Like most teams in the NCAA Tournament, Purdue basketball’s opportunity to cut down the nets starts and ends with the play of its guards.
Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer are a year older and more experienced, and Purdue brings transfer guard Lance Jones, who will be playing in his first NCAA Tournament tonight against Grambling State.
With opposing teams, including Grambling State, looking to limit the play of Purdue basketball big man Zach Edey, the guards have to come up big for the Boilermakers in the Tournament.
Loyer said if Purdue basketball is going to survive and advance in the tournament, two things have to happen.
“Really it comes down to us taking care of the ball and rebounding, two very simple things, two things you get
taught in second grade playing basketball. Two things that are going to win you a March Madness game,” Loyer said.
In the games Purdue has won this season, it has done those two things.
However, as Purdue basketball coach Matt Painter has pointed out four times this season, when the Boilermakers struggle to protect the basketball, they have lost.
“When we take care of the basketball, we put ourselves in such a good position, we’re a good shooting team, we’re a
good offensive rebounding team. Obviously, we have Zach. We play a lot through Braden,” Painter said.
Purdue basketball’s guards are better this year
According to Painter, both Smith and Loyer have improved as the season has continued and they are vastly better than they were a season ago.
“I think Braden has done a fabulous job of running our team. I think Fletcher has really embraced stepping up
and doing a lot of little things for our team, making shots when they come his way. But more than anything, just being better at doing little things to help our team win,” Painter said.
Painter continued, saying his guards have experience they didn’t necessarily have a season ago.
“Obviously for us, I think the biggest thing from an offensive standpoint is our ability to make shots as the second-best three-point three-point shooting team in the country behind Kentucky. But I think going from a freshman to a sophomore, you see that’s the biggest jump, especially for guys that play a lot as freshmen. You think you’re 100 percent ready, and you’re just not. I think learning from some of those moments, tough losses, going into tough venues, now you’re just a little bit more prepared to face elite competition, even though in non-conference the previous year we were undefeated just like we were this year, but we played a really tough schedule,” Painter said.
Purdue basketball’s key to a win starts with taking care of the ball
How will Purdue get past Grambling State?
As far as Painter is concerned, a win will come by way of Purdue basketball doing three things he has harped on all season.
“Taking care of the basketball, making your free throws, and then just being grimy on defense. They just can’t do whatever they want to do, and so just to have that balance of those three things, there’s more things to the game, but have those three things,” Painter said.
Painter said when Purdue has had 13 turnovers or less, they are 23-0.
“When we’ve taken care of the basketball, I used to always talk about this and say you really give us a great chance to
win. When we’ve taken care of the basketball, we’ve won. It doesn’t mean that we can’t play and have 10 turnovers
and lose the game because we can, but we haven’t done that. If we’ve had 13 turnovers or less, we’re 23-0. So I
always hang my hat on that. If you go look at the games we’ve lost in the NCAA Tournament, you look at the games we’ve lost this year, which are four, we’ve had 14 or more turnovers in those games. So don’t turn the basketball over and give yourself a chance,” Painter said.
And, giving Purdue basketball a chance is what Painter expects.
“Offensively, we’re one of the best offensive teams in the country. We’re a great offensive rebounding team.
We’re a great three-point shooting team. We’ve got a horse in Zach Edey down low that people have to do some
things differently than they do against regular opponents,” Painter said.
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