Travis Miller had the chance to watch the Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis at Hammer & Nails. Hammer & Rails started as a blog that was football only in 2006. It went by the name of Off the Tracks, and grew to the point where SBNation picked it up last February. Now it is affiliated with CBS Sports and Yahoo as well. He takes a few of our questions on this upcoming Purdue-Siena matchup.

Siena Saints Blog: So what’s up when this team does not have Robbie Hummel? What has been giving them problems in these games without him?

Hammer & Rails: This is the question everyone has been trying to answer pretty much since the moment he went down. Honestly, I think we miss his rebounding the most. In the game we have decided we want to rebound, we have done well. We won the glass against Indiana, Penn State, and Northwestern, but they are still Indiana, Penn State, and Northwestern. The most impressive win we had came in the game he was injured. We gave up an 18-0 run to Minnesota on the road once he got hurt, but we clawed back to win in the final seconds against an NCAA opponent on the road. That was tough. We also miss Robbie’s free throw shooting. Ours has been pretty abysmal lately, and Robbie was a steadying influence at the line. Finally, Robbie does a lot of the little things within the flow of our offense that don’t show up in the stat sheet, but they get others going. He distributes the ball well and moves without the basketball better than anyone we have. In our two losses (Minnesota and Michigan State) without him we haven’t rebounded well and we have shot poorly. We might have beaten MSU with him, but I doubt it against Minnesota in Indy. That was just an awful game by everyone.

Siena Saints Blog: Have they adjusted to life without Hummel?

Hammer & Rails: Coach Painter had an interesting take on this in the press conference after the Minnesota loss. He said we simply need to play without excuses. There is no question we’re not as good without Hummel. We can still be a very good team. Chris Kramer, Keaton Grant, E’Twaun Moore, and JaJuan Johnson have all received all-Big Ten awards at some point in their careers. Lewis Jackson and Kelsey Barlow have both been on the conference all-freshmen team. We have talent, but I think one of the biggest things that has hurt us is the lack of bench play even before Robbie went down. We have seen guys like Ryne Smith and D.J. Byrd, who had decent non-conference seasons, do very little in conference. Byrd had his first significant game in months against Minnesota in Indianapolis, so it will be interesting to see if he can become a guy that steps up in Hummel’s absence. He is honestly our most similar player to Hummel, but he is still a freshman that has barely played of late. I think it is still a work in progress, but I am glad we have had a few games, and a few wins, since the injury happened.

Siena Saints Blog: Have the Boilermakers played anyone of the style of Siena’s 1-2-2 and three-quarter court trap this year?

Hammer & Rails: Have they been able to handle it? This is where you salivate with delight. The closest we have played to that is probably Northwestern’s 1-3-1 trap and we look like fools against it even with Robbie. Honestly though, we have played our best since the injury when we have been able to break traps and run the floor with lanes to the basket. Another key in our two losses is that we have slacked off from attacking the basket. If you saw any of Saturday’s game with Minnesota you would know that we actually cut the lead to 18 and had momentum early in the second half because we started penetrating again. Then Minnesota made one shot and we reverted to hoisting up awful jumpers again. From there, the game was over. If we commit ourselves to attacking once we break the press we’ll be fine. If we settle for jumpers we’re in trouble.

Siena Saints Blog: Explain the types of problems Junior Center JaJuan Johnson gives opponents and has he stepped up in Hummel’s absence?

Hammer & Rails: JaJuan Johnson is a very athletic and active center that creates problems by stepping out and consistently hitting the 15-18 foot jumper. Teams have to defend him from that far out, but that jumper has not been consistent in the last few games. I think he relies on it too much. He is not as strong of a rebounder as I would like him to be, and that can hurt us at times. We really relied on Hummel as our low post rebounding presence, and I would like to see Kelsey Barlow, a 6’6” freshman, to take over that rebounding role. Barlow is long, athletic, and strong. He can play the four against undersized teams and do well, but he is unfortunately an awful free throw shooter. Barlow can be a great offensive rebounder if he wants to be. There have also been times that we have played Patrick Bade and JJ together. Bade is a true freshman that is our only other post presence right now. He is still very raw, but he has improved some in big minutes since the injury. He had four points against Northwestern. That’s not much, but it’s about four more points than we usually expect out of him.