Takeaways: Win over Texas A&M-CC

Our post-game analysis following third-ranked 14th-ranked Purdue’s 90-73 season-opening win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

Drive Home Podcast | Stat Blast | Game Story | Gallery

UGLY, BUT UNDERSTANDABLE

This wasn’t the cleanest, most-precise win for Purdue, but if you expected to see a reincarnation of last season’s force of nature team right away, your expectations were unreasonable.

Purdue is a very new team and new often means sloppy. That won’t be the Boilermakers’ normal, most likely, but tonight, its 16 turnovers and the 19 Corpus Christi points that came from them — the latter being the more important of the two numbers — and work-in-progress defense (compromised by those turnovers, by the way) made this too close for comfort pretty deep into the game. The fickle nature of three-point shooting contributed too, both ways.

No matter how close the game got, there was never really much likelihood the Islanders could win this game given Purdue’s superiority and the foul differentials, but the Boilermakers were pushed.

And that may not be the worst thing in the world for Purdue, because these early season buy games really are an extension of the exhibition season and improvement comes from exposure.

Purdue was exposed again defensively, but did some positive things, too. The carelessness involved in the turnover issue, though, was an area that maybe it was good to have punctuated.

If Purdue takes care of the basketball and offensive rebounds, that’s its winning formula. But the taking care of the basketball part is non-negotiable, in part because of what it means for a defense that needs support from the offense. Complementary basketball, you might say.

Purdue probably didn’t need to learn this, but reminders never hurt.

OFFENSIVE ASSETS

Purdue was pushed in this game, but when push came to shove its veteran guards’ smarts came to the forefront, as both Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith cleverly forced their way to the foul line at a point in the game when free throws were buoying the home team.

This is the sort of offensive savvy and veteran moxie Matt Painter covets and something that shoud not be taken fo granted.

Having two players with the smarts to generate plays that might not necessarily be there to be made, while also making the correct plays that may be there far more often not, that’s a really nice luxury for this team to have an invaluable safety net when things get difficult.

ON THE FRONTCOURT

Raleigh Burgess not redshirting muddies an already fluid situation even more. Now that he’s playing, he needs to be playing, inevitably at the cost of someone older’s minutes.

This could be a real situational-use season for multiple players. That rarely materializes — coaches tend to prefer the comfort and continuity of an established, consistent rotation — but this year might be an exception.

Freshman center Daniel Jacobsen was an integral part of this win, his shot-blocking playing a real role, among other things. But as the games get more physical, not every night is going to be his night. There may be games Purdue needs Will Berg‘s big body out there, but also where his bull-in-a-china-shop tendencies might be problematic. That says nothing of Burgess or Caleb Furst, who might earn more consideration when Purdue’s bigs are tested more on the perimeter in ball-screen defense.

And then the wings. Myles Colvin was a flame-thrower tonight in the first half. Might that be a situation where if the hand is hot, you ride it? What about if it’s not? Or when an opponent pressures and forces Purdue into playing exclusively three guards.

Then, Camden Heide is kind of a little bit wing and a little bit power forward right now, his minutes bound to shake loose amidst the moving parts around him. When Purdue inevitably drifts toward Kaufman-Renn playing more than he is now at the 5, that will ripple all throughout the rotation.

Some nights, any of these guys may play a ton. Other nights they may play a little, in some cases not at all.

The question is going to be: When Purdue needs this guy or that guy who barely played the last game, how ready are they? There will be no hiding from that maturity/professionalism gauge.