Roundball Roundup: TKRs numbers

Purdue Roundball Roundup is a Boilermaker basketball-focused information and analysis clearinghouse/ thinkpiece posted periodically throughout the season, typically during breaks in the schedule.

TREY KAUFMAN-RENN AT THE 4

With 11 games in the books, nine of them with Trey Kaufman-Renn moved back to forward, it is apparent Purdue’s big lineups have been very effective to this point, with Kaufman-Renn’s positional role next to credible size changing things for him slightly, mostly for the better, depending what you value.

A look at TKR’s percentages and per-40-minute numbers from last season spent almost entirely at center vs. his first nine games this season — he missed the first two— spent almost entirely at forward.

Year	FG%	Shots (/40)	PPG (/40)	REB (/40)	ORB%	DRB%	ASST (/40)	FTA (/40)	FOUL (/40)	TO (/40)
’24-25	59.5	17.7	26.1	8.5	11.0	15.4	2.8	7.6	3.8	2.9
’25-26	58.2	15.2	20.3	15.7	20.4	24.5	3.5	3.5	3.5	2.7

Through the first six weeks of the season, Kaufman-Renn has seen a spike across the board in a variety of important areas — notably rebounding, which is clearly attributable to his positional role, personnel dynamics around him and other factors — but his scoring is down, at least on a per-40 basis. His points per shot average of 1.19 is the exact same right now as last season.

Some context on that …
• Though this probably isn’t going to be an enduring difference, Kaufman-Renn’s usage rate is down from 31.1 percent to 24.9 this season. That will likely normalize, but perhaps not all the way to last season’s heights. Long story short: Purdue hasn’t yet needed Kaufman-Renn to carry the scoring load the way he did last season. Things have expanded for him into more play-making and decision-making and certainly organic productivity on the glass. He profiles right now as more of a player Purdue is running offense through as opposed to for, no pun intended.
• Kaufman-Renn missed the Evansville and Oakland games to start the season, not only costing his numbers two potential robust stat lines, but also shrinking his sample size into decreased relevance.
• Purdue is No. 1 nationally in KenPom efficiency and averaging 1.058 points per possession, up from last season’s 1.025. Kaufman-Renn’s individual PPP of 1.043 is down a tick from last season’s 1.089.
• According to Synergy Sports data, the percentage of Kaufman-Renn’s shots taken at the rim is down from 51.6 percent to 43.3 percent, a marked change, but one that might be offset to some extent by rising assist numbers. Twelve of Kaufman-Renn’s 21 assists this season has been thrown to a center.
• Oscar Cluff is at present the most efficient player in college basketball, inarguably a byproduct of the mutually beneficial symbiosis that exists between him and Kaufman-Renn. They have been so valuable to one another.
• Purdue is shooting 93 percent on dunks, per Synergy. That sounds a certain way, but last year, it was a pathetic 74 percent. Big-to-big passing and new layers to short-roll offense for Kaufman-Renn have helped tilt that scale in Purdue’s favor.

CLUFF-ICIENCY

Back in 2019, a season in which Purdue surprisingly ran away with the Big Ten title and came quite literally a millisecond from the Final Four, it was Grady Eifert who sort of redefined “efficiency” at Purdue. In a complementary role, the forward was No. 1 nationally in offensive rating, per KenPom, on a usage level the site humorously categorizes as “nearly invisible,” just 10.4 percent of possessions. Eifert offensive rebounded, generated steals, never turned the ball over and took only layups and wide-open threes.

It was the ideal counterweight to Carsen Edwards’ you-only-live-once offensive style and Ryan Cline’s sharp-shooting.

Now, Oscar Cluff is filling a very similar role, though his usage rate is double Eifert’s from his senior season, but still relatively modest at 19.7 percent. As it stands today, Cluff is No. 2 nationally per KenPom’s offensive ratings, a composite of Cluff’s offensive rebounding rate (No. 2 nationally), his turnover rate (63rd) and his 75-percent shooting.

Cluff is averaging 12.4 points on an average of 6.6 field goal attempts, all of them dunks, putbacks or one-on-one post-ups in prime position. He’s shot the third-most free throws on his team and made 81 percent of them.

Players like Cluff, assist-to-turnover ratio isn’t really a hot-button statistic due to the nature of their position and roles, but Cluff’s 20 assists dwarf his half-dozen turnovers.

DOES THIS SCORING DISTRIBUTION ENDURE?

Right now, Purdue has five players averaging 9.1 points or more, four averaging double-digits and no one averaging more than Fletcher Loyer‘s team-best 14.1.

Is this how it’s going to be all season? While it’s true that Purdue may have different high scorers often throughout the season, the likely answer is no. As more games are played, chances are Kaufman-Renn drifts to the top of the list here and stays there. He’s still Purdue’s destination scorer, with too many avenues for scoring available to him. If he gets a friendlier whistle in Big Ten than he did last season and has thus far this season, and can push his percentage into the 70s, then it’s a really safe bet.

Loyer, Cluff and Jacobsen are more in line with situational producers more dependent on game-to-game circumstances that can mean big games here and there, but perhaps not the same consistency in numbers as Kaufman-Renn and Braden Smith can get. There will be usage variance for the others.

The best, most obvious answer is that it’s really only the team total that matters. It is unimportant what the coalition that gets you to 80 looks like as long as you get to 80.

When a team has a glob of scoring vs. a clear stat alpha or two, sometimes it can be questioned whether they have the guy. No one will ever say that about Purdue or any team that can put the ball in Smith’s hands every possession, especially late in games.

RANDOM PURDUE NOTES

• Purdue has held five of its past six opponents to 62 or fewer points, the second half vs. Iowa State being the obvious eyesore during that span. Marquette needed a 12-2 run to close the game to crack 55.

Quietly, the Boilermakers are now a top-25 defense nationally per KenPom’s efficiency metrics, despite not forcing a ton of turnovers or excelling in any one area to a really significant extent. Purdue is 55th nationally in scoring defense at 67.1 points per game, but there are apples and oranges involved with that category because Purdue has played a stronger schedule than most and played more garbage time than many.

Purdue is averaging only 14.2 fouls per game, top 10 nationally.

Rim protection: Opponents are shooting only 54 percent at the basket. It was 67 percent last season.