Byrd to beat Illinois 75-67.

the victory gave Purdue a perfect 16-0 mark in Mackey Arena this season, a first since the 1968-69 season when the legendary Rick Mount was playing for the Boilermakers. It almost didn’t happen as the Fighting Illini built an early 13 point lead, but four straight 3-pointers from Byrd, Terone Johnson, Lewis Jackson, and Moore cut the lead to one.

Purdue never trailed after being tied 37-37 at the break, but Johnson and Moore would not be denied. Byrd made the defensive play of the game with a block of Mike Tisdale with 2:11 left to preserve a 67-64 Purdue lead. Moore then buried a huge 3-pointer with 55 seconds left to push the lead to 72-64.

Mackey Arena was growing a little restless on Senior Night, as the hometown Boilermakers were down 31-18 to Illinois at the under 8 minutes media timeout. But Purdue ended the half on a 19-6 run, thanks to Illinois’s leading scorer Demetri McCamey being on the bench with 2 fouls.

JaJuan Johnson led the way for the Boilers with 12 points and 4 rebounds, and E’Twaun Moore and D.J. Byrd each added 6. McCamey led the way for the Illini with 7 points, but those 2 fouls proved large in the first half.

Purdue was 5-18 shooting 2 pointers in the first half, but hit 8-16 of their Three Pointers to keep them in the game. Illinois shot 59% from the floor in the first half, but had 6 turnovers.

As accomplished as JaJuan Johnson and E`Twaun Moore have been in  the regular season during their Purdue careers, they have never finished a season undefeated season at Mackey Arena. In fact, the Boilermakers haven’t been perfect at home over the course of a season since Rick Mount and company did it during the 1968-69 campaign. So far Purdue has been a perfect 15-0 at home, and on Senior night they have to be confident as they already own an 11 point victory at Illinois.

Here is what Hammer & Rails has to say:

It has been 15 up and 15 down so far. The Boilermakers are perfect at Mackey Arena this season with one game to go. The interesting statistic is that as much as people credit Mackey as being a great home court advantage, Purdue has not had an undefeated home season since 1968-69. That means even our great teams have had at least one stumble at home. The closest that this Purdue team has come to losing at home was against Penn State, when JaJuan Johnson hit a 19-footer with less than five seconds left for a one point win. Wisconsin is the only other team to be within 10 points of Purdue at home.

Of course, this is senior night for E`Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson as well. Here are the home records of the duo in each of their four seasons:

2007-08: 16-1 (lost to Wofford 69-66)

2008-09: 15-3 (lost to #4 Duke 76-60, Illinois 71-67 OT, Northwestern 64-61)

2009-10: 15-2 (lost to Ohio State 70-66, #14 Michigan State 53-44)

2010-11: 15-0 (so far)

That is a composite 61-6 record in Mackey Arena for their careers with only one real WTF loss (Wofford). The Michigan State one is a slight outlier because that was the first full game without Robbie Hummel. Both teams played atrocious basketball in that second half. Purdue was merely worse. The Ohio State loss was probably the most frustrating, as Hummel went off and Purdue was clearly the better team for 38 of 40 minutes, only to have Evan Turner go apes*** and steal the game late.

I was at three of the six losses (Northwestern, Michigan State, Duke) and the Duke loss was the only one where I feel Purdue didn’t beat themselves. In the Northwestern game (also a Senior Night) Purdue made the conscious decision not to rebound in the second half. I don’t see this team having a letdown tonight and beating themselves, but Illinois has the talent to straight up beat us.

Hail to the Orange does not have confidence for the Fighting Illini, but is hoping for an upset regardless:

There are plenty of ways that the Illini could come out and win tonight against Purdue, but there seem to be far more factors working against that possibility becoming a reality. If you believe in quantum physics and the multiple universe theory, you should take heart, because somewhere in a parallel reality, Illinois is marching its way to a national championship this year. Unfortunately that isn’t the reality we live in, and the Illini will likely walk into Mackey Arena tonight to find a very motivated and fully operational Purdue team with a buzz saw in hand.

Purdue needs to beat Illinois to have a shot at winning the Big Ten championship, finish their first undefeated home season since the Nixon administration. To make matters worse, it is senior night, with the winningest class in Purdue history, with two of its best players ever ETwuan Moore and JaJuan Johnson playing their last home game ever. Suffice to say the Illini will not catch the Boilers sleeping in this game.

On the other hand, the Illini are 3-6 in true road games and haven’t won two consecutive games since beating Wisconsin and Northwestern at home in January. The Illini managed to get a five point halftime lead over Purdue when the game was played in Champaign, but then gave up 54 points in the second half and simply could not stop Lewis Jackson and JaJuan Johnson.