Upon Further Review: Minnesota

After each Purdue basketball game this season, GoldandBlack.com will take a detailed look back at the contest to highlight some of its finer points.

Today, the Boilermakers’ 85-57 win Wednesday night over Minnesota.

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PURDUE DEFENSE AND BRADEN SMITH’S GAME-WRECKING

Purdue, all told, was pretty good on D and it really started with Braden Smith wrecking the game. It’s an interesting dichotomy, because the challenge of guarding these Princeton-based offense is reining in one’s natural aggressiveness, because Princeton preys on over-aggressiveness. But it was Smith’s visceral, huffing-and-puffing energy and relentlessness that loomed so large over this game.

This was very similar to the Smith you saw last January, when Purdue was using him differently and he turned honey badger for a few weeks.

Smith was credited with this steal here, as he should have been.

You can be disruptive without being over-aggressive. Coaches will tell you it’s about picking the right spots. This isn’t Smith willy-nilly guessing.

An example here of Smith’s constant activity, trying to be as disruptive and annoying as possible. This is actually kind of funny.

But his impact went beyond just the turnovers he forced.

People are constantly trying to hunt Smith, trying to put him in disadvantageous switches. He repels them at just about every turn, seems like. This play sums it up.

Another. Minnesota is trying to catch Purdue in its inbound switch in which it puts its 5 man on the ball. Minnesota is trying to go to Cade Tyson here on Smith.

This might have been the highlight of his day defensively, starting with him blowing up Minnesota’s handoff.

Defense turned the game after halftime, after Minnesota cobbled together an unimpressive late first-half run that never felt predictive of things to come.

Matt Painter talked after the game about Purdue “sticking to its rules” when it was good on defense. Hard for us to ID those exact rules, but needless to say staying attached to shooters and styming backcuts were central.

Purdue looked really cohesive in the second half especiually.

CJ Cox did a great job, seemed like. Nice, clean off-ball switch here between Cox and Smith when Minnesota is trying to get its forwards onto Purdue’s guards.

Cox did a good job on these bigger guys.

This stop is started by Cox knocking out the cut, never getting his shoulders turned. Then, Smith again.

Rock-solid, cohesive team defense here by Purdue and look what happens at the other end.

GETTING THE BALL INSIDE

Clearly it was Purdue’s priority to open the second half, not that it isn’t always, but it was crystal clear after halftime.

First possession … (This counts as feeding the post.)

Purdue puts its center on the inbounder; Minnesota puts no one on the inbounder, allowing for this clean entry to Oscar Cluff with position.

PURDUE DEFENSIVE BREAKDOWNS

ETC

• There’s going to come times this season when Purdue needs these calls badly as people mix things up on Smith.

• Often, behind-the-back passes are cosmetic fluff, but Smith has a knack for creating passing alleys no one else can. Much like the play at Rutgers, this pass is only possible throwing it as he does, and that making the pass behind his back involves showing the ball to the help defender who’d be coming down from the corner, the utility in going behind the back is considerable.

• Couple defensive breakdowns just for equal time …

Purdue has Oscar Cluff being really active away from the basket and people are going to attack that.

Here, looks like Jack Benter gets caught not being completely square to the ball when helping against the long roll. He’s in a 1-on-2 and might have got caught leaning.

This play is crowded and on a difficult spot on the floor, but someone has to rotate down to occupy cutter. Smith is in a 1-on-2 here; our guess is Purdue’s first goal is to protect the rim.

I’m not sure exactly where Purdue is triggering its 5 man switch in the lane, but people have been able to work its bigs into spots where they can drive the ball.