Takeaways: Oakland

 Our GoldandBlack.com post-game analysis from No. 1 Purdue’s 87-77 win over Oakland Friday night in Mackey Arena.

PDF: Purdue-Oakland statistics

PURDUE JUST NEEDS TO SHOW MORE

Critical context: Purdue has been down one of the best players in college basketball in Trey Kaufman-Renn. More critical context: The issues that the Boilermakers need to work through might be TKR-adjacent in some ways, but not completely tied to his absence.

Did Purdue need him offensively when it was inexplicably frigid from three-point range early? Yes. The offensive balance he’d have provided would have been the counterpunch, as was reflected in how the game turned once Purdue started getting in the paint more. That said, Purdue is a great shooting team and you don’t want great shooters passing on great shots.

Would Kaufman-Renn have helped on the glass? Sure. The more physical presences you have and the more natural rebounders you have, the better. The guys playing the 4 in his absence are doing good things but they are not naturally wired to rebound, or to head-hunt for blockouts when the ball goes up. But it’s not like Kaufman-Renn alone would have closed off all those long offensive rebounds that are escaping.

But the defensive concerns and the rebounding concerns are linked.

Purdue simply has to be better against the dribble. It’s been a bit of a double-edged sword because Purdue has been caught being too aggressive at times, which is probably better than the alternative. But scramble mode is a poison pill for this Boilermaker team, as it’s been in the past.

It’s great that you have real centers now who can block seven shots in a single game between them — that’s 12 percent of Purdue’s total for all of last season, by the way — but the best-case for any team with shot-blockers is to not need them. Purdue needed them too much against Oakland and if that keeps up, the rebounding problems aren’t just going to go away.

Credit Purdue for changing its effort and generating spark and for finding a sweet spot on offense until the shooting leveled out, but it has to hope there’s a higher competitive gear to be found at the other end of the floor.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PAINT

Purdue’s approach is largely guided by analytic indicators of how much the paint matters. Thus it’s emphasis on getting the ball inside on offense and on keeping the ball out on defense. This game encapsulated all of it well.

Offensively, things cracked wide open offensively once Purdue started attacking off the bounce and playing inside-out and high-low from the high post against Oakland’s malleable zone. The threes came too easy early, though, and no one should blame Purdue for taking them. Opponents who allow that many of those shots to Purdue are begging to give up a hundred points. Didn’t happen tonight, obviously, as the shooting took a while to balance out. When it did, lights out.

Likewise, Oakland got way too many inside-out threes because it got the ball in the paint, again because of those initial dribble breaches, which then contributed to rebounding problems. It all starts with being set on defense and containing the dribble. Purdue’s defense these days is built around helping against the dribble for that reason, but it’s needing to help more than it would prefer. Oakland’s strategy to post Purdue’s guards and wings on the right block every time down to start the second half was smart and put the Boilermakers in some tough spots without a lot of great help mechanisms on that part of the floor, in a situation where Purdue couldn’t afford to allow turn-and-drive stuff right to the middle of the paint. But none of it would have mattered had Purdue just done a better job containing the ball.

But it was Purdue’s lane-emphasis on offense that turned the game in its favor and its lane-defense difficulties that made it keep sweating ’til practically the final minute.

OSCAR CLUFF: SPARK

New Purdue center Oscar Cluff won’t out-athlete many people this season, nor does Purdue need him to, but his physicality combined with his activity level are going to really show their value more and more as he settles in.

Tonight, he was a difference-maker. His magnetism to the basketball on the offensive glass and the wide berth he creates on the defensive glass are borderline transformational for Purdue compared to last season. And that motor was pretty evident a bunch vs. Oakland as he frequently popped open around the basket and made himself available to easy baskets. He’s going to wear some people out this season.

If you were expecting Cluff to be Dwight Howard, you’re going to be disappointed.

But Purdue should be thrilled to death with 14 points, nine rebounds, four blocks, two assists, a steal and no turnovers, plus 5-of-6 shooting and four fouls drawn, in 28 minutes. That’s the sort of high-efficiency, substance-heavy role value any team with stars needs.

Cluff was good for double-digit possessions tonight, when you take the six offensive rebounds, plus the blocks and steal into account, not to mention him using only six possessions to score 14 points.

ON TURNOVERS

Purdue needs to be simple. It doesn’t need to make things more difficult than they need to be. They’re too good offensively and style points too irrelevant. Braden Smith, great a player as he is, committed a few turnovers he’d like to have back on flair-type passes during a stretch Oakland could have used to mount another run. Again, such things are teachable this time of year, not for any individuals, per se, but for the whole team.

But with players like Smith, you’ve got to ride the lightning at times with the understanding the brilliance is going to far outweigh. It’s going to happen, same it did with forces of nature Carsen Edwards and Jaden Ivey.

The key is for everyone else’s efficiency to insulate your geniuses.

Smith, like Edwards and Ivey before him, can do his thing when no one else is turning the ball over and everyone else is being efficient.

Tonight, both of Purdue’s centers and all of its other ball-handling guards were turnover-free. That’s huge.

ON CJ COX

This will be brief: Purdue covets “winning qualities” and with that said, Cox showed a bunch tonight.

His impact transcended the box score, and the box score looked great: 14 points, no turnovers. Lots of smart, selfless passes and a few much-needed rebounds.

Rock-solid, just what Purdue needs.