A Bounce Back Victory: Purdue 80 Marshall 45

Boilers improve to 5-1 following a workmanlike effort on a Saturday afternoon against the Thundering Herd

Matt Painter decided that after the first several games and two exhibition games that he had enough data to see what lineup would work best for his Boilermakers. What he found was that moving Cam Heide and Myles Colvin off the bench and into the starting lineup provided more spacing for Trey Kaufman-Renn to operate in the post and brought greater movement on the offensive end. What he also found out, surprisingly, was that it is also his best rebounding unit.

Heide and Colvin, making their first starts in their Purdue careers, made the decision look incredibly smart straight off the tip as Colving scored 7 quick points. That burst was highlighted by a dunk off a back screen at the free throw line and a lob from from Smith near the half court line. Heide also looked to take a major step forward as he stepped into the starting power forward role going 3-3 from behind the arc and 4-4 from the free throw line. If your fourth and fifth scoring options as starters are going to give you 26 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, and 0 turnovers, it suddenly becomes increasingly difficult to hang with Purdue offensively.

This comes as Smith and Loyer struggled to find their rhythm in a game where Marshall clearly wanted to take the ball out of their hands and not allow them open shots. In fact, it wasn’t until Loyer his a layup in the second half that either of those two lead Boilermaker guards had hit a field goal. This was just the second game in their career together where the both combined for six or less points with the previous game being against Penn State in the B1G Championship in 2023.

Smith did, however, show great decision making as none of his shots appeared to be forced and he was a high level distributor of the ball. Smith quickly ran out of the gate with 5 assists in the first 6:45 of the game. He ended with zero points but with 9 assists, 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and just 1 turnover.

Many wondered where Purdue would go in the low post following the departure of Zach Edey and it is apparent there will be little drop off in production as Kaufman-Renn is currently averaging 17.6 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 3 assists. Although he doesn’t provide the same rim protection as Edey, TKR is good in the low post and Matt Painter has a multitude of options in Furst, Burgess, and Berg to defend that position if need be. TKR is playing at a first team All B1G level which comes as no surprise to many of those who follow the team closely as his flashes have been bright when they presented themselves over the last two seasons.

The Boilers did struggle in the first half to score from the field going nearly 9 minutes from Raleigh Bursgess’ dunk at the 9:26 mark until TKR’s put back off a miss with just 30 seconds remaining. Those kinds of droughts for an offensively talented team like Purdue’s can’t happen and are a time when Smith needs to take control of the offense to look for his scoring more.

On the flipside of that drought, the Boilers held the Herd to a 12:36 scoring drought of their own where Purdue went on a 31-9 run to eventually extend their lead to 78-40. Marshall hit just 4-32 (12.5%) from behind the arc and 16-53 (30.2%) from the field. Their biggest issue was an inability to play clean defense as they put the Boilers on the free throw line 33 times. Purdue converted 26 of those opportunities for 78.8%, a rate where this team should be for the season and not in the mid 60’s like they had been entering the game.

Caleb Furst continues to show his steadiness in a clearly defined role as an off the bench five backing up TKR in ways that allow Painter to take advantage of mismatches. Furst’s ability to rebound and play good interior post defense help give TKR more rest with the exertion needed to defend the post. His 8 points came largely from the free throw line where he went 6-6 but will be needed to rebound with more intent as he grabbed just 1 rebound on the day.

The Boilers will head out to San Diego for the Rady’s Children’s Invitation where they will have a rematch from the national semi-final against NC State on November 28th with a game against Ole Miss or BYU awaiting. A game against BYU would see Kanon Catchings matching up against the team he all but was going to play for until he backed out of that commitment just days ahead of the start of summer camp.