Purdue deals with suspension, St. Peter's

It was one of the goofy things teammates do to relieve the NCAA Tournament tension.

Spying point guard Lewis Jackson in the midst of a television interview at his locker Thursday afternoon, backcourt mate E'Twaun Moore stood behind the cameras and started taping Jackson on his cell phone.

Soon freshman guard Terone Johnson came over and joined Moore to further the joke. As did redshirting freshman guard Anthony Johnson. And sophomore guard John Hart.

Jackson looked up and muttered his displeasure to his smiling teammates at one point, but perhaps it served as a sign Purdue remains together despite a tumultuous four days.

Since being paired Sunday night against St. Peter's in today's third NCAA Tournament game at United Center (6:20 p.m., TNT), Purdue suspended sixth-man swingman Kelsey Barlow for the rest of the year for conduct detrimental to the team.

“You're going to make mistakes over the course of time,” said Purdue coach Matt Painter. “You just don't want to see that consistent behavior. When you see that, I think you've got to make the best decision for your team.”

But Purdue didn't release the cause for Barlow's suspension, which led to speculation that it had to do with starting guard Ryne Smith's concussion.

“To us it was more comical because you hear what people make up and kind of the conclusions they come to,” Jackson said. “We kind of just laughed about it and stayed inside the family and kept working and not really worried about those rumors.”

One of the tales making the rounds suggested Barlow showed up for a practice not in his right mind, Smith called him on it and Barlow threw a ball rack at Smith's skull.

Because Smith and the rest of Purdue's players hadn't met with the media since Sunday night, Smith anticipated Thursday's charge to his locker to corroborate the story.

“As soon as I saw the first person come around the corner, I was ready,” Smith said with a smile. “I got elbowed accidentally in our practice Sunday afternoon playing defense. I was guarding E'Twaun Moore. It was completely accidental. That's the truth.”

Smith passed his concussion test Wednesday, so Purdue will have just one hole in its backcourt rotation today.

That might not matter as much against a high-major team, but 14th-seeded St. Peter's has four of its top five scorers roaming the perimeter.

Perhaps more important, the Peacocks rank second nationally in field-goal percentage defense (37.4).

When Purdue lost its last two games (to Iowa and Michigan State), it shot just 36.7 percent from the field.

“We've got to push the basketball and get up and down the court,” Painter said. “When you go against a set defense, you've got to show a little bit of patience and move the ball.”