The biggest concern and potential fatal flaw
- Thread starter IowaMuse
- Start date
NW and UT are the games where it really impacted our play. However, I don’t really put much emphasis to stats for the UT game cuz that game was just ridiculous with all the fouls and there was absolutely no flow to that game. The NW game, the 3 ball really hurt us (amongst 17 turnovers).
All the other games you reference, our actual 8-9 man rotation shot fine and closer to 35-40%. A lot of the games where we won by 20-30, the 3P% was dragged down by guys that don’t really play a whole lot and shooting it in garbage time. Iowa, we shot fine and the other games we shot fine and were out to such a huge lead, the non rotation guys had more opportunities to shoot it…also in one of the games we were up 30, one was taken by someone who never would take one in a close game…Zach 😉 . We are shooting it lots better this year—even with those garbage time misses, we are 13th in the country at 39%. Last year we were at 32% as a team.
With that said, the Nebraska game sucked, but they hit 61% from 3 (which was abnormal for them as they shoot 34% and then shot 15% the following game). But we still hit 14 3s on 39%. That’s pretty damn good and gives us a really good chance to win. That’s why I’m not too worried.
I know we’ve been through this, but the defense was not suffocating and hasn’t been all year and won’t be, but it was still decent enough to make it a difficult shot. I doubt you will, but go back and watch all the 3s they made. 10 of the 14, we had a hand In their face and made it difficult..even painter said the same thing.
You think iowas perimeter defense made them miss 22 3s?? No, it didn’t. Nebraska missed a ton of wide open 3s that were more open than what we gave them.
Having Jones helps on both ends of the court. But Loyers defense and lack of athleticism and speed may be a problem. I was at the game yesterday and it’s easier sometimes from up in the stands to see things. He struggled mightily to stay with a couple different PSU players whether guarding straight up or off the ball. Really struggled. And struggled to create his own shot as well. Like someone else said before the kryptonite for Purdue has been quick athletic guards and small forwards with some size who can exploit Purdue on both ends. Jones helps that quite a bit and yesterday I really liked Smith and Jones with Gillis or Heide rotating at the 3 and 4. They don’t create their own shot either but play much much better D and also rebound and can hit open shots when the ball is rotated or kicked out.
This lineup played together in the first half of yesterday’s game. I believe it was after the first timeout. Heide drained a 3, and like all of a sudden, after maybe 2 minutes, CMP puts Loyer back in taking out Heide. That was a strange substitution.
Epic fail to get your desired results. The officiating had zero impact on 3 pt shooting in the Tenn game. Don’t think anyone was fouled or a missed foul on a 3 pt shot. And walk-ons or Waddell had very little impact on overall average in the games I referenced. They missed 3 total in 2 games total. Your so called garbage minutes to ignore.
Don’t know who is your 8-9 man rotation that is included in your narrative, may be surprised that 3pt percentage is worse in 2-3 games. And the Xavier game may be a lot lower. TFC
There's no point in going round and round. Folks wanna believe we played well and Nebraska played God Tier they are free to do so. I don't remotely agree. Having a hand in the face after they have already released the ball isn't the same as getting into them and making them work harder for shots. And you know maybe if we'd dominated on the glass, or held down the turnovers, or had more assists, or beaten them at the foul line, and still lost because of strong outside shooting, I'd say ok, crazy shots. But we literally did none of those things. As someone else said, if they shoot 39 percent, we still lose the game by one. Same team, same plan, and almost a loss last year.
At any rate, if folks can't handle that disagreement, that's a them problem. If folks want to think that very mild suggestions that maybe we need to tweak how we do things against a certain type of opponent that we keep having trouble beating is the same as saying Fire Painter, or hating Painter, then they are free to do that too. This is the issue with sports message boards, they are just like political message boards, if you ain't fully on one side, then you are an idiot and on the other side and vice versa and there's no room for moderate discussion.
But there's no point continuing having the same discussion over and over and over again about a game that's done and over. Because no one is changing their minds, and certainly all of the various ways being called stupid or a bad fan or hating Painter that comes isn't going to do it. (Not saying you personally).
Loyer may one day become better on defense but it's probably not going to happen overnight. The issue is we really don't have anyone else that can explode on offense like he can from outside. So it is pretty hard to not play him minutes. One DOES wonder if maybe bringing him in off the bench but still giving him lots of minutes where we can put him in the most favorable matchups wouldn't help, but I dunno.
I'd really like to see what an Edey, Gillis, Heide, Jones, and Smith starting lineup would do though to be honest. Feels like a nice combination of shooting size, skill, and quickness and probably our best defensive lineup as well.
So we played a bad game on the road - it happens - see the top 25 this week.
Painter still has more confidence in Loyer, apparently. Purdue did score the next 14 points after Heide went out. I think that Heide is emerging as an important part of the rotation, but I also think that the board is a little too down on Loyer at the moment.
Also, the 4 games where Purdue did shoot under 30% were low volume games with an average of 18 attempts. In general, when Purdue has been forced to shoot a high volume of threes by the defense, Purdue has shot it very well. This bodes well for being able to maintain offensive balance.
No no apparently we suck at 3s, 13th in the country and 1st in the conf isn’t good enough.
I type enough, but we should all know that Matt is reluctant to change what is working and the two games lost can't be pinned on Fletcher. That said at this stage Fletcher has experience and Purdue is winning. I've seen a move by Cam the last two games and he is pretty good on D, but behind a bit on all the offense Fletcher can facilitate...but his stock is rising and who is to say how many minutes he will get going forward? Fletcher is really a 2 (in skill) and Cam is more of a 3 in skill with overall ball handing being a difference. As of now...Cam is solid in the rotation and has moved past Caleb for now. I like what I'm seeing. However, we have to be honest in that the opposition puts more emphasis on making it difficult for Fletcher than Cam that they know little about...and something that may be key later. Cam may grow his minutes to where he splits more with Fletcher than he has, but Fletcher is going to get most the minutes for most games...I expect especially when the game is close due to experience unless the particular game Cam has also been very good. We might very well See Cam playing against IU more if Fletcher is struggling in keeping guys out of the land, but that generally will be up to Lance and Braden if Lance can keep Galloway struggling a bit on D to advance the ball.
We also know Fletcher is not the most sturdy and that makes him more of a liability on D in the Big.
The root of many thoughts is the infatuation with athletic ability. Sometimes it seems we love it just a bit too much...and make no mistake it is very important, but basketball has an element of skill that track doesn't. Purdue is certainly not near the top of the NCAA due to athleticism. There are quite a few games to go and there are a lot of opportunities available
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I won’t be surprised if Heide splits time between the 3 and 4 positions next year after Gillis moves on.
He is going to get a lot more minutes and could split on skill. I just don't have a good idea how the minutes will shake out until I see some newcomers. Kanon brings a LOT of length, skill and athletic ability. His ceiling is very high. I don't know how the physical Big will be for him, But he can handle the ball on the perimeter, score on the perimeter and get to the bucket and at 6'8" quite a unicorn for skill, size and athletic ability and play a 2 through 4 right now on O and defend a 2 or 3 I think. He may come in a bit stronger that I last saw him and would expect so. Right now Cam is closer to a 2 than Myles with his quickness and ball handling IMO and Myles is not ready physically for defending a 4 and so I can see Cam being in the lead for a 3 at this time. I'm always one that thinks players can improve if important enough to them. But yeah...very reasonable to believe Cam could split the 3 and 4 some.
Next year, Purdue moves a bit more perimeter oriented, puts more quickness on the court and takes a bit of a lean to more dribble drive offense IMO. This freedom will unleash some skills of Braden's still harnessed a bit. He is pretty good and so I'm unsure how big of a step he takes, but his role will be a lot different without Zach...or should I say the team has a bit less power and a bit more quickness. Don't expect a press, but there might be more perimeter D with a bit of pressure...with possibly more help just a bit closer since recovery should be quicker.
