A Maryland Terrapins Road Trip To Big Ten Country – Purdue

Jan 10, 2015; West Lafayette, IN, USA; Purdue Boilermakers guard Rapheal Davis (35) drives for the basket around Maryland Terrapins forward Jonathan Graham (25) during the second half of the game at Mackey Arena. the Maryland Terrapins beat the Purdue Boilermakers 69 to 60. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports

I’m back home from my trip across the Midwest. It was nice to see Maryland play at some “brand new to them” venues of the Big ten Conference. To go 1-1 is not really bad, although the loss at Illinois is a bit surprising.  I was already a fan of Illinois’ State Farm Center, although since it is in the midst of a 2-year renovation, it is hard to see what the polished version of the facility will become.

Next, I was on the way to check out Purdue University’s Mackey Arena, a place I have never visited.

I had to first get to Purdue. Waking up in the beautiful, albeit freezing city of Chicago, it was pretty hard to jump in that car for the less than two hours drive into Indiana. West Lafayette finally appeared after driving through a huge field of wind turbines north of town.

West Lafayette is the smaller college town that borders on the somewhat larger Lafayette. The area near the universe has many cool food options before and after games. Harry’s Chocolate Shop, which is not a chocolate shop, but a bar and grill seemed to be hopping right before game time.

Dez Wells had been injured earlier in the season and seemed to be struggling to get back on track. But at Purdue, he appeared to have more explosiveness. He scored 11 of his 13 points in the final 20 minutes and added seven rebounds.

The Terrapins shot a relatively poor 37 percent, as the team just goes cold for long stretches at a time. The Boilermakers seemed even worse as the game seldom felt in doubt, as Maryland won 69-60.

After the game it was a short 10 hours back to Maryland. Well, not short, but it was relatively painless. It was also nice to see the temperature get higher the closer we got home, even if rain and ice awaited on Monday.