Couple final musings from Purdue's 73-63 win over Minnesota ...
• Notable: Purdue executed great offense and made great plays in the final few minutes of this game, against a high-pressure-minded team in desperation mode. That was one of the most impressive parts of this game.
Nojel Eastern's find of Grady Eifert for that three and Eifert's find of Matt Haarms for that and-one down the stretch were examples yet again of plays Purdue might not make, or at least finish, at the start of this season.
• Grady Eifert has made a hell of a lot of winning plays in winning moments this season, and that's what you want from your veterans, even if they're low-usage role guys, but it's even more notable and impressive when they're low-usage role guys.
Between he and Ryan Cline's timely shooting and just as timely passing, the senior class came up big in this one.
• I thought Purdue did a good job keeping Minnesota off the foul line when the Gophers were up double-figures and had gotten into the bonus very quickly. Minnesota did miss two one-and-ones, but that was a situation where Penn State could have happened all over again and Purdue didn't let it, doing a nice job defending without fouling.
• Give Minnesota some credit for doing a decent job against Purdue's post doubles. I think they got two dunks off them.
Purdue was mostly OK on defense today, except for transition defense and of course the offense it gave Minnesota off turnovers.
• Trevion Williams and Daniel Oturu are gonna have some great battles in the years to come. They might both be great players.
• Matt Haarms has to be Sixth Man of the Year in the Big Ten right now, no?
He's the consummate sixth starter for Purdue, but it has been hugely impactful whatever it is the move out of the starting lineup has brought out of him.
He's been great, and he'd been great before he was great in this particular game. It's just that this game was the peak of him being great as a reserve.
Purdue has another situation where it has two very good big men playing very well in tandem, not all that unlike the AJ Hammons-Isaac Haas combination and the Haas-Caleb Swanigan combination that followed. Probably not quite to that level in terms of productivity, but trending upward in terms of impact.
• While it was fun and worked in this game, I'd be surprised if you saw much more of Williams and Haarms playing together this season. Purdue puts a significant premium on offensive execution, and it's certainly paid off this season. Moving a guy to an unfamiliar position to run plays he's never practiced at that position, along with spacing considerations and whatever else, it just doesn't seem like something Purdue would turn to proactively. Maybe in situations like today, but don't think that Purdue's gonna come out at the first media timeout next time out with Haarms and Williams out there.
• Betcha that inbound lob play — yes, the BLOB lob — gets Carsen Edwards a wide-open three at some point. Edwards has done a nice job on the back screen on the other team's 5 that makes that play work, and now that it's worked a couple times, maybe defenses can become hyper-aware, overcompensate and let the screener pop out for a jumper. It's a long haul out to the arc, so the logistics might be an issue, but maybe Purdue can look to play off the play's recent success.
• Notable: Purdue executed great offense and made great plays in the final few minutes of this game, against a high-pressure-minded team in desperation mode. That was one of the most impressive parts of this game.
Nojel Eastern's find of Grady Eifert for that three and Eifert's find of Matt Haarms for that and-one down the stretch were examples yet again of plays Purdue might not make, or at least finish, at the start of this season.
• Grady Eifert has made a hell of a lot of winning plays in winning moments this season, and that's what you want from your veterans, even if they're low-usage role guys, but it's even more notable and impressive when they're low-usage role guys.
Between he and Ryan Cline's timely shooting and just as timely passing, the senior class came up big in this one.
• I thought Purdue did a good job keeping Minnesota off the foul line when the Gophers were up double-figures and had gotten into the bonus very quickly. Minnesota did miss two one-and-ones, but that was a situation where Penn State could have happened all over again and Purdue didn't let it, doing a nice job defending without fouling.
• Give Minnesota some credit for doing a decent job against Purdue's post doubles. I think they got two dunks off them.
Purdue was mostly OK on defense today, except for transition defense and of course the offense it gave Minnesota off turnovers.
• Trevion Williams and Daniel Oturu are gonna have some great battles in the years to come. They might both be great players.
• Matt Haarms has to be Sixth Man of the Year in the Big Ten right now, no?
He's the consummate sixth starter for Purdue, but it has been hugely impactful whatever it is the move out of the starting lineup has brought out of him.
He's been great, and he'd been great before he was great in this particular game. It's just that this game was the peak of him being great as a reserve.
Purdue has another situation where it has two very good big men playing very well in tandem, not all that unlike the AJ Hammons-Isaac Haas combination and the Haas-Caleb Swanigan combination that followed. Probably not quite to that level in terms of productivity, but trending upward in terms of impact.
• While it was fun and worked in this game, I'd be surprised if you saw much more of Williams and Haarms playing together this season. Purdue puts a significant premium on offensive execution, and it's certainly paid off this season. Moving a guy to an unfamiliar position to run plays he's never practiced at that position, along with spacing considerations and whatever else, it just doesn't seem like something Purdue would turn to proactively. Maybe in situations like today, but don't think that Purdue's gonna come out at the first media timeout next time out with Haarms and Williams out there.
• Betcha that inbound lob play — yes, the BLOB lob — gets Carsen Edwards a wide-open three at some point. Edwards has done a nice job on the back screen on the other team's 5 that makes that play work, and now that it's worked a couple times, maybe defenses can become hyper-aware, overcompensate and let the screener pop out for a jumper. It's a long haul out to the arc, so the logistics might be an issue, but maybe Purdue can look to play off the play's recent success.
