Takeaways: Purdue’s win over Iowa

Fifth-ranked Purdue was pushed on its home floor Wednesday, but surged in the second half to dispatch Iowa 79-72.

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

PDF: Purdue-Iowa statistics

Subscribe to GoldandBlack.com’s YouTube channel

PURDUE’S COMPLEMENTARY BENCH

The bench was an enormous part of this win, but not just in what reserves did, but how they did it, providing Purdue stark and effective contrasts in style, to the point Ben McCollum suggested the Boilermakers were harder to guard with their backups out there.

When Trey Kaufman-Renn got in foul trouble, Jack Benter came in and made two threes, drove on a closeout to assist on another and created enough pull away from the rim to open big men for easy baskets, all dynamics distinctly different from Kaufman-Renn.

Meanwhile, when Iowa was attaching its bigs to Braden Smith on the perimeter, Daniel Jacobsen‘s lob capabilities came to the forefront, a threat Oscar Cluff doesn’t necessarily create.

There was no real divergent style with Gicarri Harris or Omer Mayer. They were just really good, as their team-best +9 and +7 plus/minuses reflect.

Purdue survived this one for a lot of reasons, but there may not have been a bigger one than the bench on a night it was very much needed.

BIG-PICTURE SIGNIFICANCE

Make no mistake: Braden Smith‘s competitive will drove this win, but the surge started with, and was sustained by, defense.

Philosophically and schematically Purdue is not built to force bulk turnovers. It is built to do so opportunistically. It’s done so really well, but more than that, its batting average scoring off its live-ball takeaways has been astronomical, and a real game-changer. Purdue has assets enough to be a great transition offense; it just needs at-bats. Turnovers do the trick.

Its own turnovers put Purdue in a really tough spot there for a while, but Iowa only wound up with eight points off nine turnovers. Seemed like more, didn’t it? Meanwhile, Purdue got 16 points off 13 Iowa turnovers.

CLOSING STRONG

Purdue is built to finish. It plays a lot of guys, it changes speeds, it wears opponents down on the interior, its guards make their free throws and so on.

The bench loomed large in this tonight, but this was definitely a game that highlight Purdue’s ability to be better in the final five minutes of a close game. The Boilermakers made nine of their final 10 shots, got the rebounds they needed and left nothing to chance at the foul line.

WHAT-IFS

Give Iowa credit. It was very good tonight. Really patient and disciplined offensively.

But also kind of lucky. Three threes and one two-point jumper took really friendly bounces. That’s the nature of a sport played with a ball full of air that’s thrown repeatedly at a rigid target, but also if half those bounces go different, maybe this isn’t quite the same tricky path to victory for Purdue.

Or if the officials hadn’t swallowed their whistles on a clear-cut third first-half foul on Bennett Stirtz (which would have sent Smith to the line), the first half ends differently.

There are always such things in basketball games, but the context behind outcomes matters, too, when assessing an outcome.

Further, outlier shooting isn’t necessarily outlier shooting when a team generates great enough looks to let mediocre shooters develop rhythm, but broadly, this was outlier shooting for Iowa. Credit them for making the right passes and decisions and exhibiting patience in a living, breathing environment.

BRADEN SMITH’S RISING TO THE OCCASION

This is what special players can do, sometimes.

By his own admission, Smith was bad in the first half. Instead of scoring at the rim, he made tough passes that led to at least one of his three turnovers. The All-American was scoreless in the first half and his team outscored by six points with him on the floor.

It must have just pissed him off.

In the second half, Smith was 6-of-7 shooting, scoring all 16 of his points, with four of his eight assists.

When he made back-to-back jumpers inside the 15-minute mark, then saw his only miss of the game tipped in by Jacobsen, it was pretty evident the direction this game was headed in. This burst came right after back-to-back pick-six dunks put Iowa up nine.

It was the figurative “switch flipped” that the great ones can do sometimes.