Purdue Improves to 2-0 Final Score Purdue 72 NKU 50

The Boilers grabbed a solid home victory but may have lost a starter to an extended amount of time

The Purdue Boilermakers used their steady play from Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, and Trey Kaufman-Renn to dominate the Northern Kentucky Norse to a 72-50 victory at home on Friday. The Boilers shot 52.9% from the field and 40.9% (9-22) from behind the arc but again struggled to limit their turnovers and to rebound the basketball to the liking of their head coach. The game also came with a potentially major injury to one of the key starters for the Boilers this season.

Early in the game as Daniel Jacobsen was gaining position in the low post, a Northern Kentucky player appeared to knee him just below the knee. Jacobsen immediately went down, clutching his shin, and struggled to get up. He inevitably had to be helped off the floor and went back to the locker room for an extended amount of time before returning on crutches with ice on his leg.

In the post game, Head Coach Matt Painter said he unsure of the injury but noted that it appeared to be a lower leg issue. The program released a statement on Saturday stating:

The Boilers turned to fellow 7’ post Will Berg in Jacobsen’s absence and the big man from Sweden flashed some of the potential that brought him to West Lafayette. Berg grabbed a team high 7 rebounds while scoring 7 points on 3-4 shooting. Berg isn’t likely to be the splashy player Purdue has had in the post with Edey and Williams lately, but he is consistently in the right position on both ends of the floor and plays to his and his teammates strengths.

Fletcher Loyer continued his hot start on the season by going 4-5 from behind the arc and netting a team high 16 points along with 4 assists. The junior guard is now shooting 70% (7-10) from behind the arc on the season and has shown more willingness to be aggressive with the ball in his hands while making high IQ plays. Painter praised Loyer for ‘trying like hell to be a leader’ and said he would make a really good coach one day.

Alongside Loyer, Trey Kaufman-Renn had another solid night going 4-5 from the floor along with shooting 6-8 from the free throw line for a total of 14 points. Along with his five rebounds and 2 assists in just 24 minutes, TKR has been an efficient and effective presence in the low post. He also turned the ball over just once, something Purdue needs to see from both he and Smith moving forward.

Following his 15 assist season opener that also saw him have 6 turnovers, Smith had a solid night again. With 11 points, 7 assists, 2 rebounds, and 2 steals, Smith shows a more aggressive approach by attacking the defense and trying to push the ball in transition. He needs to continue that approach to help the Boilers as they approach the next three games against Yale, Alabama, and Marquette, all three NCAA Tourney teams in 2024.

With the stat us of Jacobsen still unknown, Purdue will need veteran big man Caleb Furst to be a steadying force on both ends of the floor. He possess a unique skillset that the Boilers can use, notably his ability to catch and shoot quickly in the post, rebound, and get up the floor quickly in transition. He’ll be needed for more minutes alongside TKR, which hasn’t seemed to work out as much as fans had hoped it would when both players signed in the same class in 2021. The two just seem to never quite gel the way many thought they might on the floor and has just appeared to be clunky.

With Jacobsen going down without logging a stat, the three other freshman combined for 9 points, 9 rebounds, 4 assists (all Harris), 3 steals (all Cox), and 3 turnovers in a combined 51 minutes of action. Of the three freshman, Matt Painter spoke highly of Burgess in his post game press conference and said they need to help him with his conditioning and realized he may be a guy who can go for three minute spurts. Burgess, as Painter has explained many times of the years, ‘emptied his gas tank’ pretty quickly and that led to some of his issues of missing easy buckets. Painter likened him a bit to Isaac Haas although Burgess likely gets himself into better physical shape as the year, and his career, continues to progress.

The Boilers will play Monday night against the Yale Bulldogs, a team that beat the Auburn Tigers in the biggest upset of the 2024 NCAA Tourney. Purdue will then host an Alabama team that is ranked 2nd in both the AP and Coaches polls before a trip north to Milwaukee to face a ranked Marquette Golden Eagle squad.