“It’s none of that,” Fletcher Loyer tells me after the game.
The question I’m asking, the thing I’m trying to figure out, still, about the make up of this team is if March vindication is still Purdue’s ethos. So the question is if getting back to the Sweet 16, if it’s like making a basket after scoring 21 points, if it’s a prove it point for Purdue.
Loyer’s answer is a simple one. Purdue doesn’t plan to prove itself by getting to the Sweet 16. Purdue plans to prove what it is by winning the Sweet 16 and then the next round, and the one after that, and that final one for good measure.The one and only stage of college basketball that this set of Purdue players hasn’t won at.
It’s clear Purdue wants more and is playing well enough to have it after two convincing wins in the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
Purdue had less than 48 hours to prepare for a McNeese defense that held #5 seed Clemson to just 13 first half turnovers. That was enough time for Purdue’s offensive coordinator, and former point guard, PJ Thompson, to build a game plan that used McNeese’s aggressiveness against itself.The way I know this is it had head coach Matt Painter breaking out his favorite compliment.”PJ did a fabulous job getting us prepared,” Painter said after the 76-62 Purdue win.”I thought from watching them on film, they’ve unbelievable at what they do,” Thomspon told me after the game. “Interchangeable pieces, fly around, ultra-competitive, ultra tough, but what we noticed is a lot of people that play them – they struggle with movement. We tried to be deceptive. Being actors, not standing and watching, filling behind the ball, being available, and as Trey is posting, we have movement. Pinning guys in, and it’s really hard to take away both. Trey doesn’t have the size that we’ve had with the monsters in the past, but he’s unbelievable at using his body and he’s a load down there. When we moved the ball and made simple decisions, we made a lot of quality shots.”It worked from the jump. On the first play, Purdue’s off ball movement moved any help inside and Fletcher Loyer was able to find Trey Kaufman-Renn half-fronted in the post. Kaufman-Renn caught the entry pass, turned, and had an open lane to go up and dunk.
On the next play, Kaufman-Renn found Loyer who moved to the right wing after Kaufman-Renn got into the paint. Loyer drained the open three-pointer.
A similar flurry of ball movement, repositioning, and patience led to one of the closing shots of the game that Painter pointed out after as the good things that came from Purdue’s game plan when CJ Cox hit his second three-pointer of the game that halted a micro-McNeese run.
“Fabulous play,” Painter said after the game. The play, a combined effort steal that saw Myles Colvin deflect a dribble, hit it again, and then Matt Painter’s star point guard, Braden Smith, sell out his entire body and somehow get a hand on the ball, knocking it backwards right into the waiting hands of Colvin who raced down court and drew a transition foul and two free throws. “Just giving multiple effort, just making that play,” Painter said after the game about one of the defining plays of the game. “When he first did it, it almost looked like one of those fake hustle plays. Some guy’s diving, he has no chance to get to the ball and he makes the play. It was right in front of me. It’s coming right at me, it was like, that was my first instinct, like he can’t get there. And he obviously did. To have the intelligence and the toughness to make the play and save it towards his goal.”The assist part of the play was a happy accident. After the game, Smith told me that he just knew the clock was going down and at worst, knocking it back wouldn’t reset the clock and force McNeese into a hurried shot or 30 second violation.
Instead, Smith’s deflection went rigth towards his teammate as Smith’s body spilled onto the floor right in front of his bench.
It was one of six steals as a team for Purdue whose
If Purdue’s trip in Providence has proven anything, it’s that when Purdue’s preparation meets execution and effort, Purdue’s play is fabulous and they’re going to be a hard out in the Sweet 16 no matter who they face between Houston and Gonzaga.
