A closer look back at Purdue's 70-55 loss at No. 4 Iowa on Tuesday night ...
PURDUE'S TURNOVERS/DECISION-MAKING
• Iowa's defense didn't seem to have anything to do with Purdue's turnover just 13 seconds into the game, a botched handoff between Eric Hunter and Sasha Stefanovic, the sort of fundamental, unforced stuff the Boilermakers have had to work hard to clean up of late.
Purdue's decision-making wasn't great, either in this game.
• At 17:33 of the first, Williams worked into a post-up, and looked for Mason Gillis on that 4-man dive Purdue's been killing people with lately. He's not throwing it out of a double team, though, so Gillis is guarded, sliding to the basket between two Iowa defenders both of which are looking at the ball. The window is too tight and the ball turned over.
• With 11 minutes left in the first half, Eric Hunter rebounds a miss and tries to throw a touchdown pass to Trevion Williams running the floor, in a position where the 260-pounder may not have been able to catch and finish that play anyway. The pass is intercepted so it's a moot point.
• Not a turnover but Williams' three-pointer with 20 on the shot clock in the first half definitely wasn't the shot Purdue wanted.
• 16:20 left: Eric Hunter forces a pass into Trevion Williams under the basket that has no chance. It goes off Williams, the refs said, even though it looks like the ball hits Wieskamp right in the bread basket.
• 13:22: Sasha Stefanovic grabs a steal and gets out in transition with Aaron Wheeler running the middle of the floor and Brandon Newman trailing, but throws a behind-the-back pass that's way off and turned over. Very uncharacteristic. Instead of a potential dunk for Wheeler, Iowa goes the other way and scores. Brutal swing for Purdue.
• 4:43 left: Mason Gillis catches the ball in the corner, drives baseline, gets converged up, Connor McCaffery flops and Gillis gets called for a charge. Just not sure where that play was going.
• In a nod to analytics, I guess, Purdue has tried to keep mid-range two-point jumpers to a minimum, especially contested ones and those shot by players who don't call it a strength. In the final minutes, after Iowa had pushed it back to 12, Williams settled for like a 17-foot jumper that missed and Brandon Newman shot mid-range pull-up off the dribble.
REBOUNDING WOES
Here's a play early in the game where Purdue knocked out a Garza post-up with a double-team by Mason Gillis, forcing Garza to kick out to Connor McCaffery, the player Purdue wants shooting. He does so and misses.
Look where Garza is and look where all the black jerseys are.
Williams here doesn't get a body on Garza as he darts baseline into rebounding position, and this play winds up with an Iowa putback after Purdue did what it aimed to do defensively and got a bad shooter to miss the shot Purdue was more than happy to concede.
• Now here's this play late in the first half. When Jack Nunge misses a three, Williams has Garza consumed with a blockout, but when Joe Wieskamp beats Sasha Stefanovic to the rebound and hands off to CJ Fredrick for a three, Williams doesn't re-engage Garza, who gets the rebound and gets fouled. (Garza misses the second free throw, but Nunge breaches Zach Edey on the miss and the ball winds up going out off Purdue.)
• The biggest one: Need to walk this one back, that Mason Gillis missed the blockout on Connor McCaffery when he followed his own miss after Purdue had cut it to seven.
Gillis was blocking out Garza, the nearest man he could find, and Trevion Williams was nowhere near position to get the long rebound. Not sure this was anyone's fault, because Williams was stationed at the basket for the rebound and Gillis was taking out the biggest offensive rebounding threat on the floor. Just an unlucky bounce for Purdue and maybe a bit of a lucky finish for McCaffery through Williams.
This is the end sequence of the play, where Gillis is just lunging for the ball in vain after riding Garza out of rebounding territory.
DEFENSIVE BREAKDOWNS
Purdue didn't do a great job covering each other's backsides on D, losing Jordan Bohannon a couple times early after Eric Hunter got caught up in screening action.
Here's a play where Isaiah Thompson and Aaron Wheeler have to switch, but after Thompson switches on Jack Nunge, he then leaves him, but Wheeler in a bind. Nunge winds up with a baseline layup.
• With 4:31 left in the first half, I'm not sure who's fault this was, but Williams, Eric Hunter and Wheeler are all orbiting Garza, leaving Jordan Bohannon all alone at the top of the arc. That's Hunter's man but he and Wheeler switched earlier in the possession. Anyway, Bohannon makes the wide-open three. Pretty sure that was Wheeler's responsibility.
RANDOM
• Eric Hunter didn't play particularly well overall at Iowa, but he is doing a really nice job the past few games with his decision-making, passing and scoring in Purdue's pick-and-roll-type actions. During an important stretch in the first half, he hit Zach Edey diving for a foul, then pulled out and reversed it to Aaron Wheeler for a three-pointer. It was a continuation of the good work he did vs. ND in those settings.
• Don't know if I've seen Purdue run this play before, where Sasha Stefanovic runs CJ Fredrick off Aaron Wheeler's screen at the elbow, then loops back to the top of the arc. Fredrick falls down coming off the cut and Stefanovic gets an open three from the top that's good.
• Mason Gillis did a really good job with his main defensive responsibility in this game, to double Garza. Iowa wasn't productive at all when Gillis knocked out Garza post touches. Aaron Wheeler was late on a double in the first half and Garza pinned a foul on Williams.
This was picture-perfect, and resulted in Connor McCaffery air-balling the wide-open three. Purdue does to McCaffery what opponents used to do to Nojel Eastern, the difference being that McCaffery is willing to shoot.
• If Wheeler could just consistently give Purdue a couple of stretches per game like that three-steal-goaltend burst in the first half, Purdue would really be on to something. After that stretch, he then made a great pass to Trevion Williams for a bucket.
• Give Connor McCaffery some credit for putting some effective pressure on Purdue's 4 men as entry men.
• Brandon Newman is doing a great job on the glass, going and getting the ball. He stole two points for Purdue, too, with a backtap of an offensive rebound of Trevion Williams' missed foul shot.
• Unfortunate for Purdue that the ref just didn't get a good look at this ball that was obviously out off Garza.
PURDUE'S TURNOVERS/DECISION-MAKING
• Iowa's defense didn't seem to have anything to do with Purdue's turnover just 13 seconds into the game, a botched handoff between Eric Hunter and Sasha Stefanovic, the sort of fundamental, unforced stuff the Boilermakers have had to work hard to clean up of late.
Purdue's decision-making wasn't great, either in this game.
• At 17:33 of the first, Williams worked into a post-up, and looked for Mason Gillis on that 4-man dive Purdue's been killing people with lately. He's not throwing it out of a double team, though, so Gillis is guarded, sliding to the basket between two Iowa defenders both of which are looking at the ball. The window is too tight and the ball turned over.
• With 11 minutes left in the first half, Eric Hunter rebounds a miss and tries to throw a touchdown pass to Trevion Williams running the floor, in a position where the 260-pounder may not have been able to catch and finish that play anyway. The pass is intercepted so it's a moot point.
• Not a turnover but Williams' three-pointer with 20 on the shot clock in the first half definitely wasn't the shot Purdue wanted.
• 16:20 left: Eric Hunter forces a pass into Trevion Williams under the basket that has no chance. It goes off Williams, the refs said, even though it looks like the ball hits Wieskamp right in the bread basket.
• 13:22: Sasha Stefanovic grabs a steal and gets out in transition with Aaron Wheeler running the middle of the floor and Brandon Newman trailing, but throws a behind-the-back pass that's way off and turned over. Very uncharacteristic. Instead of a potential dunk for Wheeler, Iowa goes the other way and scores. Brutal swing for Purdue.
• 4:43 left: Mason Gillis catches the ball in the corner, drives baseline, gets converged up, Connor McCaffery flops and Gillis gets called for a charge. Just not sure where that play was going.
• In a nod to analytics, I guess, Purdue has tried to keep mid-range two-point jumpers to a minimum, especially contested ones and those shot by players who don't call it a strength. In the final minutes, after Iowa had pushed it back to 12, Williams settled for like a 17-foot jumper that missed and Brandon Newman shot mid-range pull-up off the dribble.
REBOUNDING WOES
Here's a play early in the game where Purdue knocked out a Garza post-up with a double-team by Mason Gillis, forcing Garza to kick out to Connor McCaffery, the player Purdue wants shooting. He does so and misses.
Look where Garza is and look where all the black jerseys are.
Williams here doesn't get a body on Garza as he darts baseline into rebounding position, and this play winds up with an Iowa putback after Purdue did what it aimed to do defensively and got a bad shooter to miss the shot Purdue was more than happy to concede.
• Now here's this play late in the first half. When Jack Nunge misses a three, Williams has Garza consumed with a blockout, but when Joe Wieskamp beats Sasha Stefanovic to the rebound and hands off to CJ Fredrick for a three, Williams doesn't re-engage Garza, who gets the rebound and gets fouled. (Garza misses the second free throw, but Nunge breaches Zach Edey on the miss and the ball winds up going out off Purdue.)
• The biggest one: Need to walk this one back, that Mason Gillis missed the blockout on Connor McCaffery when he followed his own miss after Purdue had cut it to seven.
Gillis was blocking out Garza, the nearest man he could find, and Trevion Williams was nowhere near position to get the long rebound. Not sure this was anyone's fault, because Williams was stationed at the basket for the rebound and Gillis was taking out the biggest offensive rebounding threat on the floor. Just an unlucky bounce for Purdue and maybe a bit of a lucky finish for McCaffery through Williams.
This is the end sequence of the play, where Gillis is just lunging for the ball in vain after riding Garza out of rebounding territory.
DEFENSIVE BREAKDOWNS
Purdue didn't do a great job covering each other's backsides on D, losing Jordan Bohannon a couple times early after Eric Hunter got caught up in screening action.
Here's a play where Isaiah Thompson and Aaron Wheeler have to switch, but after Thompson switches on Jack Nunge, he then leaves him, but Wheeler in a bind. Nunge winds up with a baseline layup.
• With 4:31 left in the first half, I'm not sure who's fault this was, but Williams, Eric Hunter and Wheeler are all orbiting Garza, leaving Jordan Bohannon all alone at the top of the arc. That's Hunter's man but he and Wheeler switched earlier in the possession. Anyway, Bohannon makes the wide-open three. Pretty sure that was Wheeler's responsibility.
RANDOM
• Eric Hunter didn't play particularly well overall at Iowa, but he is doing a really nice job the past few games with his decision-making, passing and scoring in Purdue's pick-and-roll-type actions. During an important stretch in the first half, he hit Zach Edey diving for a foul, then pulled out and reversed it to Aaron Wheeler for a three-pointer. It was a continuation of the good work he did vs. ND in those settings.
• Don't know if I've seen Purdue run this play before, where Sasha Stefanovic runs CJ Fredrick off Aaron Wheeler's screen at the elbow, then loops back to the top of the arc. Fredrick falls down coming off the cut and Stefanovic gets an open three from the top that's good.
• Mason Gillis did a really good job with his main defensive responsibility in this game, to double Garza. Iowa wasn't productive at all when Gillis knocked out Garza post touches. Aaron Wheeler was late on a double in the first half and Garza pinned a foul on Williams.
This was picture-perfect, and resulted in Connor McCaffery air-balling the wide-open three. Purdue does to McCaffery what opponents used to do to Nojel Eastern, the difference being that McCaffery is willing to shoot.
• If Wheeler could just consistently give Purdue a couple of stretches per game like that three-steal-goaltend burst in the first half, Purdue would really be on to something. After that stretch, he then made a great pass to Trevion Williams for a bucket.
• Give Connor McCaffery some credit for putting some effective pressure on Purdue's 4 men as entry men.
• Brandon Newman is doing a great job on the glass, going and getting the ball. He stole two points for Purdue, too, with a backtap of an offensive rebound of Trevion Williams' missed foul shot.
• Unfortunate for Purdue that the ref just didn't get a good look at this ball that was obviously out off Garza.
