Upon Further Review-Indiana

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 10th-ranked Boilermakers’ 81-76 win over Indiana.

PDF: Purdue-Indiana statistics

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(Video clips via FOX)

ATTACKING SIZE, AGAIN

The fun flipped script around this season for Purdue is them now having to target other peoples’ superior size on offense the way opponents have had to for years now.

That said, for everything Purdue gave to Oumar Ballo, it took back a whole bunch by targeting him in its offensive actions. So much of Purdue’s basic actions align with exploiting big men in drop coverage anyway, but its efforts vs. IU were particularly pointed.

First possession of the game is a middle ball screen designed to go after Ballo and feel out IU’s coverage.

Fletcher Loyer is a drop-coverage killer, so Purdue put him in its usual array of DHO stuff but also this rare ball screen, as he and Braden Smith essentially trade roles here.

The dribble handoff stuff …

Loyer doesn’t score this but he creates this easy putback.

When Purdue has had 7-footers on the floor over the years, it was always vulnerable to the running two-point shots. You remember what a pain in the neck Xavier Johnson was for them because he could make those teardrops out of pick-and-roll with Trayce Jackson-Davis.

Friday night, the shoe was on the other foot. These shots are Smith’s happy place.

This inverted ball screen has been a Purdue staple this season against bigger opponents, a great add to the playbook made possible by Trey Kaufman-Renn‘s ability to dribble.

This is clearly a call from the sideline to put Ballo on an island against a great mid-range player with the option to go either direction.

This, too. This looks so simple but is clearly designed to get Ballo moving one way then for the quicker TKR to bust him the other way. There’s no screen to free up the catch, because that would belie the whole point of the play. You’re using Ballo’s mass against him.

ANOTHER PURDUE TARGET

When Purdue wasn’t going after Ballo, it was hunting Mackenzie Mgbako. Maybe Purdue collectively wasn’t but Braden Smith sure was.

This simple action between Smith and CJ Cox gets Mgbako switched onto Smith, and Purdue’s point guard just backs it out to lock him in, then clears out and goes. (You back out to space the floor to the point the opponent can’t switch back without giving up an uncontested three or clear driving lane.)

The sideline in-bound play is squarely focused on one matchup, but IU seems to switch things up here. Smith gets what he wants anyway.

PURDUE DEFENSE

Purdue’s ball pressure again was a game-changer, but here I just want to highlight a few small things …

• Impeccable job here by Camden Heide on this switch.

Here, too.

This is two turnovers directly forced by Heide, who’s playing the 4. This is what “interchangeable” means.

Now, here.

This turnover is caused by Myles Colvin beating Trey Galloway to his spot, forcing him off-course, so when the ball is passed to a spot, it just keeps bouncing.

Then there was Caleb Furst‘s motor trying to get around Ballo.

BAD SCREENS

Purdue losing Kaufman-Renn to fouls almost cost Purdue the game. Nos. 3 and 4 were both illegal screens. Are these fouls? Sure. But I won’t bore you with all the clips from this game that were just as foul-worthy. I clipped like a dozen.

The difference? All those others didn’t occur when the foul count was 5-1 in one team’s favor. They were looking for stuff to call against Purdue for that reason. It’s a Big Ten tradition like no other.

IU committed five fouls in the first five minutes of the second half, then suddenly cleaned up their act enough — sarcasm — until the 7:30 mark. Fouls went from 5-1 to 6-6. Imagine that.

I will stand by my take that if fouls are even, whistles like these don’t get called on TKR and I will suggest that ball-screen offense and dynamic modern offense has so normalized movement into screens that you can call a hundred of these a game if you’re so inclined.

Watch Malik Reneau here literally seconds after Kaufman-Renn’s fourth foul.

TKR has to clean it up, though.

This was no different than the ones they called. It’s just that there wasn’t foul-total laundering needed at this moment.

PURDUE DEFENSIVE GAPS

So, Purdue won this game by forcing turnovers. When it didn’t, IU got great looks and was way more efficient than its shooting norms this season.

The Boilermakers have been outstanding on defense since Auburn, but what it’s doing can be beaten with patience and by moving the ball, specifically reversing it.

Mgbako got off in part because he was the back-side beneficiary of some of those ball reversals and his skill set jibes with the opportunities afforded by that positioning.

This is just one of those deals where you’ve got Loyer hung out to dry here, playing 1-on-2. Luke Goode smartly cuts to the basket to make his former high school teammate take away the dive, leaving Mgbako open on the reversal. Loyer has to sprint to take away the three. That back-end help guy always looks like he’s lost out there, but the reality of it is they’re trying to cover too many bases and in position to look bad when offenses make the right plays.

Late in the game, it’s Heide’s turn. He is Purdue’s ‘low man’ here and has to pick between accounting for Ballo on the roll or Mgbako in the corner. No right answer there. Nice play by Galloway to again use Ballo’s presence to IU’s advantage.

Here, IU is using Mgbako as its indirect in ball-screen offense, the guy moving away from the flow of the play. It’s tough when that player can shoot or drive, as Mgbako can. The way he’d been shooting, Purdue has to sell out to take away the three here. This is actually pretty good defense by Loyer to take away the three. He has no chance to stay in front, but does steer the ball laterally instead of straight to the basket. Cox probably needed to bite down harder, but looks like he doesn’t want to give up a three. Tough shot Mgbako makes here.

Purdue never really got a handle on the Trey Galloway–Oumar Ballo ball screen.

Galloway is not really a natural ball-handler, but he did an impeccable job in this game of running these plays and using Ballo’s gravity to its fullest worth.

You see here how Galloway uses his snake dribble to pull Heide into Ballo’s screen, then takes advantage of Purdue’s last lines of defense having to sag to the basket to try to prevent lob dunks or putbacks for Ballo. This is very much the sort of issue Zach Edey created for opponents.

Kaufman-Renn probably had to come out higher here to take way the three.

Here, Gicarri Harris and TKR get caught leaning, and Galloway turns down the ball screen and has a step on both defenders. Heide can’t crack down from the wing because Mgbako is on a heater and threes are worth more than twos.

MISC

• Compare Indiana’s transfers seemingly wanting to kill one another at the end of the game to these two third-year teammates at Purdue sharing a brain in key moments.

• Quietly, this was again a very good game from Heide. Was this the biggest play of the game outside of anything that transpired in the final minute?

Heide keeps going on the offensive glass.

• This closeout by Gicarri Harris …

(The principles of Purdue’s defense here is that they are overloading the high side of the floor here, leaving one guy to cover two on the back side. Harris is that guy and his first job is too take away the three.)

• Pet peeve: This is a clear foul on Purdue, but why do they have to wait to see whether the ball goes in or not before making the call?

• Weak call here against Malik Reneau, but that he’s setting picks at this spot on the floor reflects what a nuisance Cox has been on the ball. This might have been the cleanest screen of the game.

What a sequence from Cox here.

• Purdue hasn’t been this aggressive on the ball since like 2009.

• Purdue made at least three bad decisions in transition offense, squandering a few golden opportunities it earned with defense.