Takeaways: Competitive response, lob dunks and more from Purdue’s win over Minnesota

Sixth-ranked Purdue secured a sweep of its two-game December slate Wednesday night, routing Minnesota 85-57 in Mackey Arena.

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

PDF: Purdue-Minnesoa stats

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ON PURDUE’S RESPONSE

It’s a false equivalency to suggest Saturday’s meeting with top-10 Iowa State and tonight’s visit from a likely Big Ten also-ran were the same, but the situations were. Purdue needed a strong start to the second half, the sort of out-of-the-locker-room surge Boilermaker teams have historically been capable of on their home floors.

Saturday, Purdue wasn’t, for whatever reason. Wednesday night, it took it out on the Golden Gophers, playing a near-perfect half to decide the game in a merciless way. Purdue was vicious on offense and disruptive on defense and never stopped turning the screws on Minnesota physically to the point that new coach Niko Medved repeated himself over and over after the game, “They wore us down.”

The face of Purdue’s relentlessness: Braden Smith.

A great player, yes, but as has been apparent since he dominated the second half against Marquette his freshman season, he is as importantly an elite competitor. Of Minnesota’s nine turnovers, Smith accounted for at least seven of them. That included five steals of his own and a blocked three-pointer that cinched a shot-clock violation.

Smith’s final line in a game Purdue had to have in a moment it needed its alpha to be his best: 15 points, 12 assists, six rebounds, five steals and two blocked shots, many of his minutes being played after hurting his left hand very early in the game. (Status TBD, but his performance thereafter said something.)

There was a distinct fire in Smith’s belly against Minnesota. Whether he’ll ever admit it or not, he is better when is mad. Wednesday night he played with the sort of competitive angst Purdue really needed.

THE PHYSICAL TOLL IS REAL

Purdue does possess a bunch of elements conducive to running opponents’ batteries down. They’re really big and physical up front, for one thing. They are really active, mobile and dynamic offensively on the perimeter for another. They’re strong in will-draining areas like three-point shooting and offensive rebounding and they’re built to draw fouls. And they’re deep.

It all adds up to a mix that can overwhelm opponents, inferior ones especially.

This was a great example. Minnesota shot its shot in piecing together the late-first half run that brought the deficit to just three. There was no second such run once Purdue made its intentions known in the first few minutes of the second half.

ON THE DANIEL JACOBSEN LOB THREAT

The success rate wasn’t 100 percent tonight, but for the season it’s not been far off, but this is a really valuable layer to Purdue’s offense now: Daniel Jacobsen‘s rim-roll lob-dunk proficiency. Those are not easy plays for any 7-foot-whatever player to make even if they look simple, nor are they always easy passes to make, but Zach Edey taught Smith well and now Smith has a destination threat again, another land mine defenses have to find a way around when they guard Smith in ball-screen offense.

Purdue can score a lot of different ways. The easier the better.

These aren’t easy plays, per se, but they can be categorized as easy scoring.