Looking Back: 3 Takeaways from Purdue's Win Against Maryland

Purdue survived a scare yesterday, squeaking by Maryland 58 to 55 on their home court. While it wasn't pretty, it has been a brutal stretch of games on the road, including two on the road during the week.

As the buzzer went off to end the game, Purdue was victorious, again - improving their record to 19-1 on the season, the best start in Purdue History.

Looking back is fun, even more so after a victory. Here are my three takeaways from Purdue's win.

10 of 17, 24 points, and 16 rebounds. Just another day in the office for Zach Edey this season while he continues his surge to be the best basketball player in college basketball this year.

His 24 points probably should have been over 30 if fouls were consistently called for the big man, instead, he just plays through the beatings he receives night in and night out.

I have said it time and time again, Edey is the most dominant player in college basketball, and his odds of improving each game toward winning the National Player of the Year Award show that.

He is the best player on what is the best team in America right now.

Taking Zach Edey out of the equation, the rest of the Boilermaker Basketball Team shot a combined 10 of 35 from the field - 28%. Not very good, especially when the other team is throwing a 2-3 zone at you.

I don't want to take anything away from Maryland, as they did a good job extending pressure and falling back into a stingy zone, but Purdue did a lot to not give themselves good looks.

There was a lack of ball movement on the perimeter, leading to contested jump shots, or even not getting a good look at the basket at all. Not only was there a lack of ball movement with the guards and forwards, but oftentimes forcing the action into the post was detrimental, Zach Edey led the team with five turnovers on the day.

Purdue will need to hit jump shots down the stretch and while they have for most of the season, when the rest of the team outside of your best player shoots less than 30% from the field it gives any opponent on any given night a chance to beat you.

Sure, blowout victories are relaxing, fun, and maybe sometimes expected. But where is the fun in that for fans?!

Who doesn't love their Smartwatch telling them to breathe when their stress levels are too high during a game of basketball?

The fact is that Purdue looked pretty darn good in the first half of basketball, but with about five minutes left in the first half, jump shots stopped falling and they never came back. Purdue's legs were officially shot. After three games in seven days, including two more days of travel and going to class as well - the Boilers were tired.

Maryland made their best second-half push to win the game and the Boilermakers did just enough to win the game.

Winning ugly is still winning though. My betting account did not love the three-point victory, but that only matters to me. The players and Coach Painter may not be happy with the sloppy second half but are happy to win again.

It's never easy to win in the Big Ten, but Purdue sits atop the Big Ten by two games in the loss column.

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