#5 Purdue 73, Alabma 65

by: pageian

Purdue won it's first road game on an opponents home court Saturday night by beating Alabama 73-65 in Tuscaloosa.  It was perhaps the second toughest game the Boilermakers have played this season after beating Tennessee on November 23rd in the Paradise Jam.  The only other major opponent the Boilers have played this year is Wake Forrest, whom they beat by eleven at Mackey Arena on December 1st.  They also have  #7 West Virginia scheduled for January 1st, three days after they open the Big Ten season with a game at Iowa.  WVU may end up being a tougher game than anyone in the Big Ten can provide and while the game will be played in Mackey it still should go a long way toward determining if the Boilers are for real or if they've just gotten fat off teams that aren't nearly as talented as they should be playing.

It would be nice if Purdue had scheduled a few more tough games this year before the Big Ten season starts, teams like Valparaiso, Ball State and South Dakota State won't do much to prepare them for Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State.  Right now Purdue is tied for it's fourth-best start in school history with the 1992-93 and 1937-38 teams.  I'd gladly trade the chance of being undefeated for a couple more games that would be real tests for the team.  That would do more for their chances of advancing far into the NCAA tournament than a perfect record against a bunch of also rans.