A few final thoughts from Mackey Arena (uh, or something) following No. 24 Purdue's 90-57 win over the Fightin' Fairfields.
• Can't say it enough here that for a player who's going to have to carry quite a load for Purdue this season, Carsen Edwards didn't look like a burdened player. Now, is playing Fairfield at home in November the same as being down five with three minutes to play in East Lansing in February? Nope. But it was still a good start.
Edwards' efficiency is probably gonna take a hit this season. That's just natural as responsibility increases along with defensive attention. But as long as his decision-making is good, things take care of themselves, and tonight, it looked pretty good, understanding that the occasional 27-foot three just reflects the aggressiveness that makes him who he is as a player.
• Thirteen turnovers seems like an OK number, particularly with how aggressive Purdue was pushing the ball up the floor at times. It played relatively fast. I think it's fair to say Purdue needs much more from Nojel Eastern than it got tonight, but Edwards, Hunter and Ryan Cline combined for just three turnovers against 13 assists. I think Purdue probably takes that every day of the week.
And blowout turnovers swelled the number some, and Sasha Stefanovic's three stand out as an outlier.
• Purdue stands a chance to be an OK offensive rebounding team, because it has a really active frontcourt and Eastern should be a force against smaller (i.e. any) guards, but the defensive glass is probably going to require constant awareness for a team whose guards and wings are going to want to get out and run.
You saw that in how this group pushed off turnovers tonight. Its speed and athleticism can be an advantage in those situations, but over-eagerness might be a trapdoor too at times.
• Can't tell much from this game. I don't know how much Fairfield really tested Purdue from a style-of-play perspective or how much it really gave them to prepare for.
• In just 16 minutes and change, Matt Haarms got nine points, eight rebounds and three blocks, but finished the game a team-worst +2 and Boudreaux a team-best +28.
Again, plus-minus is a flawed measure but not a completely meaningless one.
That's weird.
• I've lost track of all our platforms but wanted to make sure this was said somewhere: This was a great start for Eric Hunter, who was poised and aggressive and gave the Boilermakers excellent minutes off the bench.
• Can't say it enough here that for a player who's going to have to carry quite a load for Purdue this season, Carsen Edwards didn't look like a burdened player. Now, is playing Fairfield at home in November the same as being down five with three minutes to play in East Lansing in February? Nope. But it was still a good start.
Edwards' efficiency is probably gonna take a hit this season. That's just natural as responsibility increases along with defensive attention. But as long as his decision-making is good, things take care of themselves, and tonight, it looked pretty good, understanding that the occasional 27-foot three just reflects the aggressiveness that makes him who he is as a player.
• Thirteen turnovers seems like an OK number, particularly with how aggressive Purdue was pushing the ball up the floor at times. It played relatively fast. I think it's fair to say Purdue needs much more from Nojel Eastern than it got tonight, but Edwards, Hunter and Ryan Cline combined for just three turnovers against 13 assists. I think Purdue probably takes that every day of the week.
And blowout turnovers swelled the number some, and Sasha Stefanovic's three stand out as an outlier.
• Purdue stands a chance to be an OK offensive rebounding team, because it has a really active frontcourt and Eastern should be a force against smaller (i.e. any) guards, but the defensive glass is probably going to require constant awareness for a team whose guards and wings are going to want to get out and run.
You saw that in how this group pushed off turnovers tonight. Its speed and athleticism can be an advantage in those situations, but over-eagerness might be a trapdoor too at times.
• Can't tell much from this game. I don't know how much Fairfield really tested Purdue from a style-of-play perspective or how much it really gave them to prepare for.
• In just 16 minutes and change, Matt Haarms got nine points, eight rebounds and three blocks, but finished the game a team-worst +2 and Boudreaux a team-best +28.
Again, plus-minus is a flawed measure but not a completely meaningless one.
That's weird.
• I've lost track of all our platforms but wanted to make sure this was said somewhere: This was a great start for Eric Hunter, who was poised and aggressive and gave the Boilermakers excellent minutes off the bench.
