Purdue has been on an incredible run in the four seasons that Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, and Trey Kaufman-Renn have been in West Lafayette. The trio have gone an impressive 108-23 mark that includes a pair of Big Ten title and a National Runner-Up finish.
Four of those losses had come at the hands of the Indiana Hoosiers though. In fact, before tonight, that trio had a losing overall record of 3-4 against the hated rivals from Bloomington. Surely they were not going to leave Purdue as the most
decorated senior class in history with a losing record against Indiana, right?
That is an emphatic “no” (unless we lose to Indiana in the Big Ten Tournament, and we haven’t played them in it since 1998).
Tonight Purdue was absolutely dominant, and the senior trio led the way. The Boilermakers never trailed and absolutely throttled the Hoosiers 93-64, the largest margin of victory for Purdue in the series since a 120-76 win on March 8, 1969.
Some thoughts before the video:
- Purdue wins the season series on aggregate 160-136. Yes, the games were a split again like last season, but Indiana won it on aggregate last year 149-139. Throw that on top of losing to them in football by a combined 132-3 the last two years as they inexplicably became unbeatable and our own program died, it feels good to be on the other end of a blowout for once agaisnt IU.
- Your Braden Smith assists update: He had eight tonight and is now at 994. That means he has an excellent chance to become just the fifth Division I player to reach 1,000 assists next week vs. Michigan State. Purdue likely needs at least 5 postseason games for him to get the all-time record.
- Purdue passing overall tonight was incredible. TKR especially had a good night with five assists of his own. As a team Purdue had 24 assists on 33 made field goals.
- Speaking of shooting, it will be very difficult to lose games where we shoot 65% from the floor and 55% from three. Purdue shot just 46% from the floor in Bloomington.
- Coming out party for Omer Mayer. The freshman is going to have a much larger role next year, so it was good to see him have some big moments to put this one to bed.
- The senior trio nearly won this by themslves with 53 combined points.
- It turns out Michigan might just be really, really good. I did not expect three home losses this year, but they have come against three of the five best teams in the country per the NET, and one was because a random guy went absolutely wild for an afternoon in Illinois’ Keaton Wagler. The Big Ten race is over without a lot of help, but this team showed tonight it is still a very good team that can make a deep tourney run. If we’re playing in Indy in April those losses will be forgotten.
- Purdue seems to do better when Braden looks to score first rather than get others involved. The assists seem to come more naturally if he opens up the game with some scoring of his own. It pulls the defense to him just that much more and opens things up elsewhere.
- I don’t know who was on the opposite end of Aaron Fine’s crossover, but legally they have to quit basketball now since they let a walk-on cross them over in a rivalry game. I don’t make these rules.
Darian Devries and Tucker Devries
Fletcher Loyer, Braden Smith, & Trey Kaufman-Renn
Matt Painter
