Takeaways—Purdue’s win over Texas

SAN JOSE — Purdue’s one win from another Final Four, thanks to its thrilling 79-77 Sweet 16 win Thursday over Texas in San Jose.

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

PDF: Purdue-Texas statistics

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ON PURE SURVIVAL FROM PURDUE

Purdue’s been through all this before, but that doesn’t mean this wasn’t a really, really strong indicator of veteran will.

Consider all the stuff Purdue overcame to win this game.

• Texas shot out of its mind, as Tramon Mark turned into Kevin Durant and a guy with a broken foot made four threes.

The Longhorns made 11-of-25 three-pointers. When Purdue dared big man Nic Codie to shoot one, he made his second three-pointer of the season.

That’s the sort of weird, outlier stuff that can happen in this tournament and get you beat.

• Texas tried to make this game ugly by making it really physical and really grabby. It almost worked. This game was surprisingly chippy for two teams with little history and no apparent bad blood.

The Longhorns were grabbing jerseys and pushing in the back, and handsy big man Matas Vokietaitis probably committed about a dozen fouls and was only called for four. Meanwhile, a review of his elbow to CJ Cox’s face resulted in a personal foul being added to Oscar Cluff’s column, which ultimately led to Cluff fouling out late, though that worked out OK for Purdue. Trey Kaufman-Renn was called for an odd flagrant foul wrestling with former teammate Camden Heide.

• Purdue shot like hell. No one other than Fletcher Loyer made a three, and Purdue was getting good looks all day. Everyone else was 0-for-12, highly uncommon for the nation’s most efficient offense.

That’s a whole bunch of currents working against Purdue that it overcame.

In February, it would not have.

Purdue is so old and experienced together that it shouldn’t be growing into things anymore, but this win did represent some measure of growth.

THE RANDOMNESS OF THREES

The three-pointer is a really fickle little gremlin, basketball’s great equalizer that can single-handedly win you games and single-handedly get you beat.

In this obnoxiously randomized championship event, flukes happen, and seasons and careers hang in the balance.

For Purdue, being able to win games when it doesn’t make three-pointers at its normal clip has been an ongoing pursuit. Tonight was that night.

That it overcame the double whammy of not shooting well itself and the opponent shooting over its head speaks volumes about the quality of this win.

Braden Smith isn’t making threes right now, for whatever reason. CJ Cox uncharacteristically missed all his triples, perhaps due to his knee issue—for all we know—though he did make some pull-up jumpers. Omer Meyer missed some good looks from three as well. The shooting infrastructure on this team has been outstanding all year long, especially in the postseason, so you have to figure things will swing back. But winning nonetheless has to be a little extra satisfying.

One of this team’s toxic traits, its trappings, has always been trying to outscore people and not being able to win with defense and other such things. But Purdue showed some real grit in surviving this one, despite its offense not functioning at its highest level.

A WELL-EXECUTED GAME-WINNER

Kudos to Braden Smith and Purdue’s entire offensive operation for running that game-winning set to perfection. Sure, Smith didn’t make the shot, but he took it with enough time left for something to happen—and it did. Had he gone a little quicker, the clock would have run out on him.

The most important part of that play was simply Smith getting the ball up on the rim. Those short, running shots are among the most reboundable misses in basketball, and with the matchup Purdue had, it was a real advantage. If you think this was all just a happy accident, it was not.

CREDIT TO CJ COX

Not only did CJ Cox play on his hyperextended knee after waking up yesterday morning not knowing if he’d be able to, but he started the game and came out making mid-range jumpers to really buoy Purdue offensively early. But that’s only half the story.

Cox grabbed eight rebounds.

And he made two critical free throws late in the game, in a very similar situation to the one where he missed two at Nebraska many weeks ago.

THE SEASON IS A SUCCESS

Up until the postseason, this was obviously a pretty unfulfilling season for Purdue after it was ranked No. 1 in the preseason, with players and coaches openly talking about national championships. But while there is still basketball to be played, it is time to take the word “disappointment” off the table.

Getting to the Elite Eight is a big, big deal and a really hard thing to do, and factoring in Purdue winning a Big Ten Tournament title, that is a hell of a lot to show for a season that looked on the rocks late in the regular season.

By any standard, Purdue has had a really good season, and now, even by the lofty standards it was held to all year long, it has had a successful season.

ON TREY KAUFMAN-RENN

Effort is rewarded. Productivity tends to find energy.

And Kaufman-Renn’s One Shining Moment on Thursday was absolutely the product of his unrelenting effort and physicality.

It was also a nice punctuation of the ongoing theme for Purdue of playing big versus playing small, because Oscar Cluff fouling out compelled Sean Miller to take his seven-footer off the floor, and that allowed Kaufman-Renn to have a stretch 4 trying to block him out on that final play.

Size and physicality there won out.