A closer look back at Purdue's 82-76 win over Michigan on Saturday.
STUFF PURDUE DID WELL
• The single biggest difference in this game was probably Jaden Ivey's ability to kneecap Michigan's matchup zone with his dribble.
From the very beginning, he killed Michigan from the inside out, starting on Possession No. 2, when he split two defenders to get to the middle, draw a threesome of defenders and kick out to Sasha Stefanovic for this early three.
The next time down the floor, Ivey pushed it in transition and again beat everyone to his spot in the lane, drew defenders and got up a highly reboundable shot with no one on Zach Edey under the basket, but Edey's basket interference on his own rim-off cost Purdue two points. That's a bucket that should have happened because of Ivey's ability to get to spots before Michigan. Not sure why Edey didn't dunk the ball.
I'm sure things were more complex than this, but early second half, Purdue looked to just be running two-man stuff with Edey as the screener and Ivey as the ball-handler just trying to free up Ivey to go at Hunter Dickinson in space. Resulted in two straight buckets.
Ivey's patience and awareness, again, have come a long way in a short period of time.
Uh oh, look what I figured out how to do. (Shhhhhh.)
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• Defensively, Purdue was actually much better with Trevion Williams on the floor, as Michigan was running the same dribble hand-off action repeatedly against Zach Edey trying to take advantage of him in space. Williams did a better job with that when he was on the floor, and that's part of the explanation for the +/- differential between the two, Williams being +12 and Edey -6.
A GREAT DEFENSIVE MOMENT FOR PURDUE
After Hunter Dickinson had made three straight jumpers to change the complexion of the game, Purdue responded with this defensive stop.
Now, I must admit that I do not know if this was an adjustment by Purdue or Purdue simply doing what It was supposed to do every time, but here Mason Gillis jumps out to Dickinson on the pick-and-pop — the three Dickinson made prior, Gillis appeared to just bluff, unless that was just a flawed closeout. Meanwhile, Trevion Williams drops back and jumps in front of the cutter — Gillis' man — Dickinson tries to hit for one of his four steals.
From this point on, when Michigan runs that action, Gillis is basically guarding Dickinson at the top of the arc.
One apparent move Michigan made in the second half was to set Dickinson up in a different spot, more toward the wing than the middle of the floor, perhaps to open up the middle more on that dribble hand-off they were running the whole game, or maybe to try to spread Purdue's help out. The first time they did it, they did set up Moussa Diabate in the opposite corner, seemingly to keep Gillis on an island.
PURDUE VS THE TRAP
Michigan first trapped with 11:12 left and Purdue was called for a 10-second violation. Eric Hunter and Isaiah Thompson knew what they were doing, but may have been a second or two slow to recognize it.
Michigan did score on the next possession.
Two possessions later, Purdue smokes the trap with an Eric Hunter three off the assist from Caleb Furst and hockey assist from Isaiah Thompson.
A few plays later, Eric Hunter gets knocked down and the ball taken away from him. No call, even though Jace Howard can clearly be seen with his arm wrapped around Hunter's waist at one point.
OK, so by my count, Michigan ran the three-quarter-court trap or whatever you want to call it against Purdue 12 times.
Purdue turned the ball over on two of those possessions. Michigan scored two points off a possession created by those giveaways. Purdue scored seven points either with numbers on their side or at the foul line.
After the first six traps, Purdue started using Sasha Stefanovic as a backcourt screener. After that, Purdue had no issues with the trap, though Stefanovic did come close a time or two to setting moving screens.
The other part of this is that Michigan got away with a ton of contact with Its trap. One of the turnovers should have been a foul, and at least two of the other clean entries could have been too. The Wolverines caught a lot of breaks In that regard and I think that's Important to point out.
The reality is that Purdue's response to the trap wasn't as bad as It looked. Purdue was sped up — and beat up — and the optics were bad. It probably didn't help that Purdue fans seem conditioned to expect the worst and that the TV announcers were freaking out about it.
Again, two turnovers in 12 possessions, one of which should have been a foul, and a 7-2 scoring differential, with no live-ball baskets off a turnover.
DEFENSIVE VALUE
Watch this defensive possession from Mason Gillis, which starts with him bringing a hard double on Hunter Dickinson and forcing the ball out of his hands. Then he bounces to the other side of the lane to cut off a baseline drive, then bounces back to where he started for a haymaker of a blockout
Now, here's that play I highlighted last night, where Sasha Stefanovic comes in to block Hunter Dickinson from behind when Dickinson has golden position on Zach Edey at the rim. Tim Brando attributes the block to Edey somehow.
Outstanding awareness by Stefanovic to come in and take away a high-percentage sort of opportunity for Dickinson and a well-timed and well-executed block.
Lastly, Trevion Williams could not have guarded this play any better, challenging the pass and forcing the bad exchange.
MISC
• Michigan is not a great passing team. Lots of balls thrown at one another's feet. That probably cost the Wolverines points when all was said and done and it accounted for a few of their turnovers.
• Tim Brando said that Purdue will occasionally play high-low with Zach Edey and Trevion Williams together.
• Purdue had a golden opportunity to pull away after Jaden Ivey's back-to-back dunks in the first half, but Hunter Dickinson simply shot the Wolverines off the ledge. Give him all the credit there. That first three he hit out of pick-and-pop was enormous.
Also, I don't know if it was just the broadcast or what but even live it looked like Dickinson's big feet were on the line on every three he took.
Purdue got Mason Gillis two great looks from three during that stretch, but he didn't connect on either of them.
STUFF PURDUE DID WELL
• The single biggest difference in this game was probably Jaden Ivey's ability to kneecap Michigan's matchup zone with his dribble.
From the very beginning, he killed Michigan from the inside out, starting on Possession No. 2, when he split two defenders to get to the middle, draw a threesome of defenders and kick out to Sasha Stefanovic for this early three.
The next time down the floor, Ivey pushed it in transition and again beat everyone to his spot in the lane, drew defenders and got up a highly reboundable shot with no one on Zach Edey under the basket, but Edey's basket interference on his own rim-off cost Purdue two points. That's a bucket that should have happened because of Ivey's ability to get to spots before Michigan. Not sure why Edey didn't dunk the ball.
I'm sure things were more complex than this, but early second half, Purdue looked to just be running two-man stuff with Edey as the screener and Ivey as the ball-handler just trying to free up Ivey to go at Hunter Dickinson in space. Resulted in two straight buckets.
Ivey's patience and awareness, again, have come a long way in a short period of time.
Uh oh, look what I figured out how to do. (Shhhhhh.)
I'd like to take this opportunity to remind people that Fair Use laws allow for copyrighted video clips to be reproduced for the purpose of editorial comment.
• Defensively, Purdue was actually much better with Trevion Williams on the floor, as Michigan was running the same dribble hand-off action repeatedly against Zach Edey trying to take advantage of him in space. Williams did a better job with that when he was on the floor, and that's part of the explanation for the +/- differential between the two, Williams being +12 and Edey -6.
A GREAT DEFENSIVE MOMENT FOR PURDUE
After Hunter Dickinson had made three straight jumpers to change the complexion of the game, Purdue responded with this defensive stop.
Now, I must admit that I do not know if this was an adjustment by Purdue or Purdue simply doing what It was supposed to do every time, but here Mason Gillis jumps out to Dickinson on the pick-and-pop — the three Dickinson made prior, Gillis appeared to just bluff, unless that was just a flawed closeout. Meanwhile, Trevion Williams drops back and jumps in front of the cutter — Gillis' man — Dickinson tries to hit for one of his four steals.
From this point on, when Michigan runs that action, Gillis is basically guarding Dickinson at the top of the arc.
One apparent move Michigan made in the second half was to set Dickinson up in a different spot, more toward the wing than the middle of the floor, perhaps to open up the middle more on that dribble hand-off they were running the whole game, or maybe to try to spread Purdue's help out. The first time they did it, they did set up Moussa Diabate in the opposite corner, seemingly to keep Gillis on an island.
PURDUE VS THE TRAP
Michigan first trapped with 11:12 left and Purdue was called for a 10-second violation. Eric Hunter and Isaiah Thompson knew what they were doing, but may have been a second or two slow to recognize it.
Michigan did score on the next possession.
Two possessions later, Purdue smokes the trap with an Eric Hunter three off the assist from Caleb Furst and hockey assist from Isaiah Thompson.
A few plays later, Eric Hunter gets knocked down and the ball taken away from him. No call, even though Jace Howard can clearly be seen with his arm wrapped around Hunter's waist at one point.
OK, so by my count, Michigan ran the three-quarter-court trap or whatever you want to call it against Purdue 12 times.
Purdue turned the ball over on two of those possessions. Michigan scored two points off a possession created by those giveaways. Purdue scored seven points either with numbers on their side or at the foul line.
After the first six traps, Purdue started using Sasha Stefanovic as a backcourt screener. After that, Purdue had no issues with the trap, though Stefanovic did come close a time or two to setting moving screens.
The other part of this is that Michigan got away with a ton of contact with Its trap. One of the turnovers should have been a foul, and at least two of the other clean entries could have been too. The Wolverines caught a lot of breaks In that regard and I think that's Important to point out.
The reality is that Purdue's response to the trap wasn't as bad as It looked. Purdue was sped up — and beat up — and the optics were bad. It probably didn't help that Purdue fans seem conditioned to expect the worst and that the TV announcers were freaking out about it.
Again, two turnovers in 12 possessions, one of which should have been a foul, and a 7-2 scoring differential, with no live-ball baskets off a turnover.
DEFENSIVE VALUE
Watch this defensive possession from Mason Gillis, which starts with him bringing a hard double on Hunter Dickinson and forcing the ball out of his hands. Then he bounces to the other side of the lane to cut off a baseline drive, then bounces back to where he started for a haymaker of a blockout
Now, here's that play I highlighted last night, where Sasha Stefanovic comes in to block Hunter Dickinson from behind when Dickinson has golden position on Zach Edey at the rim. Tim Brando attributes the block to Edey somehow.
Outstanding awareness by Stefanovic to come in and take away a high-percentage sort of opportunity for Dickinson and a well-timed and well-executed block.
Lastly, Trevion Williams could not have guarded this play any better, challenging the pass and forcing the bad exchange.
MISC
• Michigan is not a great passing team. Lots of balls thrown at one another's feet. That probably cost the Wolverines points when all was said and done and it accounted for a few of their turnovers.
• Tim Brando said that Purdue will occasionally play high-low with Zach Edey and Trevion Williams together.
• Purdue had a golden opportunity to pull away after Jaden Ivey's back-to-back dunks in the first half, but Hunter Dickinson simply shot the Wolverines off the ledge. Give him all the credit there. That first three he hit out of pick-and-pop was enormous.
Also, I don't know if it was just the broadcast or what but even live it looked like Dickinson's big feet were on the line on every three he took.
Purdue got Mason Gillis two great looks from three during that stretch, but he didn't connect on either of them.
