Takeaways—win over Oregon

It wasn’t near as emphatic as Purdue stakeholders might have preferred, but the Boilermakers strained on Saturday afternoon to get by struggling Oregon, leaving its home floor with a 68-64 victory.

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

PDF: Purdue-Oregon statistics

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THE CONSISTENCY ISSUE IS GLARING

Purdue started the game just fine on defense, then would up allowing 55-percent first half shooting to what has been a bad offensive team. Purdue was fine at times offensively, then victimized by its own horrific and untimely turnovers. Purdue again allowed a game-changing surge to end the first half, then got every stop and every rebound it needed at the end.

When all the ups and downs were tabulated, the Boilermakers needed to sweat like a pig to overcome their own turbulence. This would have been a loss there would be no coming back from.

Credit Purdue for getting done and credit Oregon for not rolling up in the fetal position during an awful season, but also don’t lose sight of the big picture here: Purdue should be better than this. Continuity should be a strength, and continuity should breed consistency. Instead, Purdue doesn’t look all that different from these teams haphazardly thrown together back in the spring.

Too often, Purdue looks disconnected whereas it should look like a closed fist. Its energy, effort and diligence defensively come and go, and there are still loose-ball issues.

There’s no real explanation for it as long as everyone is still looking at the big picture and understanding the current reality of things. There’s no room for vanity here, no justification anymore for overconfidence. The games start to really matter again here, and it’s not going to go well for the Boilermakers if they keep allowing games to turn against them right before halftime, or if they just inexplicably crater for 10 minutes like they did at Indiana.

Such turbulence is the opposite, really, of what Purdue should be.

THE BENCH MAY HAVE BAILED PURDUE OUT

Does Purdue win this game without another high-impact spurt from Jack Benter off the bench?

With 11:30-ish left, Benter followed Omer Mayer‘s missed one-and-one free throw, retaining a possession ended by Mayer making a jumper. Then, Benter drew a charge.

Two minutes later, he popped a three off a nice find from Braden Smith.

That’s at least a five-point footprint for Benter.

With depth, it’s not just how many minutess a guy plays or whatever, but more so how the game is affected by his presence. Benter really affected the game, again.

Further, this was one of Daniel Jacobsen‘s better games of the season, as he added nine points on three shots, made his free throws and held up on the glass.

Either one, you could argue as the difference in the game. The combination of the two, certainly.

SENIOR RESURGENCE

This wasn’t Braden Smith’s best game after he started off hot, but classmates Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn stood tall.

Loyer obviously made the biggest shot of the game but had been good prior. His 18 points were a team-high, and they came on seven shots.

Kaufman-Renn just isn’t getting scoring volume but has been productive on a per-touch basis right in line with last season. Twelve points, eight rebounds and four assists is a strong day’s work. Had Purdue held a lead to salt away late, things would have set up nicely for TKR to be that guy. He was scoring on Bittle and Purdue had the bonus to leverage.