Purdue vanquishes ghosts | The Lance Jones Effect

It's not easy being a Purdue fan. It's not easy being a Purdue player. Or a coach.

Spend enough time around the program, around the team, the town, you'll catch it. In each of them, moments, tiny sparks of reflection. They wear it, each in their own way, scars and points of infliction. It's shaped like St. Peter's. It sounds like North Texas. It lingers around them. It's the stench of Fairleigh Dickinson.

Except. Except Lance Jones. He's the untouched.

There's a timeline where Purdue loses that game tonight. Where Boo Buie makes that floater or Purdue misses a shot or another free throw or turns it over late. There's multiple timelines, multiple past encounters, that show Purdue falling to the inevitable unlikeliness of another close loss.

Instead, the Lance Jones effect took over again. Jones, who just scored 26 points against Northwestern on the heels of having 10 rebounds, 8 assists, and 5 steals against Rutgers, is stepping into himself at just the right time for Purdue. The boisterous guard is making even more noise on the court.

At Rutgers, a place where ghosts and demons exist for Purdue fans, teams, and coaches, it was Jones that swiped victory out of the mouth of a late road collapse. Against Northwestern tonight, he snatched an upset away from Northwestern and kept the Big Ten trophy in reach as Purdue prepares to head to Wisconsin on Sunday.

In two games, in two very Lance Jones ways, Jones and his Boilermakers exorcised those demons. They said goodbye to the ghosts.

Before Lance Jones, Purdue loses that game at Rutgers. Tonight, without Lance Jones, Purdue loses that basketball game.

We saw it, at Northwestern, this season when Purdue went to overtime against this same Northwestern team without him. Jones spent those final five minutes on the bench with five fouls.

This time they had him. They needed him. They got him. And Jones, he's him, and it, and it's starting to seem Purdue's it is changing.

Mostly, what it is capable of.

It's not a coincidence. Purdue has just two losses this season.

Lance Jones was a combined 6-23 in those two games. Against Northwestern, he fouled out and missed the final stretch and overtime for Purdue. Against Nebraska, he was just 2 of 8 from three with four turnovers.

It's not just that Lance Jones is a game breaker, it's that he's capable of dropping 26 points or getting 5 steals or pushing the pace in a way that makes playing against Purdue unsustainable. It's an impossible task, taking on Zach Edey and Braden Smith for that long, with Fletcher Loyer doing Fletcher Loyer things, and then adding Lance Jones to that and Purdue is now 20-2 again with a historically good offense.

When Lance Jones is this Lance Jones, and he's transformed, evolved, gotten better with each minute throughout the season, this Purdue team is the team it couldn't be last year. Or the year before that.

"He was so good down the stretch," Matt Painter said after the game. Not about Zach Edey, even though he was. Edey scored thirty. Not about Braden Smith, even though he was. He had 16 assists, second highest mark in Purdue history. Instead, Painter is talking about Lance Jones, the guy he went and got from Southern Illinois just for this reason. "He was so good. They had us right there."

26 points for Lance Jones, a season-high.

Northwestern looked like it had Purdue again. A Ty Berry jumper gave Northwestern the 66-63 lead with 6:52 left to play.

Then Lance Jones happened. He knocked down the three and the game was tied.

Northwestern looked like it had Purdue again. Langborg grabbed a Northwestern miss and put it back in. 68-66 Wildcats lead.

Then Lance Jones happened. He knocked down the three and the game was Purdue by one.

Northwestern looked like it had Purdue again, for real this time. 2:37 left to play, momentum pressed into the Wildcats, a Brooks Barnhizer lay up giving them a 78-73 lead.

Then Lance Jones happened. He knocked down the three and the game was Purdue down just two.

Zach Edey dunk. Braden Smith assist. Zach Edey lay up.

Ghosts. Wildcats. Scarlet Knights. All of college basketball maybe. Hopefully, for Purdue fans, the players, the coaches, who have been waiting for this moment. This team.

Lance Jones has met them all head on, and now he's darting past them. Purdue already had the frame in Zach Edey, the engine in Braden Smith, now it has its turbo boost in Lance Jones.

Can it finally get them there? To it?