Afternoon Delight: Boilermakers Have Their Way With Oakland, 93-50
Feature image from @Boilerball.
Post title from the indominable (and old) J Money.
What Happened?
After a slow start, Purdue easily dispatched of Oakland 93-50 in the Boilers’ home opener.
An easy, relaxing, entertaining Purdue win full of fun fast offense and an active defense. What a relief. All Purdue sporting events should be like this.
Let’s make this a quick’un:
The Good
Three-pointers breaking the Oakland zone. After a slow start (see The Bad), Sasha Stefanovic began the three-point barrage – three of them, in two quick minutes. Purdue would add four more from four different players (Sasha, Brandon Newman, Isaiah Thompson, Ethan Morton) during a 36-13 run, finishing 8/13 from beyond the arc in the first half and putting the game comfortably in the win column early. Purdue would finish with 17 threes on 53% shooting.
Sasha’s full game is worth highlighting – he finished with 20 points on a nice 6/9 shooting (all threes) and 7 assists, with his deadeye shooting and brilliant passing settling Purdue after a shaky opening half. But what doesn’t show is his defense – nobody has ever praised him as a defensive stopper, but at a solid 6’5” with a long wingspan, he’s got the tools to be an active defender. He showed it during Purdue’s first half run, disrupting Oakland’s comfortable halfcourt offense.
Brandon Newman. Boy is he filling the gap left by the missing shooting guards Eric Hunter and Jaden Ivey. 21 points on 7/11 shooting (4 threes), 4 rebounds, and 3 assists, with 16 first half points. Watching Newman’s smooth game soothes my general life anxiety. He’s had a fantastic start to his Purdue career, has a gorgeous shot, and has already won over every heart at BS.
Zach Edey is impossibly huge and plays like he’s impossibly huge. 7-footers have been mainstays on Purdue’s roster for the past decade, but finally having one that tries to dunk everything is so fun.
Passing. This is how you know Purdue has a selfless, smart, skilled wing rotation – when three players end up with more than 5 assists each. Sasha, Thompson, and Ethan Morton led Purdue to 27 total assists on 60 made field goals, and that number doesn’t begin to tell the story of how fun the offense was to watch (when it was clicking, after the slow start).
Robbie Hummel as the color announcer. Shoutout Rob forever.
Afternoon basketball. We didn’t get this in March, when a lot of us were working from home. I was skeptical before the game, but I vote more early afternoon blowout Purdue basketball wins.
The Bad
The slow start. Marred by turnovers in the paint against Oakland’s zone and poor defensive rebounding, Purdue scored only 13 points in the first 9 minutes of play. While Oakland opened a very small early lead, a more talented offensive team might have put the game out of reach.
Early post-entry turnovers. Again, most of the stuff to learn from happened in the first half, and a lot of that happened early in the game as Purdue was trying to force the ball inside against Oakland’s aggressive zone defense. While it’s in Painter’s DNA to play inside-out, this team might have to use the perimeter early to generate post-up and driving lane space.
The Ugly
An empty Mackey. It’s necessary, it’s understandable, it’s the right thing to do. But even more than Ross Ade (we all know, nobody comes into Ross Ade), playing home games without a roaring crowd in Mackey is just weird.
Trevion Williams had a perfectly fine game (particularly on the glass), finishing with 8 points and 14 rebounds. But our expectations for the All-Big Ten-caliber center are higher than he’s been showing these first three games of the season. Four early turnovers, missed post touches and putbacks against Oakland’s early zone limited his point total (going 4/12 from the field), but during Purdue’s run he showcased his passing ability once Purdue’s shooters gave him a little more room to work. Again – it wasn’t a bad game whatsoever from Trevion, but if a few of those early looks go in it kickstarts Purdue’s offense.
