Purdue’s Top Guns fire away in rout of Illinois
By KEITH CARRELL
@BoilerColts
ISL Purdue Writer
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Five Purdue players scored in double figures as Purdue routed Illinois 91-68 Tuesday night on Top Gun night, which featured promotions, in game videos, and fan contests themed around the Tom Cruise movie.
Purdue Pete even got into the action by donning a green flight jumpsuit. Prior to the National Anthem, the night began with a somber, but fitting, moment of silence in tribute of Purdue alum, and the last man to step foot on the moon, Gene Cernan, who passed away the day prior.
As part of the promotion, fans who brought a canned good received a limited edition poster with “Top Guns” scrawled across the top and five players in military garb with call signs such as Redwood (Isaac Haas) and Bullseye (Dakota Mathias). The top guns came out firing as the first five made field goals for Purdue were all from long range and the Boilermakers got out to a quick 10-point lead.
“I don’t think (making five of our first seven threes) made it easy; it gave us confidence and it definitely let us get our head up,” Haas said. “We were getting open shots, it’s not like we were taking contested one-on-one shots. We were moving the ball and getting good looks… ultimately that led to winning the game”
Gonna be tough to beat @BoilerBall if it plays the way it did tonight. https://t.co/qxRDOQZ42C
— Purdue On BTN (@PurdueOnBTN) January 18, 2017
Carsen Edwards led the aerial assault early that started with a three pointer that hit the back of the iron, shot straight up, and descended back through the net and he followed it up with a second trey that forced Illinois Head Coach John Groce to call a timeout six minutes into the game. When play resumed, Edwards went right back to work and scored Purdue’s first two pointer when he drove through the lane and let the ball roll off of his fingers and into the cylinder. He then proceeded to snare the defensive rebound on the other end and race to the Purdue rim and secured another layup to complete a solo ten point run to extend the Purdue lead to 19-5 seven minutes into the game.
Purdue coach Matt Painter was happy with how Edwards’ game and shot selection progressed, “Tonight, he’s five for five in the first half, made some nice reads. Obviously, he got fortunate on the one three that bounced in, but everything else I thought he got in rhythm.”
With the long range bombers in full force, Caleb Swanigan didn’t score his first points of the game until midway through the first half when he sank a pair of free throws and didn’t make his first field goal until the 5:47 mark. It was a forgettable first half for Biggie who fought through his struggles on the offensive end while still battling on defense to tally a meager four points on six shot attempts and grabbed five rebounds, all defensive. Swanigan never quite got locked in this game like Purdue fans are accustomed, but even on an off night, he still managed to pick up his play in the second half to earn another double-double with 22 points and ten rebounds.
“That’s a great sign as a player when things don’t go your way, I think he’s one for six (on field goals) in the first half and ends up seven for 15 for the game,” Painter said. “It’s good to see guys have some struggles and then still have success within a game.”
Tonight’s best #Purdue photos via our @exposure photo blog.
📸 https://t.co/XHegAbNKPN pic.twitter.com/E3h8FsY9pX
— Purdue Basketball (@BoilerBall) January 18, 2017
While Purdue had mixed results in the opening stanza, Illinois was simply outmatched and appeared undisciplined. The Illini committed ten fouls in the first half and three players were in foul trouble with starter Leron Black earning two and key reserves Te’Jon Lucas and Mike Thorne, Jr. each getting three. The lone bright spot for the Illini was Michael Finke who went against his norm and sank his first two three point attempts in the game to help keep Illinois within striking distance. Even Illinois’ star, Malcom Hill, was also largely held in check by Purdue until things began to unravel a bit for the Boilers in the final 90 seconds when Hill doubled his point total from four to eight including an egregious turnover from Edwards when he was casually dribbling the ball up the court getting instruction from Painter and Hill robbed the dribble from Edwards and took the short victory drive in for a dunk to score the half’s final points and cut the Purdue lead down to 44-30.
The second half saw Purdue methodically extend the lead behind the large backs of Swanigan and Haas. Swanigan scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half while Haas, who was able to have his way with the Illini interior, added 13. It also appeared that Painter is still trying to learn some things about his team in the second half as, whether intentional or note, the Boilers played a couple of possessions in a zone defense; an uncomfortable situation for Purdue as one such possession resulted in a wide open three for, Indy-native, Jalen Coleman-Lands; the only made three in the half for Illinois.
It is apparent that Painter is still trying to maximize his personnel and get the best teamwork possible on both ends of the court. As Purdue radio analyst Rob Blackman eloquently shared before the game, the two losses in conference play this season for Purdue have come when the opponent had a single player get loose and score a boatload of points for their team (Minnesota’s Nate Mason scored 31 and Iowa’s Peter Jok had 29). Although Mathias has done an admirable job guarding the opponent’s best guard, a lockdown defender he is not and Purdue will have to employ team defense against elite scorers. Tuesday night, they accomplished that feat by holding Hill to twelve points on twelve field goal attempts. On defense Purdue was much more deliberate with help; virtually every time the ball went inside of the arc, the nearest second defender would shift over to help on the ball and the weak side defender would crash down to help the helper to ensure no easy buckets with an interior pass.
On offense, Purdue also was able to cut down on turnovers by reintroducing an emphasis on how to run the motion offense weave at the top of the key. In recent games, the Boiler ball handlers have often sent chest passes to one another around the key to create movement rather than moving with the ball. That lackadaisical approach to movement has generated a number of easy turnovers for opponents who would jump the passing lanes and turn them into transition points. Against Illinois, Purdue’s ball handlers again were more deliberate by moving toward the ball and moving the ball toward teammates for handoffs rather than long passes. That version of motion can also have its weaknesses, but with a team as talented as Purdue, not beating oneself with things like careless turnovers will increase their chances of sustained success.
The Boilers still committed eleven turnovers in the contest, which translated directly into 17 points for Illinois, but these alterations by Painter and company are one giant leap in the right direction for Purdue, something I’m sure the late Cernan would be proud.
Quick Hits:
Purdue outrebounded Illinois 35-28, but only grabbed 3 offensive rebounds (one by Ryan Cline, one by Jon McKeeman, and one by the team – all in the second half), one more than the school record for fewest in a game… The Boilers made five of their first seven three point attempts, but only sank two of their final eight… In addition to being the primary defender on Hill, Mathias also had a solid all-around stat line with five points, six assists, one block, and no turnovers… The Boilers were nearly flawless from the charity stripe, going 20-22 with the only misses coming from Haas and Spike Albrecht… This was the most action Albrecht had seen since returning from injury and the first time he’s truly appeared unencumbered since his return… Purdue managed to top 90 points with only seven players scoring: Haas 24, Swanigan 22, Edwards 14, Vincent Edwards 11, P.J. Thompson 10, Mathias 5, and Albrecht 5… It may be due to matchups, but Basil Smotherman appears to have worked his way out of the rotation, playing only six minutes (netting only two fouls) in the second half after not playing at all in Purdue’s previous outing… Illinois attempted 14 more shot attempts than Purdue, but made five fewer (27-67, including 3-17 from three)… Fittingly, on Top Gun night, Illinois’ leading scorer was Maverick Morgan with 15 points… The victory was Purdue’s 100th over Illinois.
