As much of a vacation Mick Cronin thinks it is for teams to go out West, Purdue was staring down a heavyweight fight with Oregon on Saturday.


Oregon with its big seven-footer inside, Nate Bittle, and it's dynamo wing TJ Bamba - a 6-5 solid wall of defensive muscle - showed just why it was such a bad matchup for Purdue which just a few weeks ago, looked like a team entirely susceptible to falling to bad matchups.


In fact, it did fall to those matchups: Marquette, Texas A&M, Penn State, and Auburn.


Those teams had the same kind of physical length that made Purdue's offense halt. Purdue's offense halted against Oregon at times. Smith and Kaufman-Renn never really got it going.

They combined to score 38 points, but Smith was 5 of 15 from the floor and Kaufman-Renn was 7 of 20.

Instead, Purdue has become what's beat them. A team that isn't just playing smart, analytical defense. It's become a defense that swarms, that attacks, and turns teams the hell over. Its west coast trip wasn't just about winning.


It was a test. Purdue's new identity is here to stay and that's a heavy emphasis on the D.