Takeaways from victory at Washington

SEATTLE — Our post-game analysis following 17th-ranked Purdue’s 69-58 win at Washington Wednesday night in Alaska Airlines Arena.

PDF: Purdue-Washington stats

ON PURDUE AND DEFENSE

Purdue isn’t a high-pressure defense by philosophy. It hasn’t been in years. As the Boilermaker front line became larger and larger and more and more offensive-focused shooters came into the program, the focus shifted to containment, with analytics agreeing with that approach.

Purdue hasn’t changed all that much with this team, but it is defending so well right now that the traditional payouts of pressure are coming anyway, organically.

At Washington, Purdue forced — and there’s a difference between a defensive forcing turnovers and an offense just committing them; this was the former — 17 turnovers and turned them into 18 points. THe past five games, Purdue has averaged 17.4 points off turnovers. Opponents have averaged 15.8 turnovers the past four games.

This is the best and most disruptive Purdue has been on defense in quite some time and it is because A) Purdue is trying really hard and B) the Boilermakers are more cohesive as a team defensively than they were in non-conference play. It’s striking how far things have come since Matt Painter was lamenting his team’s poor communication and such things in November and December.

Caleb Furst has been a game-changer and Braden Smith an agent of chaos and in part because of it, Purdue is a legitimately good defensive team that owes a good deal of credit for its strong play of late to that end of the floor.

Honestly, post-Zach Edey and Lance Jones, this team probably never really projected to be a great defensive team, and it still isn’t, but it has become a very good one.

Throw rebounding in there, too.

How many games has Purdue either outrebounded an opponent or tied them without an individual getting more than, like, six? Tonight, it was four guys with five or more, but no one with more than six.

EXPERIENCED GUARDS

When Purdue blew this game open and then again when it fought off Washington’s last inklings of a run, it was its veteran guards who led the way, not surprisingly.

Smith only had five assists tonight, but he capped off an 11-2 run with some savant point guard play, dragging Washington’s big man’s hedging defense out to midcourt, then running a give-and-go with Furst to turn the corner and sucker-punch U-Dub with an assist to Kaufman-Renn, the sort of thing they should teach in point guard school.

He and Fletcher Loyer then both finagled their ways to the foul lines to steal four points off possessions that might not have otherwise gone anywhere. Veteran savvy at its peak.

All 12 of Loyer’s points came after halftime, including a pair of key three-pointers.

SLOW SHOOTING STARTS AGAIN

Purdue could have pulled away from all three of these last road opponents earlier but uneven shooting prevented it. The Boilermakers didn’t make enough shots in the first half, before the light came on and the shots went down after halftime. Threes and free throws, specifically.

A slow start shouldn’t come as any surprise at Washington given that Purdue’s in an arduous run of travel. This was Purdue’s second trip to a coast — both coasts — in a week, which should never happen, but this is the Big Ten now. Three games in a week literally spanning coast to coast.

But whatever the cause of the chilly first halves have been — if there’s a cause — Purdue would love to see it even out to the point where they have to dominate a second half on the road. Better teams than Minnesota, Rutgers and Washington would have been in better positions at halftime.

But that’s basketball. Credit Purdue for responding when it has mattered.