UC Must Shut Down Purdue’s A.J. Hammons To Advance Thursday
By Chris Bains
When the Cincinnati Bearcats hit the court on Thursday at 7:10 to take on the Purdue Boilermakers, they’ll be facing a familiar foe.
No, UC and Purdue don’t hook up that often, just twice over the course of both program’s storied histories. The last meeting came over a decade ago in the John Wooden Tradition in Indianapolis and the time before that at the Las Vegas Classic in 2001. The Bearcats dominated both meetings, winning by an average margin of 13.5 points. Thursday will be the third neutral site meeting between the two schools who, as mentioned, don’t play each other a whole lot.
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However there is one Purdue player with Cincinnati ties who was actually familiar with the Bearcats before Sunday evening; junior center A.J. Hammons.
He’s not from the area but the 7’0″ 261 lbs behemoth in the low post was actually recruited heavily by UC coming out of high school in 2012. Even more interesting, the coach who went after him diligently was current interim head coach Larry Davis. Obviously Mick Cronin was heavily involved but Davis did most of the leg work and will be standing on the opposite sidelines of Hammons on Thursday.
I’m sure he knows more than most just how dominating the center can be. After all, Davis spent several long days traveling to Hammons’ home and high school four years ago. Now an upperclassmen, he’s leading the Boilermakers in several statistical areas, points (11.5), rebounds (6.5), and blocks per game (2.9). He’s surpassed the 20-point mark a handful of times this year and has posted five double-doubles this season.
Clearly Purdue leans on him heavily to shoulder the load and he’s taken that responsibility and dominated with it.
That puts the onus on Octavius Ellis, who gives up two inches and almost 40 lbs to Hammons in the low post. We might also see more of Coreontae DeBerry on Thursday depending on how the game goes. If Ellis is continuously backed into the paint and Hammons finds easy buckets that way, I wouldn’t put it past Davis to yank him in favor of the 275 lbs DeBerry.
Cincinnati might find that shutting down Hammons starts before the ball even gets to him. The Bearcats are among the best teams in the country at creating turnovers, primarily because they’re also damn near one of the longest teams in college basketball too. If UC can attack the passing lanes and use their length to disrupt over-the-top passes to Hammons, they’ll obviously diminish his impact in the game by way of not allowing Purdue to get him the ball.
It’s a rather simplistic solution but one that’s proved successful for Cincinnati this season.
So I’m not certain what game plan Mick Cronin and Larry Davis are concocting at the moment but I’m sure it’s geared to keeping A.J. Hammons in check. Whether that be doubling him up, trusting Ellis to contain him one-on-one, or being aggressive on the perimeter and mid-court to create turnovers, I don’t know. One thing’s clear, though, Cincinnati has to shut down Hammons to advance past the first round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time in three years.