Time for Purdue Fans to do some Byrd-Watching

First appeared on February 16th, 2012
in The Lebanon Reporter

By nature, birdwatchers are an optimistic bunch. Anyone willing to use the logging of a brief glimpse of a tail feather pattern or the gargled rhythm of a faint chirp as justification for countless hours on the hunt has to be brimming with optimism. Seven years ago it was an optimism of this sort that spurned a group headed by the Cornell Ornithology Department to embark on a yearlong search of the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge in Arkansas to find what they believed to be a single remaining Ivory-Billed Woodpecker.

T here was no reason for the Lord God Bird himself to be optimistic over the prospect of being found, after all the birding world had all but declared him extinct before the end of World War II (1945). All that remained were grainy memories of those lucky few who’d ever seen one in the wild. And those who did claim to have seen one were most often tossed in with fans of Sasquatch and the BCS.

Things were so glum the only hopes of ever seeing an Ivory-Bill take flight again seemed to rest in the possibility of bringing some yellowed truck stop taxidermy back to life or getting Al Gore to invent a time machine by calling upon all the wisdom and supernatural powers he harnessed while inventing the internet.
Clearly optimism for a return of the Lord God Bird was wilting until a 2004 sighting whipped the bird watching world into a frenzy. That’s the funny thing about optimism; it has a way of reinventing itself at the very moment you’ve decided there’s no reason to hang on to it.

At 5-6 in conference play the Purdue Boilermakers had no reason to be optimistic. Three other teams already had 9 conference wins and the wounds from their arch enemy pummeling them at home in front of a capacity crowd of disbelieving fans were barely starting to scab. With only one Boilermaker averaging double figures on the year, whatever optimism Matt Painter had for a second scorer to surface was on life support until sophomore wing DJ Byrd went into Columbus and lit the Ohio State Buckeyes up for 24 points. This break out performance included 7 three point bombs.

Byrd’s encore included his putting up 20 points and 4 assists against Northwestern Sunday night. This scoring was perhaps only bested by Byrd’s zero turnovers in 36 minutes of play. “I think everyone’s starting to understand what doing your job means”, Byrd said after his Boilers dispatched of the Wildcats at Mackey. The win brings Purdue to 16-9 overall and 6-6 in conference play. And while Byrd’s sudden knack for scoring has brought some optimism to Boiler land he has inadvertently placed whatever hope Purdue has of a tournament berth this season squarely upon his shoulders.

Let the scouting report reflect Byrd’s clearly demonstrated an ability to make open shots in the last two games. Adding this dimension should open things up for the slashing Lewis Jackson and senior stand out Rob Hummel. This could serve as a welcome boost to the Boiler offense which has sputtered for much of the Big Ten campaign.

And now that he’s stumbled upon a second scorer, the trick for Matt Painter is to find a way to get his Boilermakers to play consistent basketball the rest of the season. “We have to separate ourselves”, Byrd said of his team moving forward, “Every game from here on out is important”. Clearly Boilermaker fans wishing for a postseason would be wise to start doing a little “Byrd watching” of their own.

© 2012 Eric Walker Williams