A closer look back at Purdue's 68-65 loss at Michigan State on Saturday ...
MICHIGAN STATE'S DEFENSE
Michigan State's game plan was clear. Hell, there were no secrets. Ever since Purdue has had ultimate size surrounded by shooters, the Spartans have gone one on one in the post, challenged their bigs to fight like hell and then prioritized taking away the three and the 4 man rolling to the basket. They don't help in the post. They didn't with Matt Costello against A.J. Hammons, with Kenny Goins against Isaac Haas or with Nick Ward against Trevion Williams his freshman year and won all those games at the Breslin Center, some of them by the skin of their teeth.
This one, too.
You'll see here Trevion Williams gets the ball on the block, but the three perimeter guys are all being face-guarded and Joey Hauser occupies Caleb Furst at the rim and never leaves him. This not only makes Purdue a one-dimensional offensive team but makes Williams one-dimensional, because the threat to pass for him is such a big deal.
How did Michigan State hold Purdue to just nine three-point attempts, though?
Well, for one thing, Gabe Brown did a great job on Sasha Stefanovic, but Michigan State's awareness of him was obviously a big part of it.
Here's some bread-and-butter offensive stuff from Purdue where the Boilermakers create a crowd in the lane with their baseline screening, crossing Stefanovic and Mason Gillis — to try to get the defense mixed up and allowing Stefanovic to pop out to the wing for a clean catch. Joey Hauser's all over the switch, though.
Also, Michigan State generally kind of soft-hedged Stefanovic coming off screens into his shots, and their bigs did a decent covering both bases, showing the hedge but then recovering back to Purdue's big man.
THE OTHER SIDE OF POST SCORING
So, obviously, Purdue did damage where Michigan State left itself vulnerable, scoring the majority of its points from the post, between Zach Edey's 25 points and Trevion Williams' 11, including six big ones down the stretch.
But playing at the rim so much also hurt Purdue.
Hear me out.
Michigan State scored 19 fast-break points, and by my count eight of them came after Purdue's bigs either turned the ball over or missed at the basket. The Spartans' years-long M.O. has been to get defensive rebounds and advance the ball at breakneck pace.
Here's how the game started, with Purdue setting up a pick-and-roll with Jaden Ivey and Zach Edey off a dribble hand-off.
In the second half, during that decisive run of turnovers by Purdue, two of them occurred from guards penetrating and trying to dump off to Zach Edey, only for the passes to be turned over.
This sequence was an absolute gut punch for Purdue, an example of Jaden Ivey probably being a bit too unselfish on the attack here.
MICHIGAN STATE'S DEFENSE
Michigan State's game plan was clear. Hell, there were no secrets. Ever since Purdue has had ultimate size surrounded by shooters, the Spartans have gone one on one in the post, challenged their bigs to fight like hell and then prioritized taking away the three and the 4 man rolling to the basket. They don't help in the post. They didn't with Matt Costello against A.J. Hammons, with Kenny Goins against Isaac Haas or with Nick Ward against Trevion Williams his freshman year and won all those games at the Breslin Center, some of them by the skin of their teeth.
This one, too.
You'll see here Trevion Williams gets the ball on the block, but the three perimeter guys are all being face-guarded and Joey Hauser occupies Caleb Furst at the rim and never leaves him. This not only makes Purdue a one-dimensional offensive team but makes Williams one-dimensional, because the threat to pass for him is such a big deal.
How did Michigan State hold Purdue to just nine three-point attempts, though?
Well, for one thing, Gabe Brown did a great job on Sasha Stefanovic, but Michigan State's awareness of him was obviously a big part of it.
Here's some bread-and-butter offensive stuff from Purdue where the Boilermakers create a crowd in the lane with their baseline screening, crossing Stefanovic and Mason Gillis — to try to get the defense mixed up and allowing Stefanovic to pop out to the wing for a clean catch. Joey Hauser's all over the switch, though.
Also, Michigan State generally kind of soft-hedged Stefanovic coming off screens into his shots, and their bigs did a decent covering both bases, showing the hedge but then recovering back to Purdue's big man.
THE OTHER SIDE OF POST SCORING
So, obviously, Purdue did damage where Michigan State left itself vulnerable, scoring the majority of its points from the post, between Zach Edey's 25 points and Trevion Williams' 11, including six big ones down the stretch.
But playing at the rim so much also hurt Purdue.
Hear me out.
Michigan State scored 19 fast-break points, and by my count eight of them came after Purdue's bigs either turned the ball over or missed at the basket. The Spartans' years-long M.O. has been to get defensive rebounds and advance the ball at breakneck pace.
Here's how the game started, with Purdue setting up a pick-and-roll with Jaden Ivey and Zach Edey off a dribble hand-off.
In the second half, during that decisive run of turnovers by Purdue, two of them occurred from guards penetrating and trying to dump off to Zach Edey, only for the passes to be turned over.
This sequence was an absolute gut punch for Purdue, an example of Jaden Ivey probably being a bit too unselfish on the attack here.
