The first half tonight was probably the worst Purdue has looked so far on this young season. Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer were a combined 2 of 13, with one of the two makes an off-balance banked-in
three just before the buzzer. Trey Kaufman-Renn was saddled with three fouls, severely limiting his ability for the final 20 minutes. Memphis’ athleticism was causing all kinds of problems. It was a sloppy, physical game to that point, and it would only get more physical in the second half.
Through all that, Purdue still led by one.
Sometimes you have to win games ugly. This game had the feeling of an 8:30 tipoff on a chilly January night at the Bryce Jordan Mausoleum against a 9-16 Penn State game with 4,000 people in attendance and the upper deck blocked off. Those are the games where the Nittany Lions’ home court advantage of lulling an opponent to sleep in a dead arena works best. This game had a pro-Purdue crowd, but it was still a basketball game being played in a hotel ballroom on a court that was apparently wiped down with Crisco. Purdue had to grit through an awful shooting night from Braden, numerous uncalled fouls both ways, a floor that had players slipping and sliding at key moments, and officials that had a questionable hold on the proceedings.
If anything, that just goes to show how good Purdue can be this year. Memphis had superior length and athleticism. It caused problems all night. With seven minutes left Purdue was down three and facing the most adversity it has faced so far. It then closed the game on a 19-7 run to seal the deal. When you can win a game with a C level of execution against an athletic team that is the sign of being a good program.
Some thoughts from this one:
- My player of the game is CJ Cox. He had an extremely efficient 18 points and connected on some big threes when Purdue needed them most. Those are big contributions after being relatively quiet the last few games, especially when Braden having an off night scoring.
- Speaking of Braden, if this is the worst he plays all year we’ll be fine. He still dished out 11 assists to get to 803 for his career. That is ahead of the pace he needs to get the all-time record. With a minimum of 28 games and a maximum of 35 remaining he needs to average between 9.75 and 7.8 to get there (again, depending on how far Purdue goes in both the Big Ten and NCAA Tournaments). Even though he wasn’t scoring he made passes only he can make, with a big one late to Oscar Cluff for a critial basket.
- Fletcher Loyer bounced back from a bad first half to hit some pretty big threes in the second half and finish with a game high 20.
- How about Jack Benter running the floor and getting a big dunk in transition! I was also thankful he got extended run in the first two games, because he got some more tonight with TKR on the bench due to foul trouble.
- TKR battled hard. The T from frustration late put a limit on what he could do in the second half, but he still had a near double-double in the first half.
- I still love what Omer Mayer is doing. I think he will be hard to keep off the court at times this year.
- When was the last time an opponent shot 14 more free throws than Purdue? That kept the Tigers in it early before they missed a bunch late.
- To me, this was an important game for Purdue to play. This was an extremely long, athletic team that played really hard. Purdue still found a way to win.
- When is the last time Purdue had the leader of a country at one of its games? During the game Bahamian Prime Minister Philip Davis was interviewed. For a long time Lord Palmerston has been my favorite Prime Minister, but Philip Davis rockets up to No. 1 because he came to see Purdue basketball.
- Aaron Bradshaw had one of the worst flops i have ever seen.
- Purdue has now won 11 straight games in these multi-team events, with the last loss coming against Clemson early in the 2020-21 season. It’s an incredible run over some really good teams. The results:
- 2021 Hall of Fame Tipoff: Beat #18 North Carolina 93-84 and #5 Villanova 90-84 (Both went to the Final Four).
- 2022 Phil Knight Legacy: Beat West Virginia 80-68, #6 Gonzaga 84-66, and #8 Duke 75-56
- 2023 Maui Invitational: Beat #11 Gonzaga 73-63, #7 Tennessee 71-67, and #4 Marquette 78-75
- 2024 Rady Children’s Invitational: Beat NC State 71-61 and #23 Mississippi 80-78.
- If you’re scoring at home, that’s eight wins over top 25 teams, six of whom were in the top 15. It’s also come agaisnt some real top talent (which we will also see later in the year).
See you all tomorrow night. Hopefully the floor isn’t as slippery.
