Takeaways: Purdue's season-opening win over Samford

Led by blistering three-point shooting and Zach Edey‘s run-of-the mill dominance, third-ranked Purdue opened its season in excellent form, routing overmatched Samford 98-45 on Opening Night in Mackey Arena.

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

THIS WAS PURDUE’S GAME GEAR

Purdue came out with purpose, gave a great, unrelenting effort and played with an aggressive mentality, starting from the backcourt, where Braden Smith is on the cusp of big things. His offensive aggressiveness is transforming Purdue and when he’s mad, his best often comes out. Seemed like at one point Samford guard Dallas Graziani annoyed him with his handsy defense.

Matt Painter talks all the time about teams needing to be “on edge.” The Boilermakers’ point guard should be a fine tone-setter in that regard. Assistant coach P.J. Thompson joked a few weeks back about Smith seething over some clickbait Twitter graphic listing some top point guards heading into the season, omitting Smith. Thompson’s point was that the sophomore can and should channel such angst in games. He seemed to on Monday night.

THIS IS WHAT PURDUE LOOKS LIKE WHEN IT MAKES SHOTS

You know how last season ended and why. Purdue couldn’t make an open shot against Fairleigh Dickinson, when dared to. It wasn’t the only reason the Boilermakers fell in a historic upset but it was the biggest and now arguably the biggest key to Purdue making amends this season.

Look, Purdue could shoot 97 percent from three in November and December, but that still assures it of nothing on an every-night basis. Such is the fickle nature of jump-shooting. But Purdue did validate itself tonight, to a certain extent at least, as capable.

Purdue was a blistering 16-of-29 from three, 8-of-11 from guards Smith and Fletcher Loyer. They were the reason it rained fire on the Bulldogs in the first half — early threes are so important toward dictating the terms of play — and freed up Zach Edey more as the game went on. Edey could barely get the ball in the first half. He scored one field goal in offense in the first half, then finished the game with 16 points on just six shots.

This will not be the last time that someone dares Purdue to beat them with someone other than Edey, but the more three-point success the Boilermakers put on tape, the more opponents have to think twice and the more complex their scouting reports become. You know what happens with complex scouting reports? Young people make mistakes.

You could not have scripted a better offensive start for Purdue, though no one should be beating their chests over beating a Samford team that shot like hell and is obviously still figuring itself out.

CAMDEN HEIDE MAKES A BIG STATEMENT

Matt Painter talks all the time about the importance of players being “simple” and just making correct plays. That was the debuting Camden Heide tonight.

Never mind the 13 points, three rebounds and two assists in 16-and-a-half turnover-free minutes and lust look at how it all went down. Heide shot when he should have shot — 3-for-4 from three — drove when he should have drove and passed when he should have passed. He has been a revelation as a rebounder and doesn’t seem to have a whole lot of red flags around him defensively, if any.

An interesting early season development: Heide and Myles Colvin, the two newcomers whose aggregate athleticism is one of the biggest differences on this roster, look anything but redundant. They can be distinctly different, Heide having a little more grinder in him and Colvin having some real bucket-getter in him. Colvin is more than good enough to justify his quick trigger and for a team looking for more ways to score, there’s a real role for him on this team as he continues to settle in and learn.

PURDUE SEEMS SOLID VS PRESS AGAIN

This press tonight was nothing like what Arkansas could do, but Purdue handled it virtually incident-free.

Having Lance Jones as a secondary ball-handler alongside Braden Smith (and Fletcher Loyer) really helps and he’s also brought an ability to just beat somebody one on one to bounce into the open floor. It won’t always be this easy but Ethan Morton crushed the press.

Purdue made a bunch of plays attacking in transition, too.

Is Purdue going to get pressed a ton this season? No. But it does figure to have some robust leads late in games, so it had better be ready.