Express Upon Further Review: Wisconsin
Following each Purdue basketball game this season — or at least most — GoldandBlack.com will take a closer look back at some finer points in our long-standing Upon Further Review series. Today, the third-ranked Boilermakers’ 78-70 Senior Day win over Wisconsin.
FLETCHER LOYER (AND BRADEN SMITH)
So, Wisconsin was pretty aggressive defending Purdue’s guards, sometimes particularly grabby.
Um …
But Fletcher Loyer in particular handled it very well, with some systematic help. His bread and butter offensively is those dribble-handoff and in-bound actions that tilt the floor for him toward the basket and put defenders a step behind. He roasted Wisconsin on this stuff, using the Badgers’ aggressiveness against it.
(Not a great defensive effort here by John Blackwell.)
Loyer does a pretty good job reading and reacting with this stuff. Wisconsin mixes this up here and hedges after dropping its big in the clip above.
Here’s what looks like a full switch. I’m not sure because AJ Storr doesn’t seem to know what he’s doing. Loyer reads it and beats it.
Now, Braden Smith …
His ability to dribble east and west really makes him hard to guard, hard to keep from getting to his spots.
Look how fast this is all run.
Chucky Hepburn is a good on-ball defender. This is how you beat a good on-ball defender in the full court. Purdue runs him off two open-floor screens, then sneaks the initial screener into a play after Smith has entered half-court offense with a head of steam and gotten Wisconsin to hunker down on defense.
Edey is a nice pressure release for his guards, too.
Here, Steven Crowl is in straight drop coverage, but completely in line with Edey, not even interested in fanning out to account for Smith at all. He actually turns his back on the ball. But at least Wisconsin didn’t leave Loyer in the corner here.
Wisconsin played with fire for sure with its defensive game plan, helping off 40-percent shooters. This is premier puppeteering here by Zach Edey to A) clear out one defender with a pass fake then B) draw the other with a deep dribble to extend his closeout then C) hit the open man. Pristine execution and spacing here by Purdue. There’s no right answer here for Wisconsin. But leaving Loyer is never a good idea.
PURDUE DEFENSE
Couple small things to highlight here.
Wisconsin got Purdue a few times in Madison with its bigs slipping these handoffs and screens. The Boilermakers were all over it on Sunday.
I don’t remember what Purdue did at Wisconsin in terms of defending this, but on Sunday its bigs never came up too far on any of these plays below, unafraid of Wisconsin turning the corner, but also building in elbow help when this was run to the middle of the floor.
Second, and I may be imagining this, but it seemed to me like Purdue was switching with Zach Edey a bit higher. Normally, the foul line has been the trigger.
This is different but an unreal play by Edey while playing with foul concerns.
Credit where it’s due here, too, to Mason Gillis.
Wisconsin has Purdue beat here, with Loyer stuck in a horrific matchup on Tyler Wahl, who’s trying to post up. Gillis’ pressure on the entry man blows it up.
Purdue did do some different stuff in this game, often using Edey in that one-man zone role when Wisconsin had a non-shooting big on the floor. That’s not new.
But this look, when Wisconsin was just letting Wahl iso, drive and either dribble into post-ups or just crash into people, this looks kinda 3-2-ish, with Edey centered and help stationed at both elbows.
MISC
• Why is Purdue such a better three-point-shooting team? Lots of reasons, stuff like this very much included.
Last year, Loyer probably shoots this ball and probably should have.
These guys are settled in enough now and have enough trust and awareness in one another for stuff like this to happen. Loyer turns down a good shot for himself in exchange for a great one for Smith.
This could just be freewheeling or two players communicating, but the switch here seems to trigger at the top of the arc.
• Smart scheme by Purdue here, because AJ Storr chases Lance Jones, Jones’ back screen frees Edey to be all alone at the rim. The action freezes Storr and put him way behind the play.
• There are limitations, sure, but Trey Kaufman-Renn has been doing some really good things on D lately.
