Upon Further Review: Exploiting size, defensive activity and more from Purdue's win over High Point

PROVIDENCE — 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 Boilermakers’ 75-63 win over High Point Thursday in the NCAA Tournament.

PDF: Purdue-High Point stats

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(Video clips via CBS)

This is going to be pretty light because sometimes things really are as simple as one team blowing the other’s doors off.

ATTACKING SIZE

Again, as foreign as this may be, Purdue has often been the smaller team in games this season and thus has had to break out opponents’ old Zach Edey playbook to use itself.

In attacking towering High Point center Juslin Bodo Bodo, Purdue did just that.

First off, the Panthers’ plan was to put Bodo on Purdue 4 man Caleb Furst, but not really guard him, so that the shot-blocker could just sit in the lane.

Riding Camden Heide most of the game made High Point’s one-man zone untenable.

It’s funny that they call it “drop” defense, but “drop” is an action. This was “stand there” coverage High Point had Bodo playing.

He is simply not going to move forward. Or move at all.

Braden Smith loves this kind of defense.

Juslin was a piñata in ball-screen defense. He is simply physically incapable of covering the short roll stuff.

Over and over again, Smith turned Juslin around so he wasn’t even facing TKR.

Here, High Point switches up and doubles the ball out Smith’s hands before Purdue can even get into its middle ball screen. Everyone here responds perfectly. Great play by Myles Colvin.

Last thing: Purdue is having so much success with this action, popping TKR out when he’s being guarded by a bigger, slower guy, bringing the defender out at an angle Kaufman-Renn can weaponize with his quickness.

FORCING AND HOLDING SWITCHES

So Purdue knew coming in that High Point uses the same “veer” concepts defensively that Purdue used with Zach Edey, meaning that a big man playing drop coverage switches on the ball once it hits the foul line.

Smith dominated it.

Exact same action to end the half. This is a pass.

You remember this play, but do you remember how it started?

This is just perfect offense against this defensive tactic.

PURDUE DEFENSE

This was as close to January Purdue as you’ve seen lately.

Purdue is a step ahead of everything here, part of the reason High Point clearly got chased out of wanting to play halfcourt offense, as shown by it trying to play super-fast and jacking up a number of quick threes in secondary transition.

Purdue was really active, really disruptive, really quick to its spots and really connected. Its switches — 1 through 5, it looked like — were clean and effective. It swarmed to the ball when appropriate and Braden Smith looked like he did during the front end of the Big Ten schedule, when there weren’t many players out there as impactful on defense as him.

The bigs did a great job staying in front of the ball.

Will Berg …

Everybody was fine on D, but I do want to highlight Caleb Furst, who only played a fe minutes because Purdue needed Heide on the floor on offense.

Furst was elite defensively, effectively switching onto guards and keeping them contained and really closing out well.

By himself, Furst caused three travels.

MISC