Takeaways: Purdue's Game 2 rout of Morehead State

Again, third-ranked Purdue left no doubt in a home game against an outmanned opponent, beating Morehead State 87-57 in Mackey Arena.

Takeaways from the Boilermakers’ one-sided victory over the Eagles.

LANCE JONES’ IMPACT

It’s not surprising that new guard Lance Jones has already impacted Purdue defensively and boosted its ranks in terms of its backcourt depth. But while nights like tonight (15 points) may not repeat themselves every time out, the Southern Illinois import really does help the Boilermakers offensively, too.

Purdue has been made so much better on offense by having more ball-handlers on the floor. It has really helped against pressure and really set pace for Purdue, which has never been averse to playing fast but now has personnel more suited for it.

That is something to watch all season: How proactive Purdue is about setting pace offensively, Braden Smith being the biggest part of it, Jones the second-biggest.

Furthermore, while Jones is in a very different role for Purdue than he played during his alpha-scoring days at SIU, it looks like his jumper may translate and his leading-scorer-type mentality can fit within the confines of Purdue’s hierarchy.

Months from now, when this season is over, however it turns out, Jones’ addition may go down as one of the most significant in the Big Ten, if not all of college basketball.

FAST STARTS AND DEFENSIVE FOUNDATIONS

Matt Painter is never going to view his team as up to code defensively, but even with these being overmatched opponents thus far, you can’t view these starts as anything but positive.

Samford didn’t score a field goal ’til 13:22. Morehead didn’t score ’til 15:20. Those games started with Purdue jumping out to 11-0 and 15-0 leads, respectively.

Will that continue against the better competition? Most likely not, but it does represent something pretty significant, that this Boilermaker team would seem attentive and ready to play. It’s started games — and second halves — well.

As was illustrated in last year’s marked defensive progress, wanting to be good on defense, embracing details and such, that’s half the battle. Seems like another big step forward could be forthcoming.

THE OFFENSIVE REBOUNDS ARE A CONCERN, BUT …

Morehead State scored 12 second-chance points off as many offensive rebounds. Probably not the worst thing in the grand scheme of things for coaches to have something to harp on, but also the reality here is that this doesn’t seem like that big a deal.

Most of these offensive rebounds are off the long-carom variety. Can Purdue do a better job tracking the ball and putting a body on everyone on the floor when the shot goes up? Sure. But once Purdue plays more peer-level opponents, they’re not going to be missing threes in bulk and missing them so badly at times that the team facing the rim has a huge advantage on the tea that isn’t.

You’d think anyway.

BRADEN SMITH AND ZACH EDEY IN PICK AND ROLL

Purdue is known for having a Yellow Pages-thick playbook, but as was the case last season — but even more so now, it can boil things down to the most basic modern offense there is. “Basic” is a bad way to describe Purdue’s pick-and-roll game with Braden Smith and Zach Edey but this is shaping up to be pretty formidable, reminiscent to when Purdue would just clear out E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson and let them cook.

Smith’s shooting and the two players’ experience together seems to be taking this to a different level, to the betterment of both players as well as those ancillary pieces who’ll get open threes off it.

Purdue’s shaping up to be a great offensive team once again. Just have to make threes.