Express Analysis: Beating Gonzaga

On3 imageby:Brian Neubert11/28/22

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PORTLAND — Purdue landed a statement win on a national stage late Friday night/early Saturday morning, as the 24th-ranked Boilermakers beat sixth-ranked Gonzaga handily, 84-66. Here’s our GoldandBlack.com post-game analysis and Wrap Video.

PDF: Purdue-Gonzaga stats

THOSE YOUNG GUARDS

The impact that Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer have made on this team in myriad ways is tangible. And keep in mind that barring anything unforeseen — and this is the golden age of unforeseen in college sports — this is the Boilermaker backcourt of the next three or four years.

As we’ve mentioned for weeks now, the two freshmen exude a confidence and a fearlessness that has to be infectious on a team full of older players. Watch Loyer and the purpose he does things with. Same for Smith.

Smith has simply been a revelation, both a legitimate playmaker who’s making those around him better and has helped make Zach Edey a legitimate pick-and-roll weapon, but also a thrower of daggers. Smith’s made a whole season’s worth of winning plays, basically, in crunch times of the past three games, all Boilermaker wins of varying degrees of difficult. Amazingly, Gonzaga was the easiest of the three.

To start this game, Purdue looked unsettled. Loyer didn’t.

These two were playing their fifth college games and the most visible game they’ve ever been part of, even if it was played during the Leno-vs.-Letterman time slot for most of the country. They totaled 28 points and 12 assists and their team dominated an elite program.

November is for star-making, and sometimes the college basketball gets carried away with early results.

That said, the first impression these two have made is no blip. It will endure.

Purdue’s Caleb Furst (Photo: Soobum Im/Getty Images

CALEB FURST KEEPS ON GOING

Purdue dominated Gonzaga tonight. Two freshmen stood out. Zach Edey got his in a matchup of two elite big men.

There simply wasn’t post-game oxygen for Caleb Furst, which is too bad, because the sophomore keeps trucking and tonight, he again was a difference-maker. These three wins Purdue’s gotten, Furst’s finger prints are all over them, even if his numbers don’t necessarily reflect it, aside from tonight.

Furst is too talented to just be labeled an “energy guy” but when talented players are energy guys, they tend to be excellent players, and that’s what Furst’s becoming.

He’s all over the place, as if there are multiple Fursts out there. He’s all over the glass at both ends of the floor, he’s running said floor and he’s in constant motion. He’s cutting hard to the basket and being rewarded with exclamation-mark dunks left and right.

It was only a matter of time before he started making threes and his triple tonight was a big one, reminiscent of his corner three against North Carolina a year ago at this time, though this game wasn’t as close as that one.

Purdue’s got a couple of players who are real heart-and-soul types, Furst, Smith and being a few of them.

You can never have too many, and they’re part of the season that heart and soul seems to be becoming part of this team’s identity.

Purdue's Zach Edey
Purdue’s Zach Edey (Photo: Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

A COMPLETE PERFORMANCE

Purdue was razor sharp offensively after a brutal start, its crispness offensively hitting its zenith in the second half, when Gonzaga simply had no answers for anything Purdue was doing. It reminded of the NCAA Tournament in Hartford, when Villanova looked like it had never an offense like Purdue’s before.

But never mind that for a second and just look at the defensive performance, as good a showing as Purdue’s had in a game like this. When Purdue’s won games like this in recent years, it just outscored people. That was part of the problem last year that people looked right through during Connecticut. Was Purdue’s winning formula then sustainable? It turned out that it was, but wasn’t.

The way this team has won thus far may have staying power provided consistency takes hold. Purdue is doing a good job defensively, it’s answered the bell on the glass after the Marquette game, it’s handling pressure, it’s making threes, it’s making free throws and it’s playing hard and smart.

The Boilermakers course-corrected well, turning the ball over only eight times against Gonzaga.

It is too early in the season still to draw any sweeping conclusions, but it does look like Purdue is laying a solid and sustainable foundation here.

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