Upon Further Review: Purdue's win over Samford

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’ 98-45 season-opening win over Samford.

BRADEN SMITH AS AN OFF-BALL SCORER

Braden Smith is oozing — yes, oozing, I say — confidence right now, transforming Purdue’s offense with his quick trigger and attacking mentality. But there’s another layer of value coming out beyond what he does with the ball in his hands.

It’s what he does without the ball in his hands. Smith gives it up and instantly becomes another spot-up shooter to stretch the floor. Nice play here by Zach Edey to hit the shooter out of a post double/triple/quadruple. He also had the option of Trey Kaufman-Renn making himself available at the rim.

Here, you can sort of read Smith’s mind being on looking to shoot as he initiates a PnR with Edey, gives off to Lance Jones, then pops back with his hands and feet organized and ready to shoot as soon as the defender caught between him and Jones commits to Jones.

Lastly, Purdue figures to throw the ball ahead more this season, and when that happens guess who’s trailing the play, ready to step into open threes from his sweet spot at the top of the arc. Then, what happens when a defense can close out hard on him? He’ll dribble past it.

‘THE CORNER’ AND PURDUE’S WINGS

This is going to be my stupid little granular focus all season, because I think it’s important and especially relevant to Camden Heide‘s and Myles Colvin‘s seasons: Their decision-making and effectiveness from that opposite corner off ball reversals or inside-out play.

First off, this artistic rendering of Zach Edey‘s effect on defensive court balance.

Let’s see how this plays out. Smart, however obvious, cut and nice patient finish by Heide literally seconds after he checked in for the first time.

The goal here is that when Heide or Colvin or whoever get that ball in the corner against a scrambling defense, that they make the right decision to twist the knife on that defense. That may mean shooting the open three, driving baseline to score, driving baseline to pass, or simply to keep the ball moving.

Excellent play here by Heide, in his first college game.

Colvin doesn’t make this shot but he was correct to take it.

PURDUE VS THE PRESS

Lance Jones is a big, big deal in this area, because he gives Purdue another primary-ball-handler type to run out there to space out the inbound even more.

See here how Purdue is running this play — they did at Arkansas, too — where Smith and Jones are split as far apart as can be, making it difficult for either to get trapped. The inbounder has been the 3 man — Loyer, often — making for another ball-handler and the safety valve once his man traps after the ball is passed in. The inbounder flares to the side of the trap. Here, when Smith gets trapped he gets the ball to Loyer before the trap reaches him. When a fourth Samford guy comes up for Loyer, he advances it and the Boilermakers have numbers.

Here, Heide is the inbounder. Purdue has the floor split into thirds essentially and Samford is unable to trap anyone.

More on Jones.

He gives Purdue another guy — Smith really being the only other — who can shake somebody in the open floor and accelerate past them.

Ethan Morton has been helpful here, too.

Keep in mind here that while Purdue will get pressed when milking big leads late, its body of work vs. press-oriented teams is now largely complete, with Arkansas and Samford behind it. Iowa and Penn State may do some of it, but the Big Ten really isn’t a press league.

There weren’t really any issues here. Purdue turned the ball over 15 times, but a bunch of them came in the final minutes with Purdue up a thousand. The turnovers Purdue did commit in press situations probably didn’t outnumber what woud have happened in halfcourt offense and two of them were Braden Smith getting stripped. I attribute that to this: There aren’t many defenders who can actually get under Smith, but there are schooners bigger than Dallas Graziani, so leverage kind of flipped on Smith against a really handsy defender.

When Samford had some success with it, Jones was the only ball-handler out there. If this were a game against somebody better who was gonna press, Smith and Jones would have both played 30 minutes, not 43 combined.

• Trey Kaufman-Renn quietly had a very good game, not just because he made a three and both his free throws (a big deal given his difficulties the past few months) in a three-headed platoon at the 4, but because he did a lot of little stuff.

For one thing, simply, he tried really hard, running the floor and being very active on defense, though that’s an area where he’s going to have to make the most of what he’s got from a mobility standpoint. Nevertheless, this is a hell of a sequence for No. 4. I count one blockout, three intended screens, a loose ball gathered and an assist in 33 seconds.

Purdue gave up more offensive rebounds than it would have liked, but TKR was one of those clearly aware of the need to lay a body on somebody when shots went up. You can see him surveying at times. He got five rebounds but probably helped Purdue get a few more.

Here’s another great example of the sophomore just trying hard and being aware. This seal-off makes Lance Jones‘ coast-to-coast bucket happen.

• Defensively, Purdue seems to be using Zach Edey in more switches. It has normally mostly only switched 1 through 4, but so far it’s switching Edey some, within the framework of whatever specific game-to-game specifics puts in place.

Matt Painter mentioned after the game that getting the “switch back” doesn’t always happen, meaning that proximity winds up being such that Edey can’t hand back off after the initial switch.

Here’s an example, as Samford gets the switch, then snake-dribbles to pull Edey out, then actually does a nice job Tom and Jerry’ing around Edey and hitting a bigger teammate around the basket matched up on a guard.

Does it matter? It does not. Samford actually ran Edey right into prime help-defender position.

Purdue will get got on this at times this season, but if it helps limit those initial downhill surges into the paint or slows a guard who might be able to make runners over drop coverage, it will be worth it in the long run.

• Braden Smith and Zach Edey have a terrific synergy going, it seems, and that experience with Edey and booming confidence has made Smith even sassier as a passer. Look at him buzzcut a Samford defender with this dart to Edey.

This, by the way, is Smith playing off the ball while Ethan Morton runs a pick-and-roll sort of action with Edey, during which Smith is the “indirect” as coaches call it.

Purdue’s showing a lot of different components to its ball-screen offense around Smith and Edey.

I can’t claim to know for sure whether this is play design or just Mason Gillis being smart, but this screen he sets to free Fletcher Loyer in the corner makes the play.

Notice, too, that the action initiates here with three Samford guys watching Braden Smith as Purdue sets up a ball screen with Edey, leaving Loyer in the corner signaling the kick was good. That’s the fear of Smith pulling up and shooting.

• Ethan Morton help defense appreciation post. He starts by taking Braden Smith‘s man while Smith guards the in-bounder, then Morton facilitates the switch back, then knocks his own man out of a handoff, then drops down to help against the dribble, then pops back out to deflect the kickout pass he forced.

This is picturesque, but he’ll have to be careful moving forward to no try to do too much, to not guard every player on the floor at the same time.

• Purdue seems like it’s gonna try to feature Myles Colvin at times when he’s in. Look at this wall of screens it builds for him here, the kind of thing you run for your best perimeter scorer generally. Samford sees Edey and is like, ‘Yeah, we’re good.’