Good luck to Robbie Hummel on his recovery, and continued success to the Boilers. From a leadership standpoint, Hummel’s loss seems very similar to Illinois’ loss of Chester Frazier at the end of last year. He is so much more than his numbers out there. Obviously Purdue’s supporting cast is much better, but this will be a huge challenge for the team and the coaches to overcome.
Having spent an exhausting amount of time going over the Illinois Purdue game recently, I have to say that this is really going to hurt Purdue, a lot. Hummel shot poorly against us, 4/13, but still managed 22 points from his frequent trips to the free throw line and sky high percentage there. Illinois spent much of the game with one of our better defending guards on Hummel, while simultaneously guarding Kramer with a power forward who didn’t care if Kramer had the ball beyond 10 feet. Now the interior double team on Johnson will be even simpler to pull off, those better-defending guards will be trying to shut down Moore, and rebounding becomes a much bigger issue.
It’s also hard to accept the Boiler’s eventual victory over Minnesota as a comeback, when they were up by 12 when Hummel exited the game. This seems consistent with the Ohio State game at Mackey, where Hummel missed just a couple minutes with his dislocated finger, but those minutes had an deciding impact on the outcome.
Here’s hoping for another Final Four in Indianapolis sometime soon. Courage, Purdue, Courage!
