Takeaways—Purdue’s Elite Eight Loss to Arizona

SAN JOSE — Purdue’s season ends a game shy of the Final Four, as Arizona dominated the second half Saturday en route to a 79-64 Elite Eight win.

Our GoldandBlack.com post-game analysis from the loss …

PDF: Purdue-Arizona statistics

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THE END OF AN ERA

Purdue’s program is not going to fall off a cliff or anything like that, but it is going to be a really foreign feeling for everyone around the program this summer without Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn around. Their legacy is unimpeachable as one of the great senior classes in the history of Purdue’s storied basketball program.

This regular season did not necessarily go as planned, and Saturday night was not the outcome Purdue wanted, but these guys’ body of work in West Lafayette has been extraordinary: two Big Ten regular-season championships, two Big Ten Tournament championships, two Elite Eights, a Final Four and a Sweet 16 to boot.

It is really hard to win in college basketball, and it is really hard to do it consistently. These guys have been a huge part of Purdue doing that at a really high level over the past half-decade or so and were integral parts of the program’s modern-era zenith.

Individually, their record-breaking careers are immortal. It does not need to be revisited right now, all the records these guys have broken, but that is part of their legacy too. By simply having come through the program, they have elevated it to an even higher level.

Because of Braden Smith, Purdue is a point guard school now. Because of Fletcher Loyer, Purdue remains a program where any great shooter will feel right at home. And because of Trey Kaufman-Renn, the best job in college basketball — Purdue frontcourt scorer — remains alive and kicking.

All of these elements matter for Purdue’s future. Next season will not be a rebuild so much as a reload. But you never know in these situations. Culture has to live on, and if those in the locker room who are coming back next season were paying attention to these four seniors, it will.

ON RESPONSE

When the regular season ended, the story of Purdue’s season was that it had been a disappointment.

An immense credit to the players and coaches is that the story now is that Purdue fought like hell.

Whatever it was that held the Boilermakers back from being consistent and winning in the Big Ten the way it was reasonably expected them to, it turned on a dime before Purdue went to the Big Ten Tournament, and it carried over into the NCAA Tournament.

Arizona was just too much, but that does not mean Purdue didn’t fight like hell and turn this into a successful season in the face of disappointment.

EVERYTHING MATTERS

Purdue lost this game, in part, in February.

Its turbulent regular season was not struck from the record by its postseason turnaround, and getting shipped out west after playing itself back into a No. 2 seed — only to face Arizona in a de facto home-court environment — was the price of that inconsistency.

Normally, you would not run into a team like Arizona as a No. 2 seed until the Final Four, certainly not in a regional final in your opponent’s home region.

The irony here, if we are using the word correctly, is that had Purdue not beaten Michigan in the Big Ten Tournament, it might have remained a No. 3 seed and drawn Illinois’ path.

Illinois beat Houston — no small feat — but then had to beat Iowa to reach the Final Four, whereas Purdue had to play Arizona in front of tens of thousands of Wildcats fans, on West Coast time no less.

It is funny how things work out.

SURVIVAL MODE

Purdue showed real survival instinct in this NCAA Tournament, and that speaks to the “fighting like hell” element of its postseason story.

Multiple times between the conference and national tournaments, Purdue had to simply hang in there with less-than-optimal lineups, particularly in the frontcourt.

Saturday in San Jose, things Purdue simply could not afford to have happen, did. It wound up playing arguably the best team in the country with absolutely unconventional lineups on the floor. There was no choice.

The only world in which playing Oscar Cluff and Daniel Jacobsen together makes sense is the world where you just need to have five bodies on the floor, and two of them have to be tall.

Purdue somehow managing a seven-point lead at halftime was a bit of a magic trick — but never sustainable.

Give Braden Smith credit for putting his team on his back for portions of that first half, and give reserves Jacobsen, Gicarri Harris and Omer Mayer immense credit for meeting the moment under difficult circumstances.

OSCAR CLUFF’S HEROICS

You might remember that it was just a couple of weeks ago that Matt Painter was saying he really could not play Oscar Cluff more than four or five minutes at a time, after Cluff looked completely worn out in losses to Michigan State and Ohio State. There is good reason for that. Big men generally are not the highest-endurance types, and Cluff plays really hard. Add in the fact he did not have a normal summer from a conditioning perspective, and it was bound to catch up with him at some point over the course of a long and physical Big Ten season. It looked like it had.

But on Saturday, against an enormous, super-athletic and super-talented front line, Cluff played 39 minutes and 18 seconds — an extraordinary feat for the big man when his team needed him most.

And he played well.

To repeat: things happened that Purdue absolutely could not afford to have happen. Trey Kaufman-Renn’s foul trouble was a nightmare realized. This was not a game Jack Benter could play as a power forward, thus the two 7-footers playing next to one another — completely illogically, but out of desperation.

You cannot beat teams like Arizona without your best lineups and your best players.

Purdue barely even got the chance to find out what its best team was capable of on this night.

After halftime, Purdue didn’t fade or choke or whatever. The game simply normalized.

Arizona’s dominant rebounding, physicality and athleticism took over. As they say, the Wildcats simply imposed their will, and Purdue did not have enough of its assets available to change the way the game was being played or even respond.

Fouls decided the game, but that does not mean Arizona was not better than Purdue.

Some things went against the Boilermakers from an officiating perspective, but at the same time it is not the refs’ fault that Purdue could not contain the dribble. What happened in the second half is simply what Arizona does, and the reason it is now 36–2 and headed to the Final Four.

Again, running into a team like Arizona before the Final Four is the difference between being the No. 1 seed Purdue wanted to be and the No. 2 seed it ended up having to play itself into at the last second.