Takeaways: Quarterfinal blowout over Nebraska

CHICAGO — Continuing to play some of its best basketball at the right time, Purdue beat Nebraska at the Big Ten Tournament Friday 74-58.

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

PDF: Purdue-Nebraska statistics

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ON FLETCHER LOYER

This was one of the best games of Fletcher Loyer’s Purdue career — and it has been a great career.
This was about much, much more than Loyer’s team-high 19 points.

It was more about how hard he played, how well he defended, and how physical he was.

That contested rebound he grabbed in the second half — when Nebraska still had a puncher’s chance late — was a really big-time play and completely belied the way people tend to view Loyer’s value most through his shooting.

Purdue really grinded tonight with its defense, its effort and its will. Its big guys dominated the glass, played really hard and hoarded possessions. But the face of Purdue’s grinding against the Cornhuskers was kind of Loyer.

ON PHYSICAL TONE-SETTING … AGAIN

Make no mistake here: Northwestern and Nebraska were really favorable matchups for Purdue because they simply could not match Purdue’s size and physicality around the basket. So when you look at the results of these two games as being predictive of things to come, keep that in mind.

Purdue has a really good thing going here in terms of how hard its frontcourt plays and how badly it wants the basketball. That has been an enormous advantage thus far in the Big Ten Tournament, albeit against opponents against whom it should be an advantage.

Purdue got 22 points and 18 rebounds on 10-of-16 shooting from its frontcourt pillars, while playing well defensively and experiencing no foul trouble.

And that says nothing of the toll they took on Nebraska’s and Northwestern’s frontcourts.

But both big guys put together quite a highlight reel tonight of sheer will plays on the glass — whether it was Trey Kaufman-Renn tipping the ball to Braden Smith on an offensive rebound that led to C.J. Cox’s enormous three, or Oscar Cluff repeatedly going over, around or through anyone in his path to get offensive rebounds.

Purdue is a great offensive basketball team — one of the best in the sport — but when it plays with this sort of magnetism to the ball, whether it’s rebounding or playing defense in a disruptive manner, it can be one of the best teams in the country.

PURDUE DEPTH

Guards CJ Cox and Gicarri Harris were major players in this defensive effort for Purdue, but both also made really consequential threes at moments when Nebraska might have been able to piece together a bit of a run.

Beyond that, you might not have noticed or remembered either of these plays, but both made great plays attacking closeouts and simple passes that led to scores. That sort of poise attacking closeouts — and the decision-making that follows — shows both players’ continued maturation as offensive contributors.

DEFENSE CLICKS

To a man, everyone who discussed Purdue’s defensive cohesiveness in these first few games of the Big Ten Tournament mentioned that it simply comes down to communication. Why that has come and gone this season is a good question, but at this stage it’s a moot point.

That Purdue has found it — and now has a chance to sustain it — is something that could define its season from here on out. That Purdue figured some things out before the postseason reflects really well on everyone involved, especially the seniors, and especially Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer.

The big men also did a great job on Rienk Mast.