On paper, no one in college basketball had a more proven trio that had produced together. Add in one of the best coaches in the game, Matt Painter, and it made a lot of sense to make Purdue the preseason favorite to win the national title.
But as Painter said earlier this week, those preseason rankings mean nothing. No. 7 Purdue is not and hasn’t been the best team in college basketball. What that looks like was on display Tuesday when top-ranked Michigan came home showing that, if you’re motivated to prove a point, no one is better in college basketball this season.
But on Friday night, the Boilermakers showed in a 93-64 win over Indiana that they can still accomplish some special things when their big three are clicking — and especially when Trey Kaufman-Renn fills his role as one of college hoops’ most dangerous chess pieces.
Indiana’s original game plan was to double Kaufman-Renn, getting help from whoever was feeding the post. The first time Purdue went in, Fletcher Loyer was the post feeder, so Indiana turned to Loyer, one of the nation’s best spot-up shooters, and because Purdue center Oscar Cluff had moved to the opposite block, that occupied the other perimeter defender (Lamar Wilkerson), who was tasked with defending the other two perimeter players.
Kaufman-Renn read the floor correctly and hit Smith for a wide-open 3.
On the next possession, Smith was the post feeder, and his man doubled up as well. But instead of staying in place, Smith cut to the opposite corner and the other two Purdue guards turned toward the ball.
Once again, Kaufman-Renn read the floor correctly and found Smith, who drove a long closeout forcing Loyer’s man to help, and Smith found Loyer for a wide-open 3.
“The one thing about dealing with the post-up guy is you can put the other guys where you want,” Painter said. “They can’t control that, right? So if we want to break through, we can cut through. If we want to stay on the ball side, we stay on the ball side. If we want to get post-splits, we can get post-splits. If we want to dive with another guy, we can. If we want to keep people out, (we can).
“And the reason I throw all that at you is because that changes the rotations. And so if you just do one thing and do the same thing every time, and you don’t even do anything on an overloaded side, or you don’t look at things from a screening standpoint, now they can go on their doubles, they can go on their rotations. So you can control a lot of things on defense, but you can’t control where the offense puts their players.”
The one thing Painter left out is that if you have a big man who can pass the post like Kaufman-Renn, if you keep the defense guessing you’ll get great shots when they double up.
The Hoosiers immediately realized the plan wouldn’t work. So after Smith and Loyer made those two threes, they started guarding Kaufman-Renn one-on-one. That’s what Michigan did Tuesday by staying home on shooters, and Kaufman-Renn scored 27 points but needed 24 shots to get there. Michigan is one of the few teams in college basketball that has internal personnel to at least make things difficult.
Indiana doesn’t have that workforce. And Kaufman-Renn made the Hoosiers pay by scoring 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting. With one of those misses he immediately got the ball back and scored.
This was peak Purdue, with Loyer having a perfect shooting night — 18 points on 5-of-5 shooting, four of them from 3 — and Smith playing at his usual All-American level (15 points and eight assists) and the team going 10-of-18 from 3.
Smith has been great all season, but the other two seniors are both averaging fewer points and their shooting numbers aren’t as good. But with Loyer’s perfect night, he is now back more than 40 percent from the 3, which he eclipsed in each of the past two seasons. He is shooting 48.9 percent from 3 in February. This is water finding its level.
And Kaufman-Renn, whose average has dropped from 20.1 points as a junior to 13.3 this year, had back-to-back 20-point games for the first time this season.
That’s important because few teams in college basketball have a low scorer who can dominate games with his back to the basket like Kaufman-Renn. And that’s why most teams aren’t used to coming up with a plan to stop a low-post player who can score. And passage.
It’s like seeing a zone in March. Maybe you go all season without playing on a zone team, and then you run into Jim Boeheim and Syracuse, and everything you’ve done all season goes out the window.
A low scoring player is the painter’s zone. That’s why he always seems to have one. He likes the ability to create defenses that require him to think through many scenarios. Go back and read his reply to post doubles. He almost felt giddy talking about all the possibilities. Purdue also has an excellent pick-and-roll offense, but most teams play out of the pick-and-roll. Not many have the diversity that Purdue has on offense.
Painter is not satisfied with how this season has gone. He says his goal is always to win a Big Ten championship and then have success in the NCAA tournament, and with the loss to Michigan, the Big Ten title is off.
However, the latter is still possible. And while Michigan is the best in its class and in the country, Purdue probably wouldn’t have to play Michigan until the final weekend of the season. For that reason, having the most dangerous team in the country in your conference is an advantage. And in a one-game tournament, someone else could take out the Wolverines before Purdue could ever see them.
I’m not calling Purdue one of the non-Michigan favorites to win the national title after a stellar performance, but it was a good reminder that this is a team with the second-best offense in college basketball. This is a team with one of the game’s best coaches, the nation’s best passer, one of its best shooters and, now that Texas Tech’s JT Toppin is done for the season, the big man with the most unstoppable hookshot.
When the outside shots are falling, which is usually the case for Purdue (38 percent from 3 on the season), Painter has all the solutions on the offensive end. Purdue’s defense is the area it needs to continue to improve, but this team is now 5-1 in February, with the loss coming to a team anyone would have lost against that night.
And what was true in the preseason is still true. The Boilermakers have the most proven trio and have been through the March Wars together three times. Don’t write off Purdue just yet.
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