Post-Creighton, Purdue's emphases will lie in defensive detail
Preseason exhibitions like the one Purdue lost at Creighton Saturday night are meant to expose teams at a point in the season when they’re at their most vulnerable, because everything is no new.
That’s the value Matt Painter has coveted these past two seasons, playing high-level preseason games at Arkansas and Creighton, both to put his team on the road but also to lay bare its “truths of our real problems” before the games actually count.
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PDF: Purdue-Creighton box score
The Bluejays, in scoring 93 points to Purdue’s 87, did shine a light on a deficiency Painter says he’d seen coming practice. Creighton scored so many of its points off open threes off Purdue cross-ups, but also a string of cutting layups, especially in the second half. The positive things Purdue did defensively were largely rooted in individual impact, but when things got more multi-layered, that’s where struggles surfaced.
“Probably the biggest concern I have is our lack of communication,” Painter said. “That’s been in practice, and we’ve really tried focusing on it and talking on it. It gets us into binds, because there will be times you have a good effort from guys, but then they don’t clean things up or get clarity by calling ‘My ball’ or just talking things out. So now you get into guesswork and people are hesitant or indecisive. … I think it’s gotten better, but we have too many shortcomings there.
“We have too many guys who, they’re quiet people, that’s their personality. But that can’t be your competitive personality. Whatever you’re thinking, you’ve got to be saying.'”
Clearly, Purdue needs new voices to show up from an on-court leadership perspective, areas where Mason Gillis and Zach Edey were highly valuable last year. Notably, Trey Kaufman-Renn has specifically pointed to this area as a need for him as he moves into a leading role this year.
But this would seem, too, like not all that surprising a concern, as Purdue has added five freshmen into its practice mix and started two players at Creighton who either had never played or hadn’t played a meaningful minute.
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This was also case of Purdue not arming its players with a detailed opponent-specific scouting report. Purdue has handled these games focusing on itself, not the opponent.
That said, that doesn’t ease Painter’s concerns over what he saw defensively in Omaha.
“That’s true for the other team, too,” Painter said. “Just watching (Creighton), they didn’t go into great detail on what we do, either. We kept getting whatever we wanted, and they got whatever they wanted. They were just a little better and made a few more shots.”
But, again, the point of these games is to expose problems, elements to fix, and that’s just what happened.
“Our communication and concentration, everything, it just has to be higher-level,” Fletcher Loyer said. “It has to match what guys brought us last year. It’s not necessarily effort. It’s just more about being on top of things and communicating everything.”
