GoldandBlack.com Express Analysis: Florida State

TALLAHASEE, Fla. — Despite being set up to struggle by a brutal scheduling draw compounded by travel difficulties, fifth-ranked Purdue kept on winning Wednesday night, outlasting Florida State 79-69 at the Tucker Center in what will likely be the final Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Here’s our GoldandBlack.com post-game analysis and Wrap Video.

PDF: Purdue-Florida State statistics

ON WINNING

One thing that has really stood out about Purdue through this best-case-scenario seven-game run to open the season: They just seem to know how to win, a trait that belies its age and experience together.

Whether it was mounting that run to over-take Marquette, beating back West Virginia’s run or altogether preventing Gonzaga and Duke from making their runs, Purdue looks like it’s skipped the whole learning-from-failure portion of the process.

Tonight, Purdue was all set up. It was given a raw deal by the schedule-makers (ESPN, basically). It caught bad travel breaks. And it drew a top-five ranking right before playing a proud program on the road, and got the predictable response from an FSU team that played hard.

Purdue weathered it all and once again did everything right down the stretch to win on a mediocre night. When you win without playing your best, that says something, especially with young guards.

The Boilermakers have never looked shaken late in games this season. At the start of games, maybe, but once they settle in, they’ve been pretty good.

Braden Smith‘s and Fletcher Loyer‘s collective poise and confidence seem to drive this, but so too does the collective calm you seem to see some veterans who are playing like veterans even in they’re playing very different roles this season than they ever have.

Goes without saying that Caleb Furst‘s knack for shaking games up for the better for Purdue has been a huge part of Purdue’s winning formula. He’s been just outstanding.

ON ZACH EDEY

Has Zach Edey been the best player in college basketball thus far?

Who knows? But he may be the most impactful, and really, what’s the difference?

The consistency Purdue’s big man has shown has really been something. In a game that matters, there’s never been that game where he’s just OK or anything like that. He’s been great on offense, great on defense and — the highest compliment there is — reliable as anything. He makes the right decisions and the right passes and when Purdue needs buckets, he gets ’em.

But this goes beyond just productivity. Edey seems to really be leading.

His comments after the game about his own rebounding statistics being unimportant as long as he helps Purdue get the rebound were revealing and genuine. His outreach to teammates this week about handling success painted the picture of a player who learned from some of his team’s struggles last season and is trying to right some wrongs now.

You are also seeing Edey start to carry himself like a great player.

A year ago at this time, he wasn’t exactly setting the sort of physical tone to open games that Purdue often needed.

Wednesday night at Florida State, he had a chance to dunk on seemingly FSU’s whole frontcourt and did just that. He was marking his territory.

ON POINT GUARD

You know, Purdue’s never asked that much from its point guards offensively, beyond sound decision-making and stuff, in terms of play-making.

That’s changing.

Boilermaker coach Matt Painter is known for operating with a robust playbook, but after halftime on Wednesday night, he moved toward just giving Braden Smith the ball and a screen and letting him cook, as the kids say.

Smith used either high ball screens or hand-offs from Zach Edey and scored at the rim and scored on runners. When Florida State got wise and 7-foot-4 Naheem McLeod came over and jumped to try to block Smith’s shot, Smith calmly stopped, brought the ball down and notched the easiest assist of his life to Edey for a dunk.

This was a heck of a credit to Smith but also a shift on the fly by Painter, and a willingness to move off the way he does things and just let a guy play. He was rewarded handsomely for it.

Smith has been a revelation for Purdue, and the trust Painter already has in him is unlike anything there’s probably ever been at Purdue with a freshman, especially a freshman guard. And Loyer’s right there with him.