Basketball thoughts

Some thoughts from last night's 73-61 loss to Purdue:

-- You really wonder what Brad Brownell is going to decide on Milton Jennings. On one hand, you don't think he kicks him off the team. But on the other, he has so little "money in the bank," to borrow a phrase often used by Tommy Bowden when his players were in trouble. Jennings has been a constant source of frustration for this staff. Just last week, during the game against Gonzaga in Orlando, he engaged in a screaming match with the family member of a player during the game. You just never know what this kid is going to do, and that element of unpredictability has to be frustrating for Brownell and Co.

-- Got to hand it to Devin Booker for fighting through some really difficult emotional circumstances with his granddad having suffered a heart attack. For part of the day it sounded as if Booker would not play. He finished with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting with eight rebounds, five of them offensive.

-- This team came out a step slow, and that wasn't good combined with a Purdue team that was energetic and focused after six days off. Purdue benefited from what Brownell called "extra possessions" in the first half, getting a few loose balls and capitalizing by draining shots -- several of them 3-pointers.

-- Clemson made just 11 of 20 free throws and missed several during some key sequences during the second half. Rod Hall missed four of seven, and K.J. McDaniels missed two of three. Had they made, say, 15 of 20 it's a much more manageable deficit toward the end. Combine that with 19 misses of 3-pointers on 23 attempts, and it's just hard to expect to win -- particularly against a team that's as hot as Purdue was in the first half with seven 3-pointers made on 13 attempts. T.J. Sapp, Jordan Roper and Damarcus Harrison finished a combined 0-for-15 from beyond the arc, and a lot of those shots were open.

-- When the visiting team is up 20 halfway through, that's usually the story of the game. Senior D.J. Byrd was the difference in the first half, knocking down six of nine from 3. The Boilermakers also grabbed six offensive rebounds to zero for the Tigers, scoring seven second-chance points.

-- Clemson ended up with just six assists on its 23 baskets. Purdue had 15 assists for its 25 field goals. That underscored the Boilers' superior ball movement and penetration. I thought the Tigers settled for a few too many quick jumpers early when the game was getting out of hand.

-- Brownell said this is the first time all season his team has been a step slow, and that's going to happen with such a young group. I'd use "growing pains" to describe last night's defeat, but it's not 100-percent precise because Jennings is supposed to be grown up by now.

LW