It doesn’t start out pretty. Oscar Cluff has positioning, but two bodies are holding him and Benter’s pass is where it needs to be, high, above the heads of the Marquette defenders, but Cluff has to bat at it first and the ball goes towards the corner. Cluff, mobile for his size, is able to get to it, but at this point he’s almost to the corner of the court. Omer Mayer is already at the corner, and Cluff pushes the ball to Mayer who is shooting sub 30% from three on the season. Still, Mayer shoots,
and it looks like its long and going to collect another miss on his stat sheet. Instead, the ball hits the far side of the rim, just on the inside, takes a kick up and to the left where it hits the backboard, then the front of the rim, and eventually falls through the net.
Omer Mayer is 11 of 41 this season from three. Only Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer have attempted more threes for Purdue. Mayer’s 27% from three is the worst mark on the team.
Mayer’s season, to this point, has been a rousing success.
Omer Mayer’s path to Purdue seemed to come out of nowhere in the summer. One minute he was playing professional basketball in Israel, the next he was playing in a recruit showcase on the west coast and the likes of Auburn and Duke were prepared to throw piles of money at him.
Mayer’s arrival to Purdue seemed to stand as some kind of testament to a new Purdue. That Purdue was now a part of a new conversation of recruits. It had joined the big boys of college basketball.
But thats a line of disservice to Omer Mayer the person.
Mayer might have the pedigree of a blue chip recruit, but his blood runs old gold.
There’s been nobody on Purdue’s team that’s embodied the ethos of Purdue more than Omer Mayer this season.
Which brings me back to that 27%. Despite the shooting struggles, Mayer has done nothing but impress both on and off the court for Purdue.
His passing was as good as advertised. His defense has been better. His effort and energy has been unscrupulous. His willingness might set him apart the most. From the jump, Mayer agreed to a role and team that did not promise playing time and glory, but purpose and growth, backing up and filling in instead of starring and filling up the stat sheet.
“It’s really good for a young guy that’s as talented as him, there’s gonna be some sacrifices,” assistant coach Paul Lusk told me discussing Mayer’s impact on the team and his unique relationship with Braden Smith, which helped cement the decision for Mayer that West Lafayette was the right place for him. “He’s done a terrific job with it. I think Braden’s done a good job really bonding with him. Omer’s a great personality. Everybody loves him in the locker room.”
But Mayer is still a basketball player and his shot still isn’t falling. But if you’ve watched Mayer in his international career, you’ll know he’s a rhythm shooter, and tends to shoot his way into hot streaks. That’s tougher to do when you’re not having the offense run through you.
“I’m still young and sometimes when I’m missing my third shot, it gets into my head,” Mayer said about his own and his team’s struggles against Iowa State. Purdue’s only loss on the season. A daunting dismantling at home that seemed to shake up the national trust in this season’s Purdue team. “It’s part of it. I think my mistakes in that game kind of led to missing shots if that makes sense.”
It was a loss so lopsided, and at home, that not even this experienced team had ever experienced anything like it.
“This loss – it was hard. You can’t just ignore that. You gotta remember that,” Mayer went on to say. “To be a winning team, to be in the NCAA Championship, you need to just keep going, whatever is going on. We got a punch to our face. It hurt.”
Some things are more controllable than others. Effort, commitment, defense to some degree, all the intangibles and energy related things Mayer has knocked out of the park. Now, he’s just waiting for the shots to fall in line.
The one in the corner did, and as if fed by that, his 10/10 difficulty step back jumper from the far right corner went down just after it against Marquette. For the first time this season, it looked like Mayer’s jump shot might have found purchase. A dangerous proposition for everyone else in the Big Ten as Purdue prepares to win its conference league for the third time in four years.
Mayer is a tantalizing prospect, both in college and in professional basketball later, and sometimes those horizons can distract us. Mayer’s shot arriving for the Big Ten season could change the entire calculous for the already best offense in college basketball. Because Purdue isn’t thinking about Mayer’s future.
“I think generally everyone’s like – his time is gonna come a year from now,” Lusk finishes the interview telling me.
“No, his time is right now.”
