I have a lot of respect for Purdue and remember the 93 tournament, when Grant Hill led Duke to the NCAA championship game and knocked Purdue out of the tournament in the Elite Eight.
In regards to our matchup tonight, I think the post matchups are going to be incredible to watch. R. Hummel v. Tyler Smith and J. Jackson v. W. Chism. Hummel and Smith are all around ballers, but Smith needs to be cognizant of Hummel's three point shot, which is very good. I think Smith's quickness will cause problems for Hummel on the outside. Point guard play will be interesting because Purdue's starting point guard is out and M. Goins is an amazing defender. I believe Goins and Prince will get more minutes tonight due to their defensive tenacity. I really like S. Hopson but he regularly lacks the proper defensive intensity needed for this level of play and that cannot happen tonight.
One thing that I found striking about the Boilermakers is they lost the majority of the big games they played in last year, especially at the beginning of the season. I thought they were highly overrated when they got absolutely slaughtered by a mediocre Duke team last year, which was the first good team they played last year. I know Tennessee lost a lot of big games as well last year but we had a much harder schedule than Purdue (see RPI) and also won big games (Georgetown, Marquette, Florida twice and so forth). We matchup very well against Purdue and have great depth, so I think we are going to have a great shot tonight.
Finally, from a psychological standpoint, I think it's great we won a close game last night because these guys won't be cocky and arrogant because I am assuming last night humbled them and we won a hard fought game. Our team struggled in those games last year.
Go Vols!!!
