Takeaways/Wrap: Gonzaga

DETROIT — Our post-game analysis following third-ranked Purdue’s 80-68 NCAA Tournament win over Gonzaga Friday night at Little Caesars Arena.

ALL BUSINESS

These are big, big wins Purdue is stacking up here, the kind that would normally create jubilant, chaotic locker room scenes and the requisite viral moment of the celebratory moving of your school’s name forward ahead on that gigantic cardboard bracket.

Friday night, Zach Edey, Braden Smith and Lance Jones were all off doing their press conference and Matt Painter wasn’t around either. When the bracket was carried into the locker room, someone decided the formality needed to be handled but no one volunteered. In time, Myles Colvin just sort of happened by the bracket and was made to do it, at which time there was very little reaction around a locker room that has seemed laser-focused and thoroughly unimpressed with itself, aligning with its stance that this is what Purdue expects of itself. There’s been no self-congratulation in any of this. It really belies the normal zero-sum emotion of NCAA Tournament play, At minimum, winning teams exude relief.

Purdue has exuded stoicism, like a bunch of guys sitting outside their lockers like they’re waiting to see the dentist. They all say the same thing: This is how it’s supposed to be.

If you didn’t know any better — if you haven’t seen it up close all season — it might come off as arrogance. It’s actually supreme confidence, like supreme confidence, belying everything most would be inclined to think about Purdue given its recent history and the stories around it.

This is experience and maturity, but also the thickened skin that came from FDU and the consistency that trickles down from Zach Edey.

Purdue’s never made any of this more than it is. It’s never gotten too high or too low. It has only lost games because of turnovers. Its best has never not been enough. It’s always focused on what’s right in front of it. That approach is the reason the Boilermakers are 40 minutes away from the Final Four.

ELITE GUARD PLAY

Guards win in March, right?

Great as Zach Edey is, the centerpiece of this team’s completeness is its backcourt, last year’s freshmen now playing like seniors — Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer.

Tonight exemplified that, as both were excellent and steady, netting 24 points on a modest 18 shots, with 17 assists — 15 by Smith — to just two turnovers. Purdue’s decision-making has been sound, its turnovers reasonable and its offensive direction clear, a credit to the guards running things.

This is the new completeness of this Purdue team, two sophomores who are playing like seniors and making this team way more than what people might casually perceive it to be.

This was never deer-in-headlights for those guys last season, but they were worn down at the end and ultimately, there’s no running from inexperience. It takes its toll.

Now, Purdue has the best player and most dominant presence in college hoops and borderline-elite guard play.

PLAYING THROUGH TKR

Again, Purdue opened the second half once again playing through Trey Kaufman-Renn and he might have delivered the most pivotal stretch of the game, expanding Purdue’s four-point halftime lead, triggering a run in which Purdue made five straight shots and before long led by double-figures.

Kaufman-Renn is a go-to-guy sort of player, a really difficult matchup one-on-one around the rim. With Edey’s gravity and favorable matchups against opposing 4 men, this is a resource Purdue has had at its disposal all season and has weaponized often early in second halves.

This is part of where it makes sense, this Edey-TKR frontcourt pairing. They’re both player you can play through and considering the 4 is the position opponents often help on Edey from, it’s another reason that position has to be on high alert. Purdue’s offense does a good job isolating certain players and positions.

It’s also part of the grind Purdue subjects opponents to. Edey takes his toll, Kaufman-Renn takes some, but then the guards can play at different speeds and Smith’s ball-screen mastery keeps everyone moving.

It’s not just about foul attrition, but also the amount of energy Purdue sucks out of defenses and the multitude of pressures it applies to them. That second gear Purdue shows in second halves aligns nicely with the battle of attrition taking hold.