Purdue and the foul line; Saturday Boilermaker basketball notebook

DETROIT — A collection of Purdue basketball-focused notes from Saturday in Detroit, a day before the Elite Eight meeting with Tennessee.

PURDUE AND THE FOUL LINE

Last time Purdue and Tennessee met — in Honolulu in November — the two teams combined to shoot 78 free throws, a season-high 48 by the Boilermakers.

Tennessee coach Rick Barnes made mention of the 52 fouls called in the Maui Invitational, a 71-67 Purdue win, and said he wouldn’t expect that many whistles this time around.

Contrary to popular belief, that might be the Boilermakers’ preference as well.

Yes, Zach Edey is college basketball’s foremost foul magnet and generates a good deal of his scoring from the line, but there are also statistical indicators that suggest more free-flowing games might work in Purdue’s favor.

Last night, vs. Gonzaga, Purdue attempted a season-low 10 free throws. It scored 80 points and averaged 1.356 points per possession, one of its highest marks of the season, a season full of high marks.

Purdue, which averages 24.4 free throw attempts per game this season, has shot 20 or fewer free throws in 10 games this season. In those games, Purdue averages 1.22 points per possession. That’s actually significantly higher than the Boilermakers’ overall clip of 1.028. It also bears mentioning that Purdue is a merely average 72 percent at the line and has missed quite a few one-and-ones the last few weeks,

“I think when we can get out and run in transition and get the ball moving and get in our motion, it’s not all just getting it (to Edey) on that block and the team swarming and fouling them, because when they do swarm like that, they do foul, it’s obvious. If you don’t think they do, just watch more basketball.

“I think when we get out and we’re running and making shots, it opens up so much more for Zach to get more one-on-one deep touches. With that, that’s how we flow, and we get more efficient games without getting stopped at the line all the time.”

A SINGULAR FOCUS

Purdue has been defined in this NCAA Tournament by its front-facing demeanor, its businesslike approach.

“This has been the tournament we’ve been hyper-focused on all year,” Edey said. “Obviously we’re not satisfied just making the Elite Eight. We want to keep pushing. We know what we have on this roster. We know what we have on this team. And we know we can accomplish really big things. So we want to keep pushing and not get too caught up in any one win.”

Purdue’s aiming for its first Final Four since 1980 and an achievement that would be particularly significant in the context of Matt Painter’s coaching career.

“It’s everything to us,” Loyer said. “It’s what’s on our minds 24/7. To see these last few years, kind of how it’s played out and how much work these guys in recent years have put in, it stinks. You just want to get the program, the university, everybody over that hump.

“It’s what we want to do and what we’re going to work hard ourselves to do on Sunday.”

THE TURNOVER ISSUE

Purdue’s four losses this season can all be tied to turnovers.

The Tennessee game in Hawaii was one of those t hat the Boilermakers got away with it. Purdue committed 16 in that game, but Tennessee scored only 10 points off them.

“For us, it’s being able to get stops, so we can push the basketball and kind of get the tempo,” Painter said. “For them, it’s scoring the basketball and setting the defense. It’s the flip of it, right? So they do such a good job of setting their defense and then just getting into you.

“But it’s just handling pressure. It’s nothing that we haven’t seen all year, especially the schedule we’ve played. It’s not like they haven’t seen everything. They played a great schedule. We played a great schedule. We’re both from great leagues. So you’ve seen a lot of things throughout the year.

It’s just you hope your defense is better than their offense and your offense is better than their defense. When it comes down to their pressure and what they’re able to do, you’ve also got to be able to pass and catch and but also have to be handle the basketball with confidence, but also execute. We run a lot of stuff. Whatever we’re doing, simply do your job, make the right reads, make the right plays and passes, but be aggressive. As long as you’re aggressive doing what we work on, things are going to work out for us.”