How Purdue basketball's Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer overcome adversity: 'They don’t let mistakes snowball'

WEST LAFAYETTE – Going back to the Nov. 15 victory over Marquette, Braden Smith’s ability to bounce back after a shaky start was on display.

A bad stretch to the start the game. A glorious finish to bring Purdue back from a nine-point deficit and give the Boilermakers their first of several marquee victories this season.

And the same scenario played out recently with Fletcher Loyer. A poor first half at Ohio State led to coming off the bench after halftime where Loyer sparked Purdue to a come-from-behind victory, including the game-winning 3-pointer.

Two freshmen. Two starters from Day 1. Two players with a deep and rich basketball history in their background, giving them a solid foundation to find success.

Two players who have shown how to deal with their own personal adversity on the court and quickly bounce back to keep the Boilermakers atop the Big Ten standings and among the top teams in the nation.

“You’ve seen it with freshman,” Purdue assistant coach Paul Lusk said. “A three-minute bad stretch could lead to a 10-minute bad stretch, a 10-minute stretch leads to a whole game and a whole game leads to a whole week.”

The first part has happened. The part where it carries over from game-to-game hasn’t shown up in pair’s DNA this season.

Assistant coach Terry Johnson recalled the Marquette game when Smith started with two turnovers against the press. After halftime, last year’s Indiana Mr. Basketball scored 15 points and took over the game with his ballhandling and court awareness.

“He doesn’t want to fail individually, and he doesn’t want Purdue to fail. Fletch is the same way,” Johnson said. “They don’t let mistakes snowball over into a week. It might get them but you’re not going to get them again.”

That’s been true through the first 17 games as the third-ranked Boilermakers head to Michigan State for Monday’s showdown (2:30 p.m., Fox) at the Breslin Center.

The two came to campus “probably already ahead of the curve,” Johnson said.

STRONG FOUNDATIONS

Give a lot of credit to their upbringings.

Smith’s parents, Ginny and Dustin, played at Arkansas Tech. Ginny was Miss Basketball in Arkansas in 1997 and currently serves as Westfield’s girls basketball coach. Loyer’s parents, John and Katie, have deep roots in basketball and athletics and Fletcher’s older brother, Foster, played at Michigan State and is using his final year of eligibility at Davidson.

John is director of pro scouting for the Los Angeles Clippers but also held assistant coaching positions in the NBA and was the interim head coach of the Detroit Pistons in 2014. Katie was a standout athlete at McCutcheon High School in Lafayette, played volleyball at Memphis and Indiana, and was an assistant coach with Purdue’s program.

But they had to learn the physical demands of playing at the Big Ten and Power 5 level, the day-to-day requirements of maintaining their bodies through training and nutrition, understanding Painter’s extensive playbook, and embracing the program’s defensive philosophy.

Based on their backgrounds and the amount of basketball Smith and Loyer had played, they weren’t typical freshmen. They didn’t bring numerous recruiting stars, but they’ve brought so much more to help the Boilermakers overcome the loss of an NBA lottery pick and two other talented players.

They were quickly earmarked as potential starters early in the process based on how they grasped everything and meshed with their teammates during the offseason.

“We don’t establish that. Players establish that,” Lusk said. “Players are smart, and they understand what a guy can’t and can do. We lost a lot, and we needed new guys. They’ve come in and established themselves from Day 1 but it’s also a credit to our older guys.”

NO SHORTAGE OF CONFIDENCE

Let’s go back to the summer when Ethan Morton and Purdue coach Matt Painter had a conversation about Smith and Loyer. The discussion was about managing personalities and egos, which isn’t a foreign topic on any athletic team.

“These two freshmen, they have a lot of confidence and that’s obviously a great thing but there may be times where we have to manage it a little bit,” Morton recalled Painter saying.

Morton quickly responded to Painter, almost sounding jealous he didn’t feature the same characteristics.

“As soon as he said it, I told him, ‘you and me both probably wish we had a lot more of that,’ ” Morton recalled. “If I could steal some of that from them, I would in a heartbeat. It’s an unbelievable trait for them not to be scared of the moment.”

Morton shared that observation after the Boilermakers steamrolled through the Phil Knight Legacy in Portland, Ore., over Thanksgiving weekend. Smith and Loyer had a big role in Purdue beating West Virginia, Gonzaga and Duke.

It became a precursor for what has unfolded throughout the season.

“You know guys at this level love ball,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t matter when or where they play, they love to compete. They’re living and learning and going through the process of it.”

BOUNCING BACK

Loyer certainly didn’t let a 0-for-6 shooting performance with four turnovers in the first half at Ohio State impact his play after halftime. He did have to wait since Painter brought the Homestead graduate off the bench in the second half.

“One year during AAU I had a coach tell me I had to have amnesia. I didn’t know what that meant until I looked it up,” Loyer said. “Who cares? You have to keep moving on. You know the work you put in but you’ve got to have your teammates trust you and you trust them right back. You have to trust the guy to go make that next shot.”

All Loyer did was deliver 11 points on 4 of 6 shooting and the game-winning 3-pointer to help the Boilermakers bounce back after their only loss.

“He’s got that edge to him; it’s just how he thinks as a basketball player, which it’s good to have,” Smith said about Loyer. “Just kind of let that last shot go and move on to the next thing. Paint tells us all the time to, ‘next play.’ He’s really good at it. We all want him taking those shots.”

Smith had the worst game of his young career against Rutgers, a combination of unforced turnovers and poor decisions facing arguably one of the league’s top defenses.

What was Smith’s response? Two of his better games against Ohio State and Penn State, combining for 13 assists and two turnovers while averaging 15.5 points. He also made six 3-pointers, opening the lane for his two-man game with big man Zach Edey.

“We know the amount of work we all put in and the talent that we have and it’s really coming out and playing hard and I think he really focused on that,” Loyer said about Smith. “He was pretty down on himself but just us teammates and us talking to each other as friends off the court saying, ‘hey, we’ve got to move on.’ ”

Both have moved on in a positive direction. Since the second half against the Buckeyes, Loyer is shooting 56.2% from 3-point range (13 of 23) and recorded a season-high 27 points in Friday’s win over Nebraska, extending Purdue’s winning streak to three following the Rutgers loss.

BRIGHT FUTURES

Huskers coach Fred Hoiberg was sitting courtside before Friday’s game when Fletcher stopped to speak to the former NBA coach. Hoiberg and the Loyer family have known each other for several years through their NBA connections and his son, Jack, played for Michigan State when Foster was with the Spartans.

“Just to see Fletcher grow and I don’t think anybody knew he would have this type of impact on this team but he’s so versatile and can make shots,” Hoiberg said after watching Loyer drain six 3-pointers. “His ability to take it off the bounce and relocate and shoot 3s and midrange, he has a helluva future ahead of him.”

Both have bright futures, but the present is the most important thing for the Boilermakers, who will continue to lean on their two talented newcomers to overcome their own adversity and help keep pushing this team and program forward.

“What a compliment to them that they’ve built that kind of trust,” Lusk said. “You fall into they’re going to bounce back. They’ve got it. It’s a good thing but you always have to understand they’ve never been to the Barn (Minnesota’s Williams Arena) and other places and it’s all new for them.

“It’s all new experiences but they can handle it. When they do go through a tough stretch, they’ve been able to bounce out of it pretty quickly. We hope that continues.”