Purdue shows what must improve in near upset as tune up to March Madness continues
· Yahoo Sports
WEST LAFAYETTE — Purdue men’s basketball sidestepped a land mine Saturday and, as a result, it can march into the season's most consequential stretch.
The No. 12 Boilermakers escaped Oregon’s upset bid, 68-64, on the back of Fletcher Loyer’s late hero 3-pointer and a defensive resurrection. The Ducks' ninth straight loss came within a couple of minutes of being their biggest Big Ten win since joining the league.
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The way Purdue ended up teetering on the edge of a gutting loss may preview its vulnerability to a much shorter March experience than anyone predicted preseason. It certainly validated coach Matt Painter’s unimpressed postgame comments after a 30-point win at Maryland.
Even after that emphatic response to a three-game losing streak, Painter wondered what would happen when next his team did not drain 3-pointers with elite frequency. He probably imagined it might look a lot like Saturday.
Yet in the context of keeping any share of a Big Ten championship within reach, Saturday unfolded with a sort of survive-and-advance feel. Look at it as narrowly avoiding a second-round NCAA tournament game while heavily favored over some upstart mid-major.
The win sets Purdue up for three games in eight days against NCAA tournament teams — at Nebraska on Tuesday, a relatively quick trip back to Iowa on Saturday and home against Michigan on Feb. 17. Tack home dates against IU and Michigan State onto the back end of that scenario, too. The make-or-break stretch of the regular season has arrived.
If the Boilermakers sweep those games, a championship remains within reach. Winning by any means necessary Saturday kept alive a best-case-scenario for the rest of the season — if they also locate the best version of themselves again.
Why Purdue nearly fell victim to Oregon's upset bid
While the Ducks came in on an eight-game losing streak, this was the best version of them anyone had faced in a month.
Senior center Nate Bittle started after missing five games with a left foot injury. It injected one of the nation’s best rim protectors back into a middling defense and invigorated the Ducks’ offense and rebounding.
Yet in myriad ways, this game required a Purdue rally in the final minutes due to opportunities missed over the first 35.
A 5-for-18 3-point performance traced back to an off night by 3-point shooters who are capable but not blessed with elite consistency. Gicarri Harris, C.J. Cox and Omer Mayer took eight good looks and missed them all.
When those games pop up, victory must originate in other areas. Or rather, as we saw in the case of rebounding against Illinois, another strength cannot become a one-off weakness.
Purdue came into the game averaging 9.2 turnovers per game — on pace for the second-lowest average in program history. It has been even better in Big Ten play — 8.0 per game. It had turned the ball over more than 10 times in a game only once since Dec. 20.
It committed seven before the end of the first half. Oregon crowded the lane at times, causing problems for Braden Smith’s pocket pass preferences. It also turned up the pressure for a few second-half stretches. The Boilers reacted with flat-footed hesitancy or mistakes.
Cox had not turned the ball over in a Big Ten game all season. He did so twice Saturday. Smith coughed it up six times. The 14 total turnovers fell one shy of Purdue’s season high, and it gave away 15 points.
Oregon had some of the same problems. Its 3-point shooting was worse (20% vs. 27.8%). It committed 14 turnovers, too, leading to 17 Boilermakers points. The Ducks also paid a price for stingy defense early in the second half by racking up enough fouls to put Purdue in the double bonus midway through the second half.
Had Purdue kept its offensive composure, it could have separated much earlier. Instead, they left the door open for Bittle to draw 11 total fouls. His 10-for-14 day at the line offset his 1-for-8 effort from 3.
He hit a pair of free throws with 5:33 to play to give Oregon its first lead of the second half, 57-56. Takai Simpkins then stole the ball from Loyer at midcourt and drove for a layup.
The Boilermakers were quickly careening toward something ugly.
How Purdue found a way to win over Oregon
On the flip side, Purdue sustained itself with key bench performances.
Jack Benter took a couple of offensive fouls (of course), hit a 3, stole the ball. Daniel Jacobsen played so well Painter had to keep him on the floor over Oscar Cluff down the stretch. He contributed nine points and four rebounds in 20 minutes on a perfect day from the field and the line.
The decisive answer, though, needed to come on defense, and did. Oregon did not make a field goal in the final 4:37. It had climbed back into the game both on fast break opportunities, attacking the basket or getting the ball to Bittle for those free-throw trips.
In those final five minutes, though, Purdue players did better individual jobs defending their man and making a poor 3-point shooting team settle for perimeter looks. The Ducks missed their last seven shots, and six were from beyond the arc.
Rather than allowing another loss to spiral out of reach, Purdue gave itself a chance for a veteran to meet the moment.
The Boilermakers drew up a play for Loyer when down by one with under a minute to play. Simpkins stayed with him long enough to blow up the original intent of the play, but fell away from his man after passing through a screen.
Loyer calmly drilled a 3 from well beyond the line. Later, his defensive rebound of a missed free throw and subsequent double make in the double bonus gave Painter a 4-0 record all-time against Oregon coach Dana Altman.
Whenever key components of Purdue’s system falter on a given day, others must come through. That happened in Saturday’s second half with pivotal bench plays, a clutch closing stretch on defense and one of the best spot-up shooters in the country doing his thing.
The March Madness comparison breaks down, of course, when you consider Saturday’s stakes did not include finality. Even if a loss ruined any chance of Big Ten supremacy, the NCAA tournament would always linger as a path to redemption.
Purdue’s quests to play better defense, to shoot more consistently well and to assert itself as a rebounding force all continue. In its perfect world, it will reach those destinations in time to avoid dangling off the edge of an upset between now and April.
Playing better against better teams, though, might still leave the Boilermakers on the precipice of peril. For better or worse, the factors with which they avoided a loss are as much as part of their identity as the ones which nearly led them there.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue basketball turnovers, shooting efficiency nearly lead to Oregon upset