Purdue vs. UCLA through the eyes of Garbage Time Ghim

Garbage Time Ghim makes his triumphant return to writing. Braden Smith, Donovan Dent, and Daniel Jacobsen are the stars of this one.

It’s been forever since I’ve written. I don’t know how you guys made it this far into the season without my writing. But here we are, and I’m back with my one-of-one notes from my latest trip to Westwood, where I saw UCLA vs. Purdue. Let’s start with some pre-game thoughts:

Walking into the arena, the excitement was palpable. There was a huge contingent of Purdue fans; I’d say about 35% of the building was there for the Boilermakers. I also saw a good bunch of NBA scouts in the building. Walking onto the floor for warm-ups, the first person who stood out was Daniel Jacobsen of Purdue. Dude was towering over everyone on the floor. I knew he was skinny, but what surprised me about him was how coordinated and light on his feet he was for a man his size. He looked good moving around the floor, catching lobs, even taking jumpers from the top of the key. He wasn’t as heavy-footed as I thought he was going to be and showed really good touch from outside and around the rim.

I had a very similar reaction to seeing Braden Smith, but for a very different reason. Smith was very small, but for as small as he was, his athleticism was sick to see up close. They threw him a lob in layup lines, and he two-hand reverse jammed it in. I always knew he was athletic, but that was nasty. Another guy who stood out to me in warmups was Fletcher Loyer. His jumper was silky smooth; he was hitting pretty much every shot he took, and he just looked the part.