Upon Further Review: Alabama

Following each Purdue basketball game this season — or at least most — GoldandBlack.com will take a closer look back at some finer points in our long-standing Upon Further Review series. Today, the 14th-ranked Boilermakers’ 87-78 win over second-ranked Alabama.

PDF: Purdue-Alabama stats

More: Analysis | Wrap Video | Stat Blast | Gallery | Final Thoughts

(Video clips via Peacock)

HIGH-LEVEL POINT GUARD PLAY

It’ll be a regular segment here just pointing out little stuff Braden Smith does that set him apart from his positional peers.

Let’s start here, with this bucket he gets.

It’s not the basket, but how Smith creates it, using Will Berg‘s ball screen to force Cliff Omoruyi to account for him, as Alabama tries to “ice” the screen by sandwiching the ball against the sideline. Once the big man commits, Smith locks him in with his snake dribble and drags him to the middle of the floor, cutting off Alabama’s chances to switch back. Separated from the herd, Omoruyi is now iso’d in space against a player he can’t stay in front of.

Same deal here. Smith gets picked up in transition D by a big and doesn’t let him off the hook, waving for a clear-out, then attacking. There also seems to be an awareness here of a point we’ll make later here, that ‘Bama was really worried about Fletcher Loyer and Smith attacks here like he knows they’re not helping off Loyer.

BALL-SCREEN OFFENSE

ThIs variety of continuous (“single single,” as they call it) screening actions was pretty effective for Purdue.

This first screen from Fletcher Loyer doesn’t seem to do much but does engage Smith’s defender a bit more before Smith can pull him back into a pick-and-roll with Caleb Furst. With Cliff in full drop, he accounts for Furst, not Smith.

Same play gets Smith an open jumper.

Purdue just made Alabama run through a lot of screens, think about a lot of switches and deal with a lot of slips. It clearly wanted Cliff to have a lot on his plate defensively away from the rim.

OFFENSIVE APPROACH

This was obviously a big Trey Kaufman-Renn game, as he’ll be the featured frontcourt piece for Purdue all season, which is apparently news to Alabama.

When Grant Nelson was on TKR, Purdue went at him physically in a traditional post-offense way, offsetting Nelson’s length with Kaufman-Renn’s lower-body power, superior toughness and overall savvy, or by manufacturing angles.

Nelson, honestly, got roasted and when they tried fronting, that didn’t work, either, because this Purdue program knows better than anyone how to feed the post at optimal angles. The cut away from the post by Camden Heide here helps isolate Nelson.

TKR is sneaky good at rooting out space in the post and here he does so in a way that sets up an easy entry that gets right to his right hand.

Now, when Cliff was in the game, the approach was generally different. Purdue wanted the fiendish shot-blocker away from the rim, often caught up in ball screens or dribble handoffs.

TKR’s short-roll ability was a real problem for Cliff, who is far less valuable on defense when he’s pulled away from the basket.

Alabama got got by a bunch of quick-hitters in transition, including this pretty pick-and-roll late in the game. This is Nelson again, though, on defense.

Definitely another strong reading-and-reacting game for Kaufman-Renn. Here, he is at the 5. Heide is at the 4. Notice Nelson cheating inside to help on TKR if he had tried to back his man down and gotten to his hook.

But back to Cliff Omoruyi.

Purdue wanted him running around and distracted by movement. These DHOs are Purdue staples and not really Alabama specific, but they were prevalent against Alabama. Loyer gave Alabama the business.

Same for Nelson.

This stuff is especially effective when people are attaching themselves to Loyer the way Alabama was.

FLETCHER LOYER’S GRAVITY

Alabama had no plan for TKR and an inconsistent approach to Smith that allowed him a lot of good looks, but they weren’t about to let Loyer get free.

Look how hard this guy comes over this screen and how Loyer suckers them into fouling.

The big-time part of this play wasn’t Raleigh Burgess making the shot, but Loyer creating it. Loyer knows where Cliff is here and knows he wants to block shots.

MISC

• Second illegal screen CJ Cox has drawn in as many games.

• This is just awesome from Myles Colvin guarding a 22-year-old All-America point guard. It’s easy to forget this play in that barrage of Cox threes.

• Kaufman-Renn’s, Heide’s and Caleb Furst’s efforts on the glass late in the game brought this home as much as anything. And Colvin got a big contested rebound late in the game, too.

• This late defensive stop shows that there’s potential in this Purdue team on D.

kaufman-Renn slides over to help, Heide comes baseline to shut the whole down and Loyer has Heide’s man accounted for and Smith obviously grinds here.