Purdue has new juice in Lance Jones and sophomore guards

The score looks like a slog. It reads like Big Ten basketball at its purest form.

Purdue 67
Maryland 53

It's a road win for Purdue. You aren't going to hear any complaints from Purdue. It's also a number that doesn't tell the truth, not about this Purdue team, which played in a slog last year against Maryland at home and then got stomped in the Xfinity Center.

The students weren't back from holiday break. The seats weren't full. It was a weird welcoming to a #1 team that wilted under Maryland's press and length last year.

A lot of what makes Purdue special is the same players from last year's squad - the team that won the Big Ten, that was ranked #1 for seven weeks, and that earned a #1 seed returned.

But it's becoming more and more apparent. The pieces are similar, the coach is the same, the jersey, the play style, but this team, these guys, it's not the same team.

Whether it's the new addition Lance Jones, or the sophomores that keep getting better and better, Purdue is #1 again, but it looks different on them this year.

There's an honesty to this team. They're not scared to speak about the boogie man or its screw ups.

Lance Jones had a moment today, three straight threes to start the second half, and 32 grueling minutes of defending the best guard scorer in the conference Jahmir Young.

But after the game, Fletcher Loyer brings up Boo Buie, who laid claim to Purdue's lone loss on the season.

"He [Jones] has that mindset of I'm not letting him go have a good game kind of like Boo Buie did," Loyer said about Jones preparation through the week for Young. "And I guarantee the next time we play Northwestern, he's gonna be on that same energy and he's gonna be ready from the tip."

At Purdue, losses, upsets, they can kind of become mythical creatures. Voldemorts that are best left unnamed.

But this team didn't shy away from the loss at Northwestern, and they're still not scared to mention it on this side of its first road victory of the year.

For Jones, it makes sense, that the offensive explosions are starting to come. It's not easy to step into a program with a playbook as thick as Purdue's. Summer was short when it came to practice time, what with a trip to Europe and a family tragedy for Jones.

"Coming here in the summer there was like a circus in my head," Jones said after Purdue's win against Maryland that saw him start the second half by knocking down three straight threes. "There was a lot going on."

It's clear that Purdue has a high opinion of Jones. Matt Painter after the game had critique for Jones performance defending Jahmir Young.

"He's gotta understand you can't let a guy like that get his head up," Painter said in his presser. "Even though he took 23 shots to give 26 points."

But Jones was able to contain Young's ability to break a defense apart. While Young got his points, he couldn't get his teammates involved. Jahmir Young had zero assists in the game. A large hand in that was Jones ability to stay with Young and contest difficult looks, even in the lane.

"I just wanted to be more physical with him," Jones said after the game.

That physicality is part of what makes this victory so much different than Purdue's loss last year. It's what makes this team so much different.

"Lance gives us something that we haven't had," Painter would go on to say after the game. "Gives us an extra ball handler, gives us a defender, and any time you can make an open shot, your value is really gonna go up with Zach."

And there's the harmony. While Zach Edey remains the sports most dominant force, his teammates are rising up to meet him.

Even when, as Painter says, they aren't necessarily playing well.

"We really weren't that good, especially in the first half offensively," Painter said. "We messed up some really easy situations. Not just an open shot, but at the rim."

No team is infallible. Purdue played poorly last year at Maryland, too. That team lost by double-digits. This one won.

"I think just the energy that we have in the locker room and at practice, at shoot around every day, going into games," Fletcher Loyer said after the game about the extra juice this team seems to have. "Yeah, we joke around. Yeah, we have a good time. But I think this team is just so hungry. We're so hungry to go win. We're so hungry to repeat as Big Ten Champs, Big Ten Tournament Champs, and then make a farther run in March."

Purdue's future will be decided in March. For now, it has the Big Ten to deal with.

It seems prepared for both.