Hammons sits; Purdue defeats North Carolina A&T 81-40 in opener
By KEITH CARRELL
ISL Correspondent
Purdue rolled past North Carolina A&T 81-40 in its season opener on Friday night, but star senior A.J. Hammons didn’t play.
The biggest story line for Purdue remains a mystery to those outside of the team — what has A.J. Hammons done to get sent to Matt Painter’s doghouse, and when will he be unleashed?
Hammons again dressed for the game and participated in pregame warmups, but he did not log any playing time as was the case in the exhibition game Sunday. Painter continues to reiterate that Hammons needs to work on some things before he earns his way back onto the court, but decrypting that message has yet to be done. Problems with Hammons aren’t new – he was suspended at the start of his sophomore season, too.
To Hammons’ credit, he did appear to try to be a leader during warmups by working with his teammates on footwork and moves, giving advice to some of the younger players, and passing the ball to show he is engaged. The real concern here, though, is that whatever issues Hammons needs to work out could be adding to a precedent of immaturity and lackadaisical approach he’s been perceived to have during his first two and a half years at Purdue. Those questions seemed to go away during the Big Ten conference slate last season, but are resurfacing.
Hammons chose to return to Purdue for his senior season, foregoing the NBA draft in hopes of increasing his draft stock, but by not being able to play in games and the team succeeding without him, Hammons may be hurting his own future more than the team’s current season. Hammons is immensely talented, but Purdue is one of the few teams in the nation equipped to replace him this season with sophomore Isaac Haas and true freshman Caleb Swanigan primarily filling the void.
As for the game, Purdue began with some jitters, trailing NC A&T for over seven minutes. NC A&T elected to play zone and crashed defenders into the paint in an attempt to take away the inside game for Purdue, but doing so allowed for open three point looks which the Boilers capitalized on, including four makes each for Kendall Stephens and true freshman Ryan Cline. Once the team settled down, Purdue was able to end the first half with a 44-16 lead and was never threatened the rest of the way.
Without Hammons, Haas (12-10) and Swanigan (11-11) earned double-doubles in points and rebounds. Swanigan also led the team in minutes played (27). It will be interesting to see how Hammons being added to the rotation affects both the playing time and contributions of Haas and Swanigan, but it looks like Swanigan will have a realistic opportunity at a double-double in nearly every game this season. Now the question merely remains, when will Hammons see his first action in a game this season? His next opportunity is Sunday afternoon, when Purdue hosts Vermont.
Here’s a visual recap from Purdue Athletics:
Relive last night’s win with our stunning new visual recap via @Adobe_Slate. https://t.co/2RhsEYVs3Z #BoilerUp pic.twitter.com/pF0wHfw4b0
— Purdue Basketball (@BoilerBall) November 14, 2015
Quick Notes:
Purdue continues to share the ball with 21 assists on 24 made field goals… Purdue had six players reach double digit scoring… Purdue held NC A&T scoreless (0-15) from long range… Dakota Mathias acted as the third point guard in the first half after both Johnny Hill and P.J. Thompson got into foul trouble… Swanigan became the first true freshman at Purdue to earn a double-double in his first regular season game… Swanigan and Haas were a combined 12-13 from the free throw line.
Here are the postgame interviews:
Stephens, Haas, Edwards and @CoachPainter talk to the media following tonight’s win. #BoilerUp #RememberTheName https://t.co/XesYgzUaoe
— Purdue Basketball (@BoilerBall) November 14, 2015
