No. 20 Purdue overwhelms Nebraska 104-68

It must have been disheartening to Nebraska to shoot 52.2% from the field in the first half and trail by 17.

What about at the end of Sunday’s game?

“We shoot 48%, and we lose by 36. You can’t do that,” Huskers coach Fred Hoiberg said.

Welcome to the Hoiberg’s world trying to take down one of the hottest teams in the country on its home floor. Although Nebraska had won six of its last seven before walking into the 82^nd consecutive sellout at Mackey Arena, the challenge was enormous.

And it became impossible when freshman C.J. Cox added his production to the “Big 3.”

From the opening tip, Cox was a major force for the 20^th-ranked Boilermakers, who played with an energy and purpose that the Huskers couldn’t match. Not on this day. Not in this environment. And not with Purdue draining 19 3-pointers.

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It added up to a 104-68 victory as the Boilermakers take the momentum of a five-game winning streak to the Pacific Northwest to face Washington and Oregon next week.

As the lead became insurmountable in the second half, all Hoiberg could do was slip more mint Lifesavers, sitting on the scorer’s bench, into his mouth.

Cox was superb on both ends. He totaled 23 points – connecting on his first eight field goal attempts and made five straight 3-pointers, and finished 5 of 7. He added four rebounds and four steals.

Fletcher Loyer had his shooting stroke from the start, allowing the Boilermakers to stretch the lead to double digits during the first eight minutes. Loyer made five 3-pointers and finished with 19 points. Trey Kaufman-Renn totaled 15 points, six rebounds, and seven assists, indicating the sharp ball movement and quick decisions made on the offensive end. Myles Colvin came off the bench and scored 14 points, hitting four 3-pointers.

This was orchestrated by Braden Smith, who conducted another brilliant performance from the point guard position.

Although Smith didn’t reach double figures in the scoring department, he handed out 14 assists and surpassed 600 in his career. It’s the fifth time in the last eight games Smith has totaled double-digit assists.

Nebraska’s problem was turnovers. While the Huskers shot a high percentage in the first half, they had nine turnovers, and the Boilermakers feasted on the mistakes. Nebraska didn’t give itself a chance by committing 17 turnovers.

“IT FELT GREAT”

Since joining the starting lineup before the January 2 matchup at Minnesota, the transition from the bench has been seamless.

At least from the outside.

From a numbers standpoint, Cox didn’t stuff the stat sheet in the victory against the Golden Gophers, but those figures increased against Northwestern and Rutgers.

And they really made a jump on Sunday.

“It felt great,” Cox said. “P.J. (Thompson) is always telling me to look for my shot.”

He did early and often against the Huskers, and success followed. Cox made the game’s first basket – similar to what happened against Northwestern a week ago – and didn’t let up during his 22 minutes on the floor, scoring 15 points in the second half.

“I’ve seen it all summer,” Smith said. “I had to guard him. I know what he’s capable of.”

But his four steals provided the springboard to an impressive night on the offensive end.

“I feel like it fueled it a lot once we get stops on defense, and that leads to transition offense,” Cox said. “I feel like we got a lot of that this game and got a lot of open shots from that.”

Either Cox or Loyer were going to connect from the wing as Smith leads the fastbreak attack.  Since the Huskers were paying more attention to Loyer, Cox benefited.

“I’m going to find the guy that is open,” Smith said. “It helps when TK runs the floor and pulls people in.”

“BEST POCKET PASSER IN THE COUNTRY”

The execution was nearly flawless.

That led to 19 of 33 shooting from 3-point range. That led to 32 assists on 41 made baskets. Only 10 turnovers, which allowed the Boilermakers to operate at a high level.

Purdue scored at a high rate, averaging 1.53 points per possession against a team that ranked No. 14 nationally in defensive efficiency.

“Braden Smith is the best pocket passer in the country, and that’s where it starts,” Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said. “If Kaufman-Renn is hitting those 15-foot floaters, that’s a hard team to beat. You get in there, and you protect, and they spray it out. I thought we contested, but early, they made shots. You tip your hat to Purdue. They came out, and they were ready.”

The Boilermakers capitalized on the Huskers’ turnovers to excel in transition and maintained the offense’s efficiency. They kept looking for the open player, making the extra pass, and not settling.

The same approach unfolded at Rutgers, but Purdue was 4 of 24 from 3-point range.

“Everything looks better when you make shots,” coach Matt Painter said. “You look great when you make 19 3s. Other night against Rutgers, we didn’t look great but in terms of decision making, both nights were really good. One night you made shots, one night you didn’t.”

Where the Boilermakers buried Nebraska was capitalizing on turnovers, scoring 22 points. The momentum from the crowd was a tidal wave the Huskers couldn’t stop.

“The transitions baskets, the easy ones, those are the ones that kill you,” Hoiberg said. “They got very comfortable from the perimeter, and (our) guard contests were not as spirited as the game went on. But give them credit. Those guys have to cooperate to give you a chance in this building.

“I watched the Northwestern game that was in this building last week. I didn’t think Northwestern played bad and I look up and they’re down 30. Purdue does that to you and this crowd, when they get behind this team, when they’re hitting shots like that, it’s a hard building to come back in.”

TAKING ADVANTAGE

Purdue took advantage of 18 turnovers on Sunday and benefitted from 16 turnovers committed by Rutgers on Thursday.

Are the Boilermakers establishing a new identity on the defensive end?

“Just trying to have more active hands, and then we’ve pressured more with our bigs,” Painter said.

The previous approach was to let Zach Edey anchor the defense and funnel opposing teams into the lane. Now, the Boilermakers are more aggressive on the perimeter and active in the passing lanes to force turnovers.

Purdue tied a season high with 11 steals and totaled 37 during the five-game winning streak.  

“Now those guys are getting up on the basketball a little bit more, especially with everybody that plays five out – they bring people out and open up the paint,” Painter said. “Things are happening where they’re getting some things, but yet they have to worry about the pressure instead of being able to pick us apart because we’re back.

“We’ve tried to be more detailed and clean with our switches while seeing the basketball. The last three, four games, and I don’t know what our total numbers are, but at halftime, we’ve had really good numbers against Northwestern, Rutgers in this game of the ball staying out of the paint. When it does, we’ve had a lot of success.”