Takeaways: Dominating win over Northwestern 

CHICAGO — Though it was a tired and overmatched opponent, Purdue opened the postseason in fine form Thursday, beating Northwestern 81-68 at the Big Ten Tournament.

Our GoldandBlack.com post-game analysis from the win …

PDF: Purdue-Northwestern statistics

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ON BRADEN SMITH

As he chases prominent assist records, Braden Smith summed up his entire Purdue career in one play Thursday night against the Wildcats.

His superhero act on that loose ball—lunging for it with no regard for his personal safety—captured the competitive will that has defined his Purdue career in one moment.

That it resulted in an improbable assist was fitting for a player who has been one of the best the college game has ever seen in that category.

In games like this, given the situation Purdue is in, it makes more sense to focus less on the opponent and more on the product Purdue puts forth. This was a pretty sharp performance by Purdue, second-half raggedness notwithstanding.

That reflects well on Smith and his fellow seniors, who are obviously the crux of this team at this point. Purdue has needed leadership, and Smith provided it tonight with his effort, his decision-making and the defensive energy Purdue so badly needed to open this postseason.

ON PHYSICAL TONE-SETTING

This was a favorable matchup for Purdue on the interior, as Northwestern has very little size and effectively none right now with Arrinten Page sidelined. In games like that, you want to see Purdue lean into what should be an advantage against smaller teams.

That is exactly what it did, prioritizing getting the ball to the rim early in the game, dominating the glass once again against the Wildcats and taking a real physical toll on Northwestern that, had this game been strung out even longer, probably would have shown up even more against a gassed and thin team.

If this is the Oscar Cluff that Purdue gets the rest of this month, that will be huge for the Boilermakers. And this is the best and most physical Trey Kaufman-Renn has played offensively this season, it seems like.

It seems like, regardless of matchups, if Purdue gets this kind of attitude from its frontcourt in the NCAA tournament — without fouls becoming a problem — it’s going to be pretty tough.

ON THE SECOND HALF

The second half was imperfect, to put it nicely. But the encouraging thing from Purdue’s perspective was that players and coaches didn’t seem very happy about it afterward, even though Northwestern never got closer than 14 points in the second half after trailing by as many as 26.

This game was over at halftime. Funny things happen in basketball, but funny things were never going to happen in this one. Yet Purdue still seemed a little annoyed that it didn’t finish the game better.

The significance of that is that it reflects how much Purdue expects from itself at this point and how unimpressed it was with itself in what was, all things considered, a pretty impressive win.

A hallmark of Purdue’s NCAA runner-up team a couple of years ago was its approach; it never seemed terribly impressed with itself.

This Purdue team’s circumstances are different, but that doesn’t mean the attitude has to be.

Look, making too much of this game is fraught with peril. Purdue overmatched Northwestern, and the Wildcats were both short-handed and running on fumes. But Purdue’s standard ought to be the best version of itself, so any lamentation over getting outscored in the second half of a one-sided game would seem to align with that thinking.