What would you have said if I told you in October that Purdue basketball would enter 2023 undefeated and ranked as the number one team in the nation while sporting the leading contender for the Naismith Award? Most would have asked me what I was thinking or how much I drank that day, but the Boilermakers showed momentum and showed they are a force to be reckoned with this season with Zach Edey leading the way. . After handily beating Florida A&M tonight, Purdue ends its non-conference season 11-0 (plus 2-0 in “pre-conference” B1G games) and will likely remain No. 1 in AP polls next year.
Game Outlook
Zach Edey: 14 pts 10 reb 2 black 22 min
Brandon Newman: 18 pts 4 reb 5 black 20 min
Trey Kaufman-Renn: 11 pts 6 reb 2 at 20 min
After missing last week’s game against New Orleans, Zach Edey was able to go for it tonight and, ho ahem, he scored a 14-10 double-double on just 5 shots. As usual, Edey was just taller than his opponent and could dominate physically when dropping the ball low. But Purdue was not reliant on Edey in this game as 8 different Boilermakers scored 5 or more points. In his best outing of the season, Brandon Newman shone on both offense and defense, scoring a game-high 18 points and registering 5 blocked shots at the other end. Brandon was an effective shooter, going 3-6 from beyond the arc and 7-13 overall. As a team, Purdue struggled to shoot the 3 again, combining to go 6-25 from beyond the arc. In particular, Ethan Morton and Fletcher Loyer continued to have a tough time as they fired a combined 1-8 deep. Morton finished with 1 point and Loyer with 7. Trey Kaufman-Renn built his 24-point performance last week with 11 points on 4-6 shooting and 6 rebounds. TKR becomes a nice low post threat when Edey takes a break, as he can move around effectively to create space when the ball is deep. Caleb Furst rounded out Purdue’s starting 5 with a very effective 10 and 6 while Braden Smith finished with 7 points and 1 assist. Mason Gillis finished with 5 points, 5 rebounds and 2 assists, and David Jenkins Jr. finished with 5 rebounds. had a great game, finishing with 7 points off the bench.
Take away food
There are 2 takeaways from this game: Purdue continues to really struggle deep and their defense can make a team work incredibly hard for points. In terms of filming, it seems like every night is a night out of the arc. Today was a better performance than previous weeks, but the Boilermakers still only shot 24%. It doesn’t make much of a difference against smaller non-conference teams, but it could be the difference between winning and losing in a fair number of B1G games. This trend extends to the defensive point, as it was the Purdue defense that was effective in covering some of the shooting performance. The defense was really effective today, consistently forcing FAMU to shoot deep late in the shot clock. The rotations were fast today and help was given when needed to an opponent although outclassed. Anytime you hold an opponent within 50 points, it’s a good day defensively, and that mentality was there throughout the game, even after it was clearly going to be a blowout win. Matt Painter instilled a hard-working mentality in this team, and they really bought into it, a fantastic sign for the season’s prospects.
Note uniform
Today was the third game in a trifecta of player brand uniforms for the Boilermakers. Florida A&M is the first team to feature the LeBron James logo on its uniforms after being unveiled in 2021. This follows previous games against Marquette and Davidson which feature the logos of Michael Jordan and Steph Curry respectively.
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