A closer look back at No. 6 Purdue's 83-73 win at Iowa on Thursday night ...
PURDUE VS. THE TRAP
So here's the final tally I came up with, possession by possession.
Defining a backcourt trap as any time multiple defenders came at a ball-handler behind the timeline, Iowa trapped on 26 possessions. They stunted on a few and backed off. I'm not counting.
Iowa did a bunch of different things, in terms of when and where the traps came — and sometimes showing it then backing off — and Purdue was ready for all of it.
On those 26 possessions ...
• Purdue committed three turnovers, none of which led directly to points.
• Purdue scored 16 points off numbers advantages. That's a subjective tally that includes a three Purdue made after an offensive rebound of its first shot, counting because Iowa was still scrambling.
Now, I do want to point something else out.
The validity of two of those three turnovers could be debated.
First, I thought Isaiah Thompson was fouled before losing the ball out of bounds. He was definitely bumped to an extent you'd often see called.
Later, on the 10-second call that wound up on Mason Gillis, that was a quick 10 count, and if the TV's shot clock module was accurate, totally bogus.
Nevertheless, Purdue crushed the pressure.
Isaiah Thompson's three with 10:37 left actually chased Iowa out of it — they stopped doing it — before time and score later told the Hawkeyes they had no other choice but to resume.
What did Purdue do so well this time around? Pretty much everything.
They did a near flawless job provided backcourt outlets unlike the last game against Iowa. They did a good job advancing to the wings when the pass was there and not making predetermined decisions at times when Iowa stunted off the wings then dropped back on them.
They spaced out well.
Ethan Morton helped close the game out at the 4, as an extra ball-handler in the middle of the floor, but the guy who deserves special mention here is Caleb Furst, who did everything right in that same role during a really critical portion of the second half.
Purdue attacked when it generated advantages, and burned Iowa for laying off the wrong people.
Here's a first half possession where Iowa came off Sasha Stefanovic and Caleb Furst kept a cool head about him after the ball was advanced and got the ball to the glaring pressure point.
Furst was excellent in this game. The defensive end posed some challenges, but that's the nature of Iowa as much as anything.
PURDUE DEFENSE
Purdue did a really good job, I thought, disrupting Iowa and keeping in its shooters' business. The problem to start the game was just the second chances for Iowa or miscellaneous loose balls that went their way, but some of those offensive rebounds were wonky enough to not really be on Purdue.
Iowa first rolled out the Murrays at the 4 and 5 with 12-and-a-half minutes left in the first half, but it didn't pack much punch, because Purdue smartly pivoted immediately to putting Trevion Williams on Connor McCaffery, who the Boilermakers have given the Nojel Eastern treatment to for years, happy to let him shoot so that they could sit an extra defender in Luka Garza's lap or in this case not have a center guarding a skilled wing 18 feet from the basket.
McCaffery is now 2-of-25 from three for his career, so the plan has worked.
(Thanks, @Glubsen3, for looking that up. That's 10 fewer minutes I have to spend in this Knoxville, Ill., McDonald's. Fun Fact: Knoxville, Ill., is the home of former Purdue University stuffed breadstick-and-marijuana-distribution institution Alfano's Pizza, at least last I checked some years ago.)
In the second half, Iowa did get the pairings it wanted more often and the Murrays gave them real problems to the point where Painter subbed the center out for defensive purposes briefly. On the one offensive possession Purdue didn't have a center on the floor in the second half, Jaden Ivey drove to the basket and got fouled.
MISC
• A quick thought on Brandon Newman not playing: This had everything to do with needing ball-handlers on the floor against trapping and pressing and the fact that every other guard played not just well, but great.
• Just a quick thought on how much Zach Edey's size is showing up as the roll man, both on the down screens that Purdue likes to run Sasha Stefanovic off for those catches at the top of the arc and when in Purdue's general ball screen action, where as the roll man he can't help but run interference on whoever has to get out to the 4 man as the indirect.
Edey's presence in both settings helped on two of Purdue's first three field goals, one of which he scored off on a post feed out of that ball screen action and the other being the three Stefanovic made.
• You could almost see Jaden Ivey salivating every time Jordan Bohannon was guarding him in space.
• It had been weeks since Purdue last completed — or tried that — lob from Sasha Stefanovic to the 5 man off the Jaden Ivey screen in the lane. Was wondering when we'd see it again. Purdue pulled it out in a big moment. Couldn't tell you whether people have been guarding Purdue in such a way lately that might take that away.
PURDUE VS. THE TRAP
So here's the final tally I came up with, possession by possession.
Defining a backcourt trap as any time multiple defenders came at a ball-handler behind the timeline, Iowa trapped on 26 possessions. They stunted on a few and backed off. I'm not counting.
Iowa did a bunch of different things, in terms of when and where the traps came — and sometimes showing it then backing off — and Purdue was ready for all of it.
On those 26 possessions ...
• Purdue committed three turnovers, none of which led directly to points.
• Purdue scored 16 points off numbers advantages. That's a subjective tally that includes a three Purdue made after an offensive rebound of its first shot, counting because Iowa was still scrambling.
Now, I do want to point something else out.
The validity of two of those three turnovers could be debated.
First, I thought Isaiah Thompson was fouled before losing the ball out of bounds. He was definitely bumped to an extent you'd often see called.
Later, on the 10-second call that wound up on Mason Gillis, that was a quick 10 count, and if the TV's shot clock module was accurate, totally bogus.
Nevertheless, Purdue crushed the pressure.
Isaiah Thompson's three with 10:37 left actually chased Iowa out of it — they stopped doing it — before time and score later told the Hawkeyes they had no other choice but to resume.
What did Purdue do so well this time around? Pretty much everything.
They did a near flawless job provided backcourt outlets unlike the last game against Iowa. They did a good job advancing to the wings when the pass was there and not making predetermined decisions at times when Iowa stunted off the wings then dropped back on them.
They spaced out well.
Ethan Morton helped close the game out at the 4, as an extra ball-handler in the middle of the floor, but the guy who deserves special mention here is Caleb Furst, who did everything right in that same role during a really critical portion of the second half.
Purdue attacked when it generated advantages, and burned Iowa for laying off the wrong people.
Here's a first half possession where Iowa came off Sasha Stefanovic and Caleb Furst kept a cool head about him after the ball was advanced and got the ball to the glaring pressure point.
Furst was excellent in this game. The defensive end posed some challenges, but that's the nature of Iowa as much as anything.
PURDUE DEFENSE
Purdue did a really good job, I thought, disrupting Iowa and keeping in its shooters' business. The problem to start the game was just the second chances for Iowa or miscellaneous loose balls that went their way, but some of those offensive rebounds were wonky enough to not really be on Purdue.
Iowa first rolled out the Murrays at the 4 and 5 with 12-and-a-half minutes left in the first half, but it didn't pack much punch, because Purdue smartly pivoted immediately to putting Trevion Williams on Connor McCaffery, who the Boilermakers have given the Nojel Eastern treatment to for years, happy to let him shoot so that they could sit an extra defender in Luka Garza's lap or in this case not have a center guarding a skilled wing 18 feet from the basket.
McCaffery is now 2-of-25 from three for his career, so the plan has worked.
(Thanks, @Glubsen3, for looking that up. That's 10 fewer minutes I have to spend in this Knoxville, Ill., McDonald's. Fun Fact: Knoxville, Ill., is the home of former Purdue University stuffed breadstick-and-marijuana-distribution institution Alfano's Pizza, at least last I checked some years ago.)
In the second half, Iowa did get the pairings it wanted more often and the Murrays gave them real problems to the point where Painter subbed the center out for defensive purposes briefly. On the one offensive possession Purdue didn't have a center on the floor in the second half, Jaden Ivey drove to the basket and got fouled.
MISC
• A quick thought on Brandon Newman not playing: This had everything to do with needing ball-handlers on the floor against trapping and pressing and the fact that every other guard played not just well, but great.
• Just a quick thought on how much Zach Edey's size is showing up as the roll man, both on the down screens that Purdue likes to run Sasha Stefanovic off for those catches at the top of the arc and when in Purdue's general ball screen action, where as the roll man he can't help but run interference on whoever has to get out to the 4 man as the indirect.
Edey's presence in both settings helped on two of Purdue's first three field goals, one of which he scored off on a post feed out of that ball screen action and the other being the three Stefanovic made.
• You could almost see Jaden Ivey salivating every time Jordan Bohannon was guarding him in space.
• It had been weeks since Purdue last completed — or tried that — lob from Sasha Stefanovic to the 5 man off the Jaden Ivey screen in the lane. Was wondering when we'd see it again. Purdue pulled it out in a big moment. Couldn't tell you whether people have been guarding Purdue in such a way lately that might take that away.
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