They went up 139 with 1305 left on a D

Coming into this season, Purdue Boilermaker fans had three non-conference games circled on the calendar, with potential for a fourth. The dates with Wake Forest, Alabama, and West Virginia stood out as the big tests that we all knew were coming, with Tennessee possibly looming if things fell right in the Virgin Islands.Three of the four big tests are down, and have been passed. However, all three packed their own doses of drama. Tennessee needed a last-second three-pointer to fall, and didn't get it. Wake hung in hard, being down only two with ten minutes left at Mackey, then watching a 17-3 run put the game on ice.Then came Alabama.The Tide held a 16-point lead with 16:40 to go and thought they were cruising. Then, Purdue turned on a defensive buzzsaw and held Alabama to only three field goals over the last 14 minutes, none in the last 8:45.While Purdue's vicious defense continues to baffle all comers, their future opponents need to take a lot of notes on the Alabama comeback. There are a few observable factors that may contribute to the downfall of Purdue's winning streak.1. Pressing the PressersPurdue spent almost seven minutes between points in the first half. They went up 13-9 with 13:05 left on a D.J. Byrd layup. Six minutes, 58 seconds, and seven turnovers later, Byrd nailed a three-pointer to cut Alabama's new-found lead to 24-16.Lost in the euphoria over the undefeated start is the fact that the Boilers still don't have a natural point guard on the team until Lewis Jackson returns from his foot injury. Purdue had 17 turnovers to only nine assists against the Tide's own pressure defense.E'Twaun Moore, Keaton Grant, and Chris Kramer were all victims, making iffy passes against backcourt double-teams. Any team that can put a couple of quick on-ball defenders against one of these three and force a mistake can get some easy points off turnovers. Northwestern seems like a hurdle, provided they're willing to extend the 1-3-1 zone to incorporate a little pressure. The Wildcats just forced Stanford to cough the ball up 18 times in a 70-62 win on Saturday. Senior Jeremy Nash is averaging 2.3 steals per game, and freshman Alex Marcotullio is at 1.9 per contest, even though he only plays 16.5 minutes a night.2. We've often seen that guard play, point guard especially, can come up huge in March, and it appears that unless a team has a top-drawer point guard who can handle a little pressure, Purdue may be able to eat them alive.Michigan State's duo of Kalin Lucas and Korie Lucious seem like a pair that could withstand a little bit of heat, as they have combined for 98 assists against 39 turnovers this season.3. Green-Light SpecialEven while Purdue was rallying, they missed seven of eight three-point jump shots. What saved them was four of the seven misses getting turned into easy putbacks off the offensive glass.Once the Alabama game was in the rear-view mirror, Purdue moved on to an easier test against Ball State. Even in that game, the Boilers shot a miserable 4-for-23 from long range, even against the rare team against whom they could have worked well inside.It's understandable that the offense has to be perimeter-oriented, considering that JaJuan Johnson is essentially the entire low-post game. However, there were many more possessions where hoisting up threes appeared to be the only option.When Moore goes to the basket, he can make some seriously acrobatic layups. When Robbie Hummel takes an opponent on, the 92.7-percent free throw shooter can draw fouls and get some automatic points.Purdue's over-reliance on three-point shots and offensive rebounding could spell doom against a team like Wisconsin, which jealously guards the defensive glass, or even Illinois, who have allowed opponents to shoot only 27.9 from long range so far this season. The top-five ranking is wonderful, and the undefeated start is the best since Glenn Robinson and current Missouri State coach Cuonzo Martin were pacing Purdue to 14-0 back in 1993-94. However, these Boilermakers are making their big games very interesting, and this year's Big Ten Conference race may be made a little TOO interesting for it.Want a little sports with your Christmas cheer Check out The 12 Days of Sportsmas, right here on B/R.For more from Scott Henry, check out StarrRated.. NEW YORK, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co (7267.T) hasdecided to delay the launch of a car plant in Argentina by sixmonths or more from the originally scheduled second half ofthis year, the Nikkei financial daily reported.

Stocks The plant, with an estimated cost of about $106 million, isdesigned to produce 30,000 subcompact cars a year. The plant's site in the central state of Buenos Aires hasbeen developed, but construction has not started, the Nikkeisaid without citing sources. Japan's No.2 automaker last month slashed its operatingprofit forecast by two-thirds to 180 billion yen for thebusiness year to March 31, dragged down by an estimatedcurrency loss of twice that amount (Reporting by Ted Kerr;) Stocks. There is an old saying, that two heads are better than one. In baseball, we use a slightly modified variation on that axiom: two bats are better than one.Platoons have been in use for decades.

Famously, Casey Stengel made them a staple of the New York Yankees whom he led to six World Series titles in the 1950s. With the increased specialization of relief pitchers, however, the platoon does not enjoy the prominence it once did in Major League Baseball. This is largely because teams must now carry 11 or 12 pitchers at any given time, limiting the number of reserve hittersthey can carry to no more than five.One thing platoons still do exceptionally well, though, is keep costs down. If a team is playing two men only part-time at one position, they need only pay role-player salaries to each.

If the players combine to make a solid offensive contribution, that can be a significant advantage.The 2010 Chicago Cubs already plan to make use of one platoon, albeit a somewhat convoluted one. Second basemen Mike Fontenot and Jeff Baker will split that duty, barring an unforeseen acquisition.In a perfect platoon (which would see the left-handed hitting Fontenot play about three times more often than the right-handed Baker), this tandem could produce the following numbers: .275/.347/.462. I arrived at those estimated figures by averaging the two men's career statistics against opposite-handed pitchers, and weighting for playing time.Those guesses are suspect, because Fontenot had a miserable season in 2009, and because Baker's career rates are somewhat inflated by his previous home park, Colorado's Coors Field. If the two can even approximate those figures, they will be more than sufficient. Another potential issue with that projection is that Chicago likes Baker quite a bit, and may play him on occasion against right-handed pitching to even things out.Meanwhile, the Cubs have one defensive position that remains unfilled: center field.