Purdue outlasted, wore out and slipped past Minnesota Thursday night, needing a pair of overtimes to improve to 2-1 in the Big Ten as conference play resumed.

Our GoldandBlack.com Analysis from the 83-78 Boilermaker victory.

If nothing else, this game serves as reminder that Purdue's concentration of strength lies in the middle, in Matt Haarms and Trevion Williams, the combination of which is essentially the Boilermakers' best player, leading scorer and go-to guy.

Granted, Daniel Oturu wasn't exactly playing the most aggressive post defense they'll see all season — he had four fouls late in the game and very much played like it — but he's one of the best big men Purdue will see all season, and though from a productivity perspective, Oturu's 29 points led all scorers and his 18 rebounds matched Haarms' and Williams' combined total, both of Purdue's bigs more than held their own against the best big man they've seen this season thus far.