A closer look back at Purdue's 96-88 50-minute win at Illinois on Monday
ZACH EDEY ON KOFI COCKBURN
Edey didn't back down from Cockburn, obviously, but he didn't dominate him physically either. That would be impossible.
What the Boilermaker center did exceptionally well in this game was figure things out on the fly. Normally defenders would buckle under the force of Edey backing them down. Cockburn did not, so Edey used his relative quickness and superior length to go around Cockburn, from the very outset.
Edey's first touch, he gave Cockburn a good three dribbles worth of push, and he didn't budge, so Edey used Cockburn's resistance against him, drop-stepped left and got the ball up on the rim gently without Cockburn having the reach to really challenge the shot.
This was some real savvy by Edey, whose bread and butter offensively is normally just dump-trucking smaller people (I.e. everyone else in college basketball) to the rim and overpowering them.
When you're 7-4 and as long as Edey is, you can start your drop step this far out.
Edey did have some success moving Cockburn, too, with his upper body, from the right side of the lane, with physical thrust that might have leveled a smaller man and tagged Edey with an offensive foul. Funny how that works. But Edey's second field goal on Cockburn was simply him little-brother'ing the biggest, baddest man in the Big Ten (at least up until yesterday). So was his third field goal, off a great entry from Ethan Morton.
At the defensive end, Edey's length did both Cockburn, forced him to change his shots a few times. As I like to say, he did to Cockburn was paper does to rock.
Here's the other component of Edey's work against Cockburn.
On Purdue's second offensive possession, his throwing his body around in the post created a seal on Cockburn and a path for Jaden Ivey to drive past Da'Monte Williams for a bucket. That dynamic has come into play a couple times the past few games, but especially significantly in this one because Cockburn is such a defensive presence at the rim.
PURDUE DEFENSE
The stretch where Illinois was scoreless for nearly seven minutes, yeah, that was more about Illinois missing shots than Purdue shutting them down, with some exceptions, but what Purdue does deserve big credit for — for the whole game — was not allowing second chances.
This was the No. 1 team nationally in offensive rebounding percentage and that was barely a factor in this game, because Purdue did the best job it has all season of blocking people out and being aware of Cockburn when the ball went up.
In fact, Illinois may have gotten a basket or two in the second half because it was so hyper-aware of Cockburn that it didn't challenge other peoples' shots the best it could. With 28.2 seconds left in regulation, Andre Curbelo makes that little turnaround to cut it to two. Edey didn't come out to challenge because he was headed straight to Cockburn for a blockout.
THE DAGGERS
Purdue dominated the second OT in large part because of the connection between Trevion Williams and Eric Hunter for those two layups, burning Illinois' face-guarding of the Boilermakers' guards.
First, this was a set play, where Mason Gillis gave Hunter a back screen around the free throw line, where Illinois couldn't have switched even if Da'Monte Williams wasn't looking the other way. Wide-open lane. Andre Curbelo didn't come over to cut off Hunter's cut.
The second one, there was no screen. Just Alfonso Plummer turned his head and Hunter went. Hunter said after the game that he tried to play possum and act like he was dogging it
Purdue executed at a really high level offensively through the back half of the second half and the overtimes. It's just that Trevion Williams missed some golden opportunities uncharacteristically, Purdue missed some free throws uncharacteristically and Andre Curbelo was a damn magician as Illinois played small ball.
MISC
• It was sort of the same both halves. In the first half, Trevion Williams got great looks against Omar Payne and just missed them, uncharacteristically. He makes them like he would most any other game, and Purdue might end up leading 20 at the half.
• Purdue just couldn't match up defensively with Illinois having three point guards on the floor most of the time, and a fourth guard, Da'Monte Williams, playing the 4. When an Ethan Morton or Brandon Newman were out there on one of those guys, Illinois had a real advantage. Obviously, Sasha Stefanovic isn't ideally suited to guard point guards. Tough deal, but the matchup advantages went both ways.
• The do-over three-pointer that Isaiah Thompson made in the first half off an offensive rebound from Trevion Williams was really big, snapping a 10-0 Illinois run right before Omar Payne's flagrant foul, but that whole sequence was made possible by Jaden Ivey using his otherworldly athleticism and acceleration to beat Illinois to a loose ball at the other end. Ivey's playing really hard and when you do that with his physical gifts, really good things tend to happen. There are a lot of hidden possessions that come from that, balls Purdue wouldn't ordinarily get.
• Purdue needs more players on defense being Mason Gillis, who is the most vocal player on the floor.
• The final play of regulation that didn't work, that's bread-and-butter stuff for Purdue, but they didn't get good contact on Trent Frazier on the down screen that's supposed to free Sasha Stefanovic at the top of the arc, either for a shot for him or a quick entry to Zach Edey.
Nothing wrong with the play call. It just didn't work. Illinois shut it down.
Purdue was in that situation after Ivey converged on the ball at the other end and lost Alfonso Plummer, who wound up with that layup.
On the end of the first OT, Matt Painter didn't call a timeout with seven seconds to go, giving Jaden Ivey sort of free rein to make a play. At the end of the day, that's a clean, rhythm look for a 43-percent three-point shooter who's made that game-winner before. I think you can live with it with that little time on the clock.
ZACH EDEY ON KOFI COCKBURN
Edey didn't back down from Cockburn, obviously, but he didn't dominate him physically either. That would be impossible.
What the Boilermaker center did exceptionally well in this game was figure things out on the fly. Normally defenders would buckle under the force of Edey backing them down. Cockburn did not, so Edey used his relative quickness and superior length to go around Cockburn, from the very outset.
Edey's first touch, he gave Cockburn a good three dribbles worth of push, and he didn't budge, so Edey used Cockburn's resistance against him, drop-stepped left and got the ball up on the rim gently without Cockburn having the reach to really challenge the shot.
This was some real savvy by Edey, whose bread and butter offensively is normally just dump-trucking smaller people (I.e. everyone else in college basketball) to the rim and overpowering them.
When you're 7-4 and as long as Edey is, you can start your drop step this far out.
Edey did have some success moving Cockburn, too, with his upper body, from the right side of the lane, with physical thrust that might have leveled a smaller man and tagged Edey with an offensive foul. Funny how that works. But Edey's second field goal on Cockburn was simply him little-brother'ing the biggest, baddest man in the Big Ten (at least up until yesterday). So was his third field goal, off a great entry from Ethan Morton.
At the defensive end, Edey's length did both Cockburn, forced him to change his shots a few times. As I like to say, he did to Cockburn was paper does to rock.
Here's the other component of Edey's work against Cockburn.
On Purdue's second offensive possession, his throwing his body around in the post created a seal on Cockburn and a path for Jaden Ivey to drive past Da'Monte Williams for a bucket. That dynamic has come into play a couple times the past few games, but especially significantly in this one because Cockburn is such a defensive presence at the rim.
PURDUE DEFENSE
The stretch where Illinois was scoreless for nearly seven minutes, yeah, that was more about Illinois missing shots than Purdue shutting them down, with some exceptions, but what Purdue does deserve big credit for — for the whole game — was not allowing second chances.
This was the No. 1 team nationally in offensive rebounding percentage and that was barely a factor in this game, because Purdue did the best job it has all season of blocking people out and being aware of Cockburn when the ball went up.
In fact, Illinois may have gotten a basket or two in the second half because it was so hyper-aware of Cockburn that it didn't challenge other peoples' shots the best it could. With 28.2 seconds left in regulation, Andre Curbelo makes that little turnaround to cut it to two. Edey didn't come out to challenge because he was headed straight to Cockburn for a blockout.
THE DAGGERS
Purdue dominated the second OT in large part because of the connection between Trevion Williams and Eric Hunter for those two layups, burning Illinois' face-guarding of the Boilermakers' guards.
First, this was a set play, where Mason Gillis gave Hunter a back screen around the free throw line, where Illinois couldn't have switched even if Da'Monte Williams wasn't looking the other way. Wide-open lane. Andre Curbelo didn't come over to cut off Hunter's cut.
The second one, there was no screen. Just Alfonso Plummer turned his head and Hunter went. Hunter said after the game that he tried to play possum and act like he was dogging it
Purdue executed at a really high level offensively through the back half of the second half and the overtimes. It's just that Trevion Williams missed some golden opportunities uncharacteristically, Purdue missed some free throws uncharacteristically and Andre Curbelo was a damn magician as Illinois played small ball.
MISC
• It was sort of the same both halves. In the first half, Trevion Williams got great looks against Omar Payne and just missed them, uncharacteristically. He makes them like he would most any other game, and Purdue might end up leading 20 at the half.
• Purdue just couldn't match up defensively with Illinois having three point guards on the floor most of the time, and a fourth guard, Da'Monte Williams, playing the 4. When an Ethan Morton or Brandon Newman were out there on one of those guys, Illinois had a real advantage. Obviously, Sasha Stefanovic isn't ideally suited to guard point guards. Tough deal, but the matchup advantages went both ways.
• The do-over three-pointer that Isaiah Thompson made in the first half off an offensive rebound from Trevion Williams was really big, snapping a 10-0 Illinois run right before Omar Payne's flagrant foul, but that whole sequence was made possible by Jaden Ivey using his otherworldly athleticism and acceleration to beat Illinois to a loose ball at the other end. Ivey's playing really hard and when you do that with his physical gifts, really good things tend to happen. There are a lot of hidden possessions that come from that, balls Purdue wouldn't ordinarily get.
• Purdue needs more players on defense being Mason Gillis, who is the most vocal player on the floor.
• The final play of regulation that didn't work, that's bread-and-butter stuff for Purdue, but they didn't get good contact on Trent Frazier on the down screen that's supposed to free Sasha Stefanovic at the top of the arc, either for a shot for him or a quick entry to Zach Edey.
Nothing wrong with the play call. It just didn't work. Illinois shut it down.
Purdue was in that situation after Ivey converged on the ball at the other end and lost Alfonso Plummer, who wound up with that layup.
On the end of the first OT, Matt Painter didn't call a timeout with seven seconds to go, giving Jaden Ivey sort of free rein to make a play. At the end of the day, that's a clean, rhythm look for a 43-percent three-point shooter who's made that game-winner before. I think you can live with it with that little time on the clock.
