The story behind Purdue's defensive wrinkle: "It looks like a zone, but it wasn’t particularly a zone"

Matt Painter refused to call it a zone.

But if what Purdue played for a handful of seconds in the first half during Wednesday night’s overtime win over Northwestern wasn’t a zone, what was it?

“I’m not going to tell you what I call it and people know what I’m saying,” Painter said during Friday’s pre-Wisconsin media session ahead of Sunday’s top-10 matchup of Big Ten leaders at the Kohl Center (1 p.m., CBS).

If it looks like a zone, walks like a zone and talks like a zone, is it a zone?

“It looks like a zone, but it wasn’t particularly a zone – coach Painter doesn’t play zone,” said assistant coach Terry Johnson, who oversees the defense with assistant coach Paul Lusk.

But here’s what everyone should agree on – it wasn’t a straight-up, man-to-man defense that’s been a staple of Painter’s program for as long as he’s roamed the sidelines.

It was different, a little out of character, and used because of who the Boilermakers were playing. This is what Boo Buie forces teams to think about, even going back to the offseason and again after the first meeting in December when the All-American guard led the Wildcats with 31 points when they knocked off Purdue for the second-straight season when it was ranked No. 1.

Buie was terrific again Wednesday, scoring 25 points and nearly gave Northwestern another victory over Purdue but his floater at the end of regulation hit the front of the rim. Buie, though, didn’t score after hitting a 3-pointer with 3:18 to play in regulation but his presence kept the pressure on the Boilermakers to score on every possession.  

PURDUE BASKETBALL: Offensively, Purdue might not be what people think it is

“LOOKS A LITTLE WEIRD”

The zone – or whatever you call it – was a conversation that happened in the offseason, Johnson and Lusk said. It’s not out of the ordinary to throw out ideas without needing to put together a scouting report and let the discussion take place. That’s what the offseason is for.

But as the Boilermakers started preparation for the Wildcats after disposing of Rutgers, the coaching staff introduced the idea on Monday.

“We just started it for this game,” sophomore point guard Braden Smith said. “It was a little awkward, looks a little weird, a little funky but I guess we were able to slow them down a little bit.”

The thought process was this – Purdue had to do something different against Buie and knock him and his teammates out of rhythm. Prior to Wednesday, Buie had totaled 57 points in the last two games against the Boilermakers. Using the same approach again, knowing the numbers Buie has put up against Painter’s team, likely wasn’t going to work for the duration of the game.

The Boilermakers did enough in their traditional defense to outlast the Wildcats in a game that was closer than the nine-point margin.

“We had to do something to shrink up the floor with Buie and those iso situations,” Lusk said. “When you play against great players like that, they’re going to get you somehow. You can look at the past film and all the analytics, and this guy is good at doing this, but great players are going to figure out a way to beat you. We thought it was something when they got in iso situations, it was something we wanted to look at.

“You sit there and say, we can’t keep doing it the same way everybody else is doing it because he’s killing people in these situations against some of the best defenders in our league.”

TWO POSSESSIONS, 30 SECONDS

Painter, though, had no intention of staying with this alignment for the entire possession. In fact, Purdue played two possessions for a total of nearly 30 seconds.

Leading up to the first media timeout, Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn were on the top with Fletcher Loyer and Lance Jones on the wings and Zach Edey in the middle. Each player had their arms spread out, trying to cover as much area as possible. Ty Berry drained a 3-pointer after the Boilermakers made a move toward Buie, who quickly passed the ball to his teammate.

The second time, with less than 90 seconds left in the first half, Loyer and Mason Gillis were on top and Smith was near the wing. Edey was in the paint and Camden Heide was outside the lane, keeping an eye on the corner. Buie dribbled past Gillis but his floater didn’t connect.

Once the ball left Buie’s hands, the plan was for the Boilermakers to match up in their man defense.

“We were trying to find a different way,” Johnson said. “They were picking on our guys. You have Boo Buie up top and you’re trying to find a way to get the ball out of his hands. We were trying to figure out the best way.”

WILL PURDUE USE IT AGAIN?

Was this a one-time occurrence or could this alignment resurface in the future? If Purdue plays Northwestern again in the Big Ten tournament, it’s possible. Or, if another guard similar to Buie’s talents and play-making ability shows up in the NCAA tournament.

Using the word zone in the office is likely frowned upon since Painter has been reluctant to use it.

“He’s had a lot of success doing it the way that he’s done it. It’s been very successful. I wouldn’t say reluctant, but I might use some harder terms than reluctant,” Lusk said, smiling. “We looked at it, and he would have to be on the board with anything that we did.”

If anything, what happened Wednesday gives future opponents something else to think about. It’s similar to a football team running a trick play to force opposing coaches to spend time in practice for a situation that may or may not happen.

“Do they say, ‘We have to be ready if Purdue gives you that look?’ ” Lusk said. “I’m not going to answer that for the other team, but I would say we’re going to hang our hat on the man-to-man side and being a man-to-man team.”