Upon Further Review: Marshall

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 sixth-ranked Boilermakers’ 80-45 win over Marshall Saturday.

PDF: Purdue-Marshall box score

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(Video clips via BTN)

THE ‘SMALL BALL’ LINEUP

Not much else to say about this one-sided game so will just look at a few dynamics of the new starting five. Calling this group “small” may not be all that accurate, but the it’s not giant and the styles of play made compatible with it align more with “small ball” than not.

Look how crisp Purdue gets into motion here out of transition and how things flow. Everyone’s a mover.

This is very five-out-ish offensively. This may not look all that different from what they did with Zach Edey, but that’s a Zach Edey matter. He was very uncommon in his ability to run dynamic offense and that’s one of the big reasons he was the No. 9 pick.

Then there’s pace. Purdue never wants to play slow, as you’re reminded every time Braden Smith gets a defensive rebound and just goes. But these lineups are quicker. Look how quick Purdue gets into this transition ball screen.

These are more athletic lineups. Purdue seems to make it a priority here to get Myles Colvin going to start the game. This is the set they ran on the second possession of the game.

Defensively, these lineups are going to have to be really good together to account for a lack of rim protection and they are going to have to swarm the boards, but they are more mobile, more switchable and quicker.

This opponent was bad, and that needs to be kept in mind, but Trey Kaufman-Renn does move laterally better than a 7-footer would.

TKR is playing the 4 here, but this does display his ability to cover more ground than any 7-footer would be able to.

Back to offense.

With Camden Heide at the 4, it may give Purdue some ways to leverage extending the offense out even further, opening up the floor even more.

Here, Heide screens Smith into another ball screen, and there will be a lot to build off here in terns of working the 4 man into threes or other offensive machinations.

WEAPONIZING HEIDE

The 4 man at Purdue — when more of a perimeter guy than TKR — has played a very important role in Purdue’s ball-screen offense, normally as the “indirect,” the player moving in the opposite direction of the ball, pulling defenders away from the action.

This makes that role an important three-point shooting opportunity, but also critical to generating and using post-entry angles.

Here’s that same clip from above. You see how Heide’s man goes with the roller as Heide bounces beyond the arc, creating a Great Lake worth of space between him and his man. It’s this kind of stretching of a defense that 4 men nowadays so often do.

Now, there are going to be times when the defense reacts differently and TKR will have his man planted in the lane and Heide will have to be to get that ball in there. Mason Gillis was excellent at this.

One of the 4 man’s other baseline jobs is to be the guy who cuts to the rim when opponents double big-to-big on a post scorer. A lot of teams double with their 4 man, so when Purdue’s is left alone, it’s their job to make themselves available at the rim for dump-downs and position themselves for offensive rebounds.

HIGH-LEVEL PG PLAY

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

This is stuff you might just be taking for granted at this point, but Smith’s ability to create and recreate angle in ball screen offense for Zach Edey has translated seamlessly to Kaufman-Renn and his pocket-passing in PnR with TKR (trademark pending) has been excellent.

MISC

• This is what we mean when we say someone needs to be an ‘opportunistic’ offensive player. Nice play by Gicarri Harris here to see an opportunity in motion and go.