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First Thoughts and GoldandBlack.com Game Thread: Purdue Basketball's exhibition at Kentucky

On3 imageby: Brian Neubert19 hours agobrianneubert
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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Good evening, folks, and greetings from Rupp Arena, where the season begins for No. 1 Purdue, even if the official record won’t show it, with tonight’s exhibition game at No. 9 Kentucky.

The outcome won’t matter, at least not on either teams’ résumé, at least in the moment. I think the benefits of these events are better recognized over the course of a full season. That means that if this helps Purdue function better at Alabama, cool. If it loses and gets pissed off, cool. If it wins, there’s some confidence for you, though this group shouldn’t be lacking for that given its aggregate experience.

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Nobody wants to lose — don’t misunderstand that — but Purdue at least didn’t prepare like it had to win this game. Per usual, it focused on Purdue, not Kentucky.

Interesting part of this is how well suited Purdue should to be to win anyway, given its continuity and the reality this team could probably coach itself at this point. Kentucky has a bunch of new pieces and some injuries, so this is largely the known vs. the unknown.

For the known, a chance for validation and preparation. For the unknown, a great first experience against a great team, plus a good deal of fan service in this event.

Couple things I’m wondering about …
• Does Matt Painter handle his rotations like this game counts or does he crowbar in minutes for Omer Mayer and Antione West?
• Ball security: Does Purdue show in its play how much it values the basketball in an environment like this? The game won’t count, but building good habits is part of this.
• Is rebounding an actual strength or just good enough: UK is down some dudes — and by dudes, I don’t mean players, I mean dudes — up front, but this is the most important change from last season and setting a tone on the glass now would be great.

That’s what I’ve got. I’ll have full coverage later, but in the meantime follow along in our game thread and on Twitter at @brianneubert.

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