After each Purdue basketball game, we'll take a detailed look back at the game and some of its nuance in our Upon Further Review pieces.
Today, Purdue's 86-64 exhibition win over the University of Indianapolis.
DEFENSIVE CONCERNS
Detailing some breakdowns, not to pick on guys, but just to underscore where improvement can lie.
• On the very first possession of the game, Jaden Ivey jumps out to this Cory Miller fellow effectively, but he's caught flat-footed and upright and that allows Miller to drive against the closeout and make a tough runner in the lane. Just relatively minor technique stuff there.
• Part of Caleb Furst's adjustment to playing the 4 full time is going to be being ahead of things mentally and being positioned to get out to shooters as fast as possible while also maintaining his responsibilities as a help-side post defender and rebounder. This is just something where good offense is almost always going to beat good-enough defense, but Indy did get some threes off both Furst and Trey Kaufman-Renn at the 4. This is where Purdue is supposed to struggle, though, because both those guys are A) young and B) making not-insignificant shifts as players from high school.
Here's a situation where Furst — or whoever the 4 would be — is in that tough spot between helping on the interior and getting to the perimeter. That requires players to be in two places at once mentally and has to be a real challenge for a young guy.
Indy had Robinson bring the ball into halfcourt offense some on Furst, maybe to protect its guards from Purdue's pressure of maybe to try to drive on Furst, I don't know, but they got nothing off it.
(Guys, hey, Caleb Furst is going to be really good.)
• 16:26: Jaden Ivey overplays a passing lane, either playing for a steal or just overzealously challenging the pass, and Purdue's entire defense breaks down behind him, forcing Isaiah Thompson to collapse to the ball in help, freeing his man for an easy catch-and-shoot three.
This is precisely what Matt Painter means when he talks about players just needing to be solid on defense.
Later, Ivey again jumped a lane looking for a pick-six. When the ball was moved after the miss, Indy stepped out of bounds on the catch. A better team would have had a wide-open three there.
• 9:41: I have no idea what happened here, but U-Indy big Kendrick Tchoua has the ball in the post one-on-one vs. Zach Edey. Purdue generally doubles from the 4 on post touches, but has different rules for different situations, so I don't know if Trey Kaufman-Renn was supposed to come down or not. But meanwhile, Jaden Ivey is Purdue's weak-side help here, and that's the position that is stationed around the lane for a reason, to help at the basket when need be or to provide an extra body off the dribble. In this case, Ivey doesn't help and Tchoua is able to step through Edey and score on a reverse.
• With 2:50 left in the first, it looks to me like maybe Brandon Newman goes a little too wide chasing Cory Miller through a screen, requiring Trevion Williams to come up to cut off the ball and getting Purdue into defensive rotations. It results in Aaron Etherington's straight-line drive to the basket against a scrambling defense.
Next time down, Indy runs the same play and the exact same thing happens. This time they get an easy corner three off it from Williams' guy. Williams having to help pulled him way out of position to be able to recover to the far corner.
• The last few minutes of the first half, Trey Kaufman-Renn had a hard time with, again, some of the situations that will represent an adjustment for him. First, Sean Peeters got the baseline on him and threw a skip pass to the opposite corner with Purdue scrambling in help after the initial breach. It wound up with a driving bucket for Aaron Etherington, who followed that up with two threes over Kaufman-Renn. These guys are not used to having to close out hard on shooters. They're going to have to now that they're going to be guarding them at times.
• 17:25 of the second half, Indy gets Sasha Stefanovic iso'd at the top with the shot clock dwindling and drives on him. Ethan Morton collapses in to help, as he's supposed to, but he doesn't get the ball stopped before jumping back out to his man at the three-point arc and Stefanovic winds up fouling. Probably nit-picking here, but Morton did the right thing, but didn't seem to carry it all the way through. I'd be interested to know how the coaches evaluated that.
• 11:05 of the second, just a situation where Newman doesn't keep the ball contained on the perimeter, and the ensuing scramble leads to another drive-and-kick three. Kind of looked like Newman was bracing to side step a screen that never really came.
• 3:46 left to play. Newman lets Cory Miller get into the lane for a bucket, but it looks like a missed switch between him and Kaufman-Renn.
GOOD STUFF
• At 18:15 of the first half, Furst got iso'd on the wing by Jakobie Robinson, who drove the ball on the freshman. But Furst did a great job moving his feet and choking off Robinson's path to the lane, forcing him to spin toward the baseline and ultimately give the ball up. Furst capped that defensive possession with the rebound.
• When Purdue forced a shot-clock violation right after going to its bench in the first half, Furst's switch on the perimeter was textbook and maybe the one thing that made that turnover happened after Eric Hunter knocked out Indy's initial probing for driving lanes.
• Isaiah Thompson and Hunter were very, very good on the ball, I thought. Very good.
Morton seemed to do most everything right. I think guarding away from the ball is a much better situation for him, because I think his knowledge can be put to better use there and his height and length, as well.
• Whatever issues Ivey may have had on D in the first half, he had zero that I'm skilled enough to identify thereafter.
OFFENSIVE WRINKLES
• The Jaden Ivey factor: At 16:05 of the first, Purdue runs Ivey through a Caleb Furst screen and Furst pops to the wing as both U-Indy defenders stick to Ivey. This is either a huge breakdown on Indy's part or the classic Carsen Edwards treatment off the ball screen. Ivey makes the right play by throwing back to Furst for the open three. This is the sort of attention that Ivey has a chance to really weaponize this season, and honestly in a way that Edwards didn't often do.
• When Trevion Williams and Furst were on the floor together, Purdue actively looked for Furst on post-ups, with Williams as the entry man, operating offensive through Williams at the elbow or foul line, as it's so often done.
Therein will lie one of the advantages of playing big at the 4.
The results of Furst's post-up touches.
1. Fouled (made both)
2. Bucket.
PLAYS TO HIGHLIGHT
• At 7:15 of the first half, Ivey catches the ball off an inbound, takes one hard dribble as if to attack, drawing Isaiah Thompson's defender into help, and then makes the easiest pass known to man to Thompson for a wide-open corner three.
This is the simplest play there is, but the sort of thing that can take Ivey from being a great scorer to being a great offensive player. He will command this sort of attention all season and will have opportunities to scorch defenses with his decision-making.
I thought his decision-making was very good in this game. He took the right shots, made the right passes and just played well on offense.
MISC:
• For the final few minutes of the game, Purdue had Furst and Kaufman-Renn on the floor together. I'm 99 percent sure Furst was the center.
Today, Purdue's 86-64 exhibition win over the University of Indianapolis.
DEFENSIVE CONCERNS
Detailing some breakdowns, not to pick on guys, but just to underscore where improvement can lie.
• On the very first possession of the game, Jaden Ivey jumps out to this Cory Miller fellow effectively, but he's caught flat-footed and upright and that allows Miller to drive against the closeout and make a tough runner in the lane. Just relatively minor technique stuff there.
• Part of Caleb Furst's adjustment to playing the 4 full time is going to be being ahead of things mentally and being positioned to get out to shooters as fast as possible while also maintaining his responsibilities as a help-side post defender and rebounder. This is just something where good offense is almost always going to beat good-enough defense, but Indy did get some threes off both Furst and Trey Kaufman-Renn at the 4. This is where Purdue is supposed to struggle, though, because both those guys are A) young and B) making not-insignificant shifts as players from high school.
Here's a situation where Furst — or whoever the 4 would be — is in that tough spot between helping on the interior and getting to the perimeter. That requires players to be in two places at once mentally and has to be a real challenge for a young guy.
Indy had Robinson bring the ball into halfcourt offense some on Furst, maybe to protect its guards from Purdue's pressure of maybe to try to drive on Furst, I don't know, but they got nothing off it.
(Guys, hey, Caleb Furst is going to be really good.)
• 16:26: Jaden Ivey overplays a passing lane, either playing for a steal or just overzealously challenging the pass, and Purdue's entire defense breaks down behind him, forcing Isaiah Thompson to collapse to the ball in help, freeing his man for an easy catch-and-shoot three.
This is precisely what Matt Painter means when he talks about players just needing to be solid on defense.
Later, Ivey again jumped a lane looking for a pick-six. When the ball was moved after the miss, Indy stepped out of bounds on the catch. A better team would have had a wide-open three there.
• 9:41: I have no idea what happened here, but U-Indy big Kendrick Tchoua has the ball in the post one-on-one vs. Zach Edey. Purdue generally doubles from the 4 on post touches, but has different rules for different situations, so I don't know if Trey Kaufman-Renn was supposed to come down or not. But meanwhile, Jaden Ivey is Purdue's weak-side help here, and that's the position that is stationed around the lane for a reason, to help at the basket when need be or to provide an extra body off the dribble. In this case, Ivey doesn't help and Tchoua is able to step through Edey and score on a reverse.
• With 2:50 left in the first, it looks to me like maybe Brandon Newman goes a little too wide chasing Cory Miller through a screen, requiring Trevion Williams to come up to cut off the ball and getting Purdue into defensive rotations. It results in Aaron Etherington's straight-line drive to the basket against a scrambling defense.
Next time down, Indy runs the same play and the exact same thing happens. This time they get an easy corner three off it from Williams' guy. Williams having to help pulled him way out of position to be able to recover to the far corner.
• The last few minutes of the first half, Trey Kaufman-Renn had a hard time with, again, some of the situations that will represent an adjustment for him. First, Sean Peeters got the baseline on him and threw a skip pass to the opposite corner with Purdue scrambling in help after the initial breach. It wound up with a driving bucket for Aaron Etherington, who followed that up with two threes over Kaufman-Renn. These guys are not used to having to close out hard on shooters. They're going to have to now that they're going to be guarding them at times.
• 17:25 of the second half, Indy gets Sasha Stefanovic iso'd at the top with the shot clock dwindling and drives on him. Ethan Morton collapses in to help, as he's supposed to, but he doesn't get the ball stopped before jumping back out to his man at the three-point arc and Stefanovic winds up fouling. Probably nit-picking here, but Morton did the right thing, but didn't seem to carry it all the way through. I'd be interested to know how the coaches evaluated that.
• 11:05 of the second, just a situation where Newman doesn't keep the ball contained on the perimeter, and the ensuing scramble leads to another drive-and-kick three. Kind of looked like Newman was bracing to side step a screen that never really came.
• 3:46 left to play. Newman lets Cory Miller get into the lane for a bucket, but it looks like a missed switch between him and Kaufman-Renn.
GOOD STUFF
• At 18:15 of the first half, Furst got iso'd on the wing by Jakobie Robinson, who drove the ball on the freshman. But Furst did a great job moving his feet and choking off Robinson's path to the lane, forcing him to spin toward the baseline and ultimately give the ball up. Furst capped that defensive possession with the rebound.
• When Purdue forced a shot-clock violation right after going to its bench in the first half, Furst's switch on the perimeter was textbook and maybe the one thing that made that turnover happened after Eric Hunter knocked out Indy's initial probing for driving lanes.
• Isaiah Thompson and Hunter were very, very good on the ball, I thought. Very good.
Morton seemed to do most everything right. I think guarding away from the ball is a much better situation for him, because I think his knowledge can be put to better use there and his height and length, as well.
• Whatever issues Ivey may have had on D in the first half, he had zero that I'm skilled enough to identify thereafter.
OFFENSIVE WRINKLES
• The Jaden Ivey factor: At 16:05 of the first, Purdue runs Ivey through a Caleb Furst screen and Furst pops to the wing as both U-Indy defenders stick to Ivey. This is either a huge breakdown on Indy's part or the classic Carsen Edwards treatment off the ball screen. Ivey makes the right play by throwing back to Furst for the open three. This is the sort of attention that Ivey has a chance to really weaponize this season, and honestly in a way that Edwards didn't often do.
• When Trevion Williams and Furst were on the floor together, Purdue actively looked for Furst on post-ups, with Williams as the entry man, operating offensive through Williams at the elbow or foul line, as it's so often done.
Therein will lie one of the advantages of playing big at the 4.
The results of Furst's post-up touches.
1. Fouled (made both)
2. Bucket.
PLAYS TO HIGHLIGHT
• At 7:15 of the first half, Ivey catches the ball off an inbound, takes one hard dribble as if to attack, drawing Isaiah Thompson's defender into help, and then makes the easiest pass known to man to Thompson for a wide-open corner three.
This is the simplest play there is, but the sort of thing that can take Ivey from being a great scorer to being a great offensive player. He will command this sort of attention all season and will have opportunities to scorch defenses with his decision-making.
I thought his decision-making was very good in this game. He took the right shots, made the right passes and just played well on offense.
MISC:
• For the final few minutes of the game, Purdue had Furst and Kaufman-Renn on the floor together. I'm 99 percent sure Furst was the center.
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