Takeaways: Toughness, will, depth and more from No. 2 Purdue's win at top-10 Alabama

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — As far as elite road wins go, second-ranked Purdue’s already on the board, beating No. 8 Alabama Thursday night in a back-and-forth slugfest in Coleman Coliseum.

Our GoldandBlack.com post-game analysis from the 87-80 Boilermaker win …

PDF: Purdue-Alabama statistics

Subscribe to GoldandBlack.com’s YouTube channel

ELITE LEADERSHIP FOR PURDUE

Trey Kaufman-Renn‘s All-America-and-then-some performance can be viewed through different lenses: About his skills, his fit at the 4, his expanding game, whatever.

But here’s the most notable: The senior always gives great effort, but Alabama he played inordinately so. After two games idled, he looked A) stir crazy and B) like he recognized his team needed him on the glass and decided he wasn’t going to be part of the solution, but the solution altogether. He set the tone for a game Purdue with toughness as much as anything. Eight offensive rebounds kind of says it all.

Then, Braden Smith again showing that being an elite player is one thing, but being an elite competitor is another. He’s bother, but the latter was more important than the former tonight, because speaking of tone-setting his fearlessness in crunch time really mattered.

You expect this kind of stuff from veterans, but these two aren’t just any veterans. They’re the rarest of assets in college basketball: Elite, elite players who are seniors.

ON ATHETICISM

Is Purdue the most athletic team in college basketball? It is not.

Does it matter? It sure didn’t tonight. You see the guys Alabama runs out there every year? Specimens, virtually all of ’em.

Yes, people can jump high than Oscar Cluff and ca move Daniel Jacobsen off his base, but those people also gave up 19 offensive rebounds tonight.

Part of this was stylistic. Alabama is not a rebounding-minded program. They want to run and shoot. It’s what they do, and they’re great at it.

But rebounding decided this game. Translation: Toughness decided the game. The better-looking team isn’t always the tougher team.

You know, physicality was part of what put Purdue in the bonus pretty quick in the second half, and that really mattered. That was the old Zach Edey battle-of-attrition blueprint.

OMER MAYER: READY FOR THE MOMENT

You don’t see instant-offense guys off the bench as much in college as you do the NBA, but Purdue has one. What an arrival of sorts for Omer Mayer, who replaced Smith in the first half and just kind of did what Smith does. They’re not the same player, but they’ve got a lot of the same stuff. Mayer entering a game like this ready to roll, confident beyond his years, and played a pretty clean game in addition to sparking Purdue offensively.

International competition is a big deal. Going to Kentucky so that this wasn’t these players’ first-ever road game, that was a big deal.

JUST A HUGE WIN FOR PURDUE

It’s really early in the season, but your actions in November echo through the winter and into March.

There’s no scenario in which this isn’t that centerpiece road win that every highest-level NCAA Tournament résumé. When you’re playing to try to be the No. 1 overall seed, the margins are thin and it’s wins like these that separate one great team from another.

Plus, the developmental benefit.

The SEC has been so good to Purdue. Some of their online fans might be degenerates, but the basketball component has helped lift the Boilermakers a level, whether it’s been this tremendous series with Alabama, those epic Tennessee game, those losses to Texas A&M and Auburn last season or those exhibitions at Arkansas and Kentucky.

Dealing with athleticism and physical maturity and pace has helped Purdue teams develop and be ready for anything come March, because SEC basketball is very different from Big Ten basketball.

THE PURDUE CENTERS

Oscar Cluff buoyed Purdue early, then he and Daniel Jacobsen really closed it out with Cluff’s rebounding and Jacobsen sucker-punching ‘Bama with those finishes off Trey Kaufman-Renn’s passing.

Eighteen points, 16 rebounds, three assists and just one turnover between the two. Cluff’s two assists led to threes after offensive rebounds.

They’re not perfect, but the productivity and impact from these two has been outstanding.