STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — A closer look back at Purdue's 74-67 win at Penn State Saturday.
DEFENSIVE IMPROVEMENT
The written word doesn't do this justice and would be unbelievably boring, but there's a ton of little examples of Purdue playing good defense, from Trevion Williams and Jaden Ivey communicating about downing an early side ball screen, to Ethan Morton disrupting a Penn State cut, to Caleb Furst doing a great job staying in front of Sam Sessons in a switch and contributing to a turnover, to Ivey going over every screen like he's supposed to, to Ivey forcing a five-second call on an in-bound, on and on.
Purdue did a really nice job with its switches against Penn State's continuous screens and got out to shooters effectively.
Jaden Ivey was clearly pretty dialed in and spent much of the game jamming the ball full-court, which was a change.
I thought Ivey played hard and with energy on D and forced, or contributed to, at least three turnovers. He did a great job on Pickett when they were head to head. Got scored on once early and it was a tough shot, then a second time in the second half. Ivey did make a mistake fishing for a steal and giving up that wide-open three right after Purdue went up 13, but otherwise he was very good on defense.
For a guy who got scored on a bunch of times, I thought Eric Hunter played great defense on Pickett. He was always in Pickett's shirt, between him and the rim and playing straight up and not fouling. He made Pickett make tough shots, and Pickett did.
Some of the success Penn State had offensively came via working Isaiah Thompson into off-ball switches onto forward Greg Lee, then using his size to establish position and draw help, then kick to the corners. Purdue was lucky Penn State missed a bunch of those corner threes.
MISC
• What a great set to open the game for Purdue and perfectly executed, using Jaden Ivey on that baseline-screening decoy action to clear out the paint, get Zach Edey one-on-one and set up the 4-to-5 entry from the opposite side of the floor.
Excellent use of Ivey's gravity there. Seth Lundy is absolutely sprinting after him and Purdue's happy to let him, thus spreading Penn State way out and making sure there's no secondary defender buzzing around Edey.
Purdue ran this again later, or some variation of it, and scored again.
• Nice little example of "knowing how to play" here, as Sasha Stefanovic claps for the ball here with the shot clock dwindling.
Jalen Pickett's guarding him — off a switch, I assume — and shades Stefanovic to force him outside.
Stefanovic waits a few seconds to give Zach Edey an opportunity to get on John Harrar's back in the post, so that there's no help at the rim and Edey has offensive rebounding position. Once Edey's in place, then Stefanovic goes, and Edey's seal gives him a clean finish at the basket.
Excellent patience and understanding of his surroundings by Stefanovic.
There's this play, too, early in the second half that's just straight improve.
Sam Sessoms goes over Trevion Williams' screen chasing Stefanovic and gets so wide that he winds up behind Stefanovic when Stefanovic gives the ball back to Williams. With his defender behind him, and John Harrar coming out to guard Williams, Stefanovic darts to the basket and Williams finds him for a layup.
• You know, I think one of the biggest shots of this game might have been Jaden Ivey's three with just under two minutes to go in the first half. That was Penn State's second possession in box-and-one, and Purdue probably didn't have much of a plan for that.
• The three-pointer Thompson made late in the second half was a big one, but made possible by him running down the offensive rebound of a badly missed Ivey three. Effort rewarded.
• Real time I thought Painter went too long in the second half before bringing Trevion Williams back in. Purdue was just launching threes and not making them for a couple possessions in a row and they needed to get back to some normalcy offensively to stop the bleeding.
Between Williams and Edey, they still had three fouls between them to give. It would have been risky, I guess, to bring Williams back with 10 minutes left, but if he does what he wound up doing later two minutes earlier, it might have headed off Penn State's run, though the run did continue after Williams came back with eight minutes left.
I do think Painter stayed small too long.
• How about that sequence by Ethan Morton late in the first half, where he takes and misses a quick three — good shot, I thought — but then immediately steals Penn State's advance pass, and draws an intentional foul. How many guys can miss a shot like that and immediately switch to defensive mode so seamlessly?
That stretch of three straight turnovers by Penn State when Purdue didn't have Williams or Edey on the floor was big.
• Hooray for the pass fake, which Purdue doesn't do enough of. That's what made Mason Gillis' big three late possible.
• The hidden value of Jaden Ivey's ability to get in the lane: Reboundable misses. I think four of his misses resulted in put-backs.
• Seems to me as if Purdue put a bit of a moratorium on celebrating stuff. Very stoic game for the Boilermakers.
DEFENSIVE IMPROVEMENT
The written word doesn't do this justice and would be unbelievably boring, but there's a ton of little examples of Purdue playing good defense, from Trevion Williams and Jaden Ivey communicating about downing an early side ball screen, to Ethan Morton disrupting a Penn State cut, to Caleb Furst doing a great job staying in front of Sam Sessons in a switch and contributing to a turnover, to Ivey going over every screen like he's supposed to, to Ivey forcing a five-second call on an in-bound, on and on.
Purdue did a really nice job with its switches against Penn State's continuous screens and got out to shooters effectively.
Jaden Ivey was clearly pretty dialed in and spent much of the game jamming the ball full-court, which was a change.
I thought Ivey played hard and with energy on D and forced, or contributed to, at least three turnovers. He did a great job on Pickett when they were head to head. Got scored on once early and it was a tough shot, then a second time in the second half. Ivey did make a mistake fishing for a steal and giving up that wide-open three right after Purdue went up 13, but otherwise he was very good on defense.
For a guy who got scored on a bunch of times, I thought Eric Hunter played great defense on Pickett. He was always in Pickett's shirt, between him and the rim and playing straight up and not fouling. He made Pickett make tough shots, and Pickett did.
Some of the success Penn State had offensively came via working Isaiah Thompson into off-ball switches onto forward Greg Lee, then using his size to establish position and draw help, then kick to the corners. Purdue was lucky Penn State missed a bunch of those corner threes.
MISC
• What a great set to open the game for Purdue and perfectly executed, using Jaden Ivey on that baseline-screening decoy action to clear out the paint, get Zach Edey one-on-one and set up the 4-to-5 entry from the opposite side of the floor.
Excellent use of Ivey's gravity there. Seth Lundy is absolutely sprinting after him and Purdue's happy to let him, thus spreading Penn State way out and making sure there's no secondary defender buzzing around Edey.
Purdue ran this again later, or some variation of it, and scored again.
• Nice little example of "knowing how to play" here, as Sasha Stefanovic claps for the ball here with the shot clock dwindling.
Jalen Pickett's guarding him — off a switch, I assume — and shades Stefanovic to force him outside.
Stefanovic waits a few seconds to give Zach Edey an opportunity to get on John Harrar's back in the post, so that there's no help at the rim and Edey has offensive rebounding position. Once Edey's in place, then Stefanovic goes, and Edey's seal gives him a clean finish at the basket.
Excellent patience and understanding of his surroundings by Stefanovic.
There's this play, too, early in the second half that's just straight improve.
Sam Sessoms goes over Trevion Williams' screen chasing Stefanovic and gets so wide that he winds up behind Stefanovic when Stefanovic gives the ball back to Williams. With his defender behind him, and John Harrar coming out to guard Williams, Stefanovic darts to the basket and Williams finds him for a layup.
• You know, I think one of the biggest shots of this game might have been Jaden Ivey's three with just under two minutes to go in the first half. That was Penn State's second possession in box-and-one, and Purdue probably didn't have much of a plan for that.
• The three-pointer Thompson made late in the second half was a big one, but made possible by him running down the offensive rebound of a badly missed Ivey three. Effort rewarded.
• Real time I thought Painter went too long in the second half before bringing Trevion Williams back in. Purdue was just launching threes and not making them for a couple possessions in a row and they needed to get back to some normalcy offensively to stop the bleeding.
Between Williams and Edey, they still had three fouls between them to give. It would have been risky, I guess, to bring Williams back with 10 minutes left, but if he does what he wound up doing later two minutes earlier, it might have headed off Penn State's run, though the run did continue after Williams came back with eight minutes left.
I do think Painter stayed small too long.
• How about that sequence by Ethan Morton late in the first half, where he takes and misses a quick three — good shot, I thought — but then immediately steals Penn State's advance pass, and draws an intentional foul. How many guys can miss a shot like that and immediately switch to defensive mode so seamlessly?
That stretch of three straight turnovers by Penn State when Purdue didn't have Williams or Edey on the floor was big.
• Hooray for the pass fake, which Purdue doesn't do enough of. That's what made Mason Gillis' big three late possible.
• The hidden value of Jaden Ivey's ability to get in the lane: Reboundable misses. I think four of his misses resulted in put-backs.
• Seems to me as if Purdue put a bit of a moratorium on celebrating stuff. Very stoic game for the Boilermakers.
