SportsLine.com Report
NCAA Tournament Preview
March 12, 2000

Starting Lineup

• PG Carson Cunningham (6-1, 170, Jr.): Cunningham is the Boilermakers weak link, chiefly because he is playing out of position. He's less a point guard than a scoring guard, and sometimes he forgets that. Keady is always glowering over there on the sidelines to remind him, and has learned to live with some of Cunningham's shortcomings.
• SG Jaraan Cornell (6-3, 200, Sr.): Cornell's final season was a disappointment given his 13-point average and 33-percent 3-point shooting. He was more successful earlier in his career. Maybe the expectation that he would carry the team's scoring load got to him. Maybe he just shot poorly. Whatever the reason, he wasn't the reliable perimeter threat Purdue expected.
• C Greg McQuay (6-7, 215, Sr.): Lost his job late in the season to sophomore Rodney Smith, but his comeback down the stretch and his experience playing in the NCAAs last season makes him a likely returnee to the lineup for the post-season. A solid rebounder and decent defender, McQuay would be more effective if he could play power forward.
• PF Brian Cardinal (6-8, 230, Sr.): The joke is, Purdue will retire Cardinal's kneepads when his career concludes. He has led the league in floor burns ever year, but there's a lot more to his game than that. He shoots nearly 80-percent from the line, averages 14 points and six rebounds and ended up among the Big Ten's career leaders in steals.
• SF Mike Robinson (6-6, 210, Sr.): A McDonald's All-American in high school, Robinson never lived up to his billing as, "Little Dog." Granted, comparing anyone to 1994 national player-of-the-year Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson was unfair. He's become a solid contributor, primarily with rebounding and defense -- he is an outstanding defender.

Keys To Success

Coach Gene Keady's teams have always won with defense and this one is no different. It held conference opponents to 66 points and 45 percent shooting per-game.

Purdue doesn't get the job done with quickness and athleticism, because it doesn't have an abundance of either. What it does is play tough at both ends and relentlessly attacks the offensive glass. Teams that can get the Boilermakers to play up-tempo usually have success against them. But luring Keady's experienced lineup into a pace it doesn't want to play is next to impossible.

The Coach

Gene Keady has been in the Big Ten for 20 seasons and has been its coach of the year seven times.

A certain guy down the road in Bloomington can't come close to that record. Now, does that mean Keady is a better coach than Bob Knight? Knight's three national championships would say, 'No.' But, Purdue has won as many Big Ten titles as IU since Keady took over, and let's not forget, Indiana was already established as a big-time program when Keady arrived.

He has built Purdue into a solid team that now more than holds its own for basketball supremacy in the state.

The Bench

Keady complained long and loud about his group until the midpoint in the season ... when it began contributing. Guard Chad Kerkhoff is no offensive threat, but he does settle the Boilermakers down when Cunningham gets out of control and can lock up opposing guards.

Sophomores Maynard Lewis and Rodney Smith are the best scorers off the bench, while John Allison and Adam Wetzel give Purdue 10 fouls to expend in the low post.

Offense

The experienced Boilermakers are generally successful at forcing opponents to play the halfcourt game that Purdue prefers.

In that halfcourt set, Cardinal is the primary scorer, and while he didn't rank among the Big Ten leaders in 3-pointers, but leaving him open from beyond the arc is a bad idea. Cornell led the team with 58 three-pointers.

Late in the game, Purdue prefers to have the ball in the hands of Cunningham or Cardinal. Both are in the neighborhood of 80 percent from the line.

Defense

Quick teams give Purdue trouble because the Boilers don't possess outstanding speed. That is most noticeable at the point, where Cunningham can be exposed at times as a defensive liability.

Cardinal had 59 steals, an amazing number for a power forward.

Keady felt Kerkhoff was worthy of being considered for defensive player-of-the-year in the conference.