It’s strength on strength on Thursday at the SAP Center in San Jose as the No. 2 seed Purdue Boilermakers face off against the No. 11 seed Texas Longhorns, pitting the nation’s No. 1 offense in adjusted efficiency against an offensive attack that ranked among the best in the country, took a late-season nose dive, but recovered over the last two NCAA Tournament games.
But if head coach Sean Miller’s team achieved its late-season elite status in some unconventional ways, the Boilermakers are the best
because of a record-setting senior point guard who helped notch the fourth-best assist rate nationally, a low turnover rate, shooting efficiency inside and outside the arc, and strong offensive rebounding.
In the first-round matchup against Queens University, Purdue point guard Braden Smith broke the all-time assists record held by Duke’s Bobby Hurley since 1993 and is now playing in his 24th postseason game, including Big Ten Tournaments.
Hurley played in 20 NCAA Tournament games in his storied career, leading the Blue Devils to a runner-up finish and two national titles before Duke bowed out in the second round in 1993.
“There’s a reason that that record has stood the test of time. You go and break that record, I think that says everything about his ability to pass, play make, how he makes his teammates better. He’s one of the best in the game, and a big, big part of why Purdue is so great offensively,” Miller said on Monday.
Leading the country in assists, Smith ranks second in assists per game at 9.0, a career high for the in-state product who only held offers from Appalachian State, Toledo, and Montana in the 2022 recruiting class. Purdue’s offer, which prompted an immediate commitment from the son of two basketball coaches, pre-empted interest from Gonzaga, Indiana, Oregon, and Villanova.
“He’s the ultimate point guard who makes everybody around him better. He made Zach Edey better. He makes [Fletcher] Loyer better. He makes players on his team better just because of his incredible understanding of the game, passing and scoring,” Miller said on Wednesday.
Just don’t expect Texas to get out of its drop coverage against Smith and the Boilermakers, at least according to sophomore center Matas Vokietaitis in San Jose.
“We’re just going to play the same defensive roles the same way we always are in pick-and-roll. He’s a very good passer so we will just try to limit his ability to pass to big guys and just play like we always do,” Vokitaitis said.
One basketball analyst noted that Purdue is poor in the pick-and-roll when the ball handler is forced to finish at the rim, an outcome drop coverage is designed to force.
Listed at 5’10 in high school and 6’0 in West Lafayette, Smith is undersized for major college basketball, which hasn’t severely impacted his ability as a distributor, but has definitely impacted his ability to convert close shots, where takes just 30 percent of his overall attempts, making them an extremely average 61.3 percent, preferring to take mid-range shots instead, where he’s efficient at 45.5 percent.
One of Smith’s backcourt mates, 6’4 sharpshooter Fletcher Loyer, hits 62.5 percent around the rim on 13.8 percent of his attempts, instead firing from distance, where he takes over two thirds of his shots and hits at 43.3 percent.
No matter who takes the shots or where they come from, a point of emphasis for the Horns heading into the game is to limit the offensive rebounding of the Boilermakers, who rank 19th nationally in offensive rebounding rate, bolstered by the frontcourt of forward Trey Kaufman-Renn and centers Oscar Cluff and Daniel Jacobsen.
“I don’t think there’s a more important aspect to the game that when Purdue misses, we can’t let them kill us on the glass. They really are good in that area, almost great in that area,” Miller said.
With how well the Boilermakers shoot — sixth in three-point percentage and 18th in two-point percentage — allowing extra possessions to Purdue is crushing when also factoring in their ability to protect the ball well and play at one of the most deliberate paces in the country.
As good as Smith is as a playmaker, however, he’s also affected by bigger defenders, which contributed to a season-high eight turnovers in the Round of 32 win over Miami and 3-of-12 shooting from the field.
“I felt like I was kind of out of character and just not playing how I should, and obviously I was frustrated with myself because I’ve got to be better, especially in a game like that,” Smith said on Wednesday.
”Just being simple and making the right reads I think is what I’ve got to do because obviously every team is going to put, I’d assume, their best defender and length-wise and all that. For me, it’s just to make the right reads, make the smart plays, and keep it simple.“
Expect Texas to use 6’5 graduate guard Tramon Mark against Smith to put length on him or senior guard Chendall Weaver to smother Smith with athleticism.
Texas does have inside insight into Purdue from a scouting standpoint, courtesy of junior forward Cam Heide, who departed the Boilermakers last offseason after two seasons under head coach Matt Painter.
“He knows a lot of what they do, so he’s been helping us, coaching us up on the things that they do and just being a big-time guy for us in our scouting and everything we do in our scouting, practice. He’s been big,” Mark said of Heide.
Beyond pre-game scouting, the Horns are hoping to keep up with the offensive prowess of the Boilers by getting some timely three-point shooting of Heide, who came off a long stretch on the bench in the second half to hit a huge three against the Bulldogs with 14 seconds remaining to seal the Round of 32 win.
One of the more remarkable aspects of the NCAA Tournament run for Texas is the fact that the team was able to escape the First Four without a strong performance from junior wing Dailyn Swain, the team’s most important player. The Xavier transfer finished 2-of-9 shooting and did a poor job of identifying the collapsing NC State defense, turning the ball over five times.
Over the last two games, Swain has been more efficient as a scorer and distributor, hitting 11-of-19 shots (57.9 percent) and posting a 12-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio.
“My teammates always hit shots. I think I’m just doing a better job finding them whenever I’m getting downhill. I know defenses are collapsing on me around this time of year. They do a really good job scouting and they know I like to get downhill, so kicking it out and then depending on those guys to hit shots,” Swain said.
Texas will need that playmaking to keep up its assist rate from the victory of Gonzaga, when the Longhorns dished out 20 assists on 31 made baskets, an assist rate of 64.5 percent that was more than 20 percentage points higher than the team’s season average that ranks 346th nationally.
The need for better-than-average ball movement for Miller’s group is exacerbated by the health status of senior guard Jordan Pope, who is listed as questionable on the NCAA’s initial availability report after spraining his ankle late in the win over Gonzaga and serves as one of the team’s primary shot creators.
Tip is at 6:10 p.m. Central on CBS.
