This matchup lived up to the hype. Let’s just start right there. This had the atmosphere of an Elite Eight game between two teams that are going to make it deep in March if they play to their potential. There were All-Americans and potential All-Americans on both teams and each team gave their best punches and absorbed their opponent’s best punches. One team just had more punches to give.
John Wooden Memorial Player of the Game (JWMPOTG): Hard to find a standout here when the game finishes as this one did, but I’ll give it to Braden Smith who tried his damndest to put his team in the best position to win. He finished this one with 11 points, 5 rebounds, and 8 assists.
Let’s talk about Braden Smith first shall we? I mean, the guy is all over the floor for 36 minutes in this one. Just check out the way he was able to get an assist to CJ Cox early in the first half. No human should be able to do this.
Okay okay, enough of that. Let’s get to the game. The first half was a back and forth affair with seven lead changes. It was highlighted by the Boilermakers impressive defensive showing which forced Iowa State into nine turnovers. Purdue was very active in the passing lanes and made Iowa State very uncomfortable on the offensive end. Purdue though turned those nine turnovers into just 11 points. The other highlight? I guess you could call it a lowlight if you’re a Purdue fan as the Boilermakers really struggled to shoot the basketball. Purdue was 13-35 from the floor (37%) and 2-10 from deep (20%). Compare that to Iowa State going 14-29 (48%) and 4-11 (36%) from three and you can see why Iowa State went into halftime with a 35-31 lead.
Both teams played very aggressive defense as noted by Purdue forcing the nine turnovers, but it felt like Iowa State got away with a bit more on the defensive end. Trey Kaufman-Renn appeared incredibly frustrated on offense often looking for calls that weren’t there as he shot just 1-8 from the floor and 1-3at the FT line. It was not his best half of basketball. I also do have to question at least a couple minutes of the substation patterns in this one. With 9:40 to go in the first half Purdue was up 21-16 after a made three from Braden Smith. At 8:31 Painter subbed out Smith for Cox. At that point that meant no Smith, no Loyer, and no TKR on the floor for the Boilermakers. Iowa State subsequently went on an 8-2 run to reclaim the lead. A lead which they wouldn’t give up for the rest of the first half.
Iowa State came out firing on all cylinders in the second half while Purdue continued to struggle to shoot the ball. The half started on a 7-2 for the Cyclones and it just went downhill from there. Iowa State couldn’t miss shooting over 70% from the floor well into the second half and finished shooting 59% from the floor in the second and 54% overall. Think that’s good? They were even better from three hitting their first five threes of the half before finishing 7-12 in the second half. The thing is, Purdue put Iowa State into some tough shots including getting down to less than a second on the shot clock before Iowa State had to settle for a spinning jump shot that somehow found the bottom of the net. It was that kind of shooting day for Iowa State. I said on Twitter but I think it bears repeating here, sometimes you’re the buzzsaw and sometimes you run into the buzzsaw. This must have been how Texas Tech felt earlier this year when Purdue absolutely took them to the woodshed. Nothing was going right for Purdue highlighted, to me, by an Iowa State possession with about 7:30 to go. Iowa State finally missed a three but three Boilermakers stood around and didn’t box out while Iowa State hustled for the rebound, got a second three point attempt in, and nailed it to extend their lead. It was just a microcosm of the game.
There’s little solace to take from this one in what would be Purdues first home non-conference loss since November 2019. But perhaps that is the solace. It was a non-conference game. This doesn’t impact Purdue’s chances at the Big Ten title, and it certainly won’t go down as a bad loss for their NCAA resume. What it will be though is a wake up call. Nothing is handed to you in college basketball and this was a prime example. It doesn’t matter what number is next to your name you’ve gotta go out there every game and earn it. Purdue just didn’t do that today and an incredibly talented Iowa State team did. We’ve worried for a number of games about Purdue’s three point defense and today it truly shows that it could be a weakness as Iowa State finished the game 11-23 from deep with at least three of those being garbage time chucks with the shot clock winding down.
Purdue won’t have long to focus on this one as they return to Mackey Arena on Wednesday for their second conference game of the season this time against the Minnesota Golden Gophers. Casey and Jed will have much more on this one to come.
