Upon Further Review: Zone offense, rebounding and defensive concerns and more from Purdue's win over Oakland

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, No. 1 Purdue’s 87-77 win over Oakland Friday night in Mackey Arena.

PDF: Purdue-Oakland statistics

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A FEW BOTTOM LINES

For as much as didn’t go great for Purdue, two things jump out relative to this game being close as it was.

The difference between Michigan scoring 121 on Oakland and Purdue getting only 87 was this: The Wolverines had a great shooting night and Purdue didn’t make shots ’til the back end of the second half. Purdue rushed a few in the first half, but got a lot of great looks that had they made them at a much higher clip, it might have ended this game by the under-12 timeout.

Then, three second-half turnovers turned straight into eight Oakland points, one of those runs that have been one of the Boilermakers’ toxic traits in recent years when they’ve struggled. That run really preventing them from running away and hiding a few minutes earlier.

The latter was maybe more grounds for concern than anything, because while Purdue has been outstanding for years now, its albatross has been those game-changing runs of turnovers that lead straight to scoring surges for the opponent.

Rebounding and defense remain absolute musts in terms of improvement, but shouldn’t distract from the elephant in the room that’s always around: Taking care of the basketball.

PURDUE OFFENSE

Again, the threes almost came too easy for Purdue and it probably did rush a few. The Boilermakers had chances to run away and hide in the first half, but couldn’t make enough of its open triples to separate. It normalized in crunch time and you saw what happened.

But when the shots were missing, the paint was a must. Every time Purdue got the ball into the guts of that malleable Oakland zone, good things happened.

One great way to attack zone is to play inside-out from the high post, but it’s best when you have a guy who can make mid-range shots, but more importantly see the floor and pass.

This is something Jack Benter is tailor-made for at the 4.

This is the sort of short-roll stuff Purdue puts Trey Kaufman-Renn in, very purposeful here. Oakland is staying with the shooters on the wings, and Oscar Cluff gives Purdue a great seal-off here. Easy money.

Purdue has size to leverage now. Really effective strategy going high-low after every timeout, seemed like. This is kind of clunky, but effective.

Once you show it, you can play off it.

OSCAR CLUFF’S SPARK

Oscar Cluff isn’t going to jump over anyone, but even while he’s still settling in, he is making really substantive, but perhaps subtle, impact.

This is rim protection, again triggering transition.

A bit surprisingly, Purdue has been using Cluff to hedge ball screens. That may not be the case every game, but when it is, the hard part is the recovery, both to get back to his man but also back into rebounding position. This an exceptional effort here after Purdue kinda squandered the hedge by allowing the ball to get around the corner.

Cluff scored 14 points on just six shots vs. Oakland, but accounted for at least six more with his offensive rebounding.

This might have been the biggest play of the game.

This is the kind of tenacity Purdue really needs on the glass.

This is the kind of effort Purdue needs running the floor. Cluff makes this bucket happen after contributing to creating the turnover.

Rebounding isn’t just grabbing the ball. It’s occupying space enough so someone can get the ball. Cluff is not Zach Edey, Trevion Williams or Caleb Swanigan, but he does create a blast radius.

There are two dudes trying to block him out here.

Size is good for shedding people around the basket, too, and Cluff did a nice job making himself available around the rim, especially in the second half. This isn’t going to be as easy against better, bigger teams, but you’ve not seen the last of this sort of productivity. This is around-the-rim scoring Purdue didn’t have last season.

The center position is really showing up for Purdue and things should get better.

A DEFENSIVE WRINKLE

This is something to watch moving forward. Purdue has been putting its 5 man on the in-bounder, trying to use its new height to disrupt clean entries.

Now, what smart offenses will do is make sure to spread once the ball gets in as to not allow the big to switch back.

In cases like this, you don’t want Daniel Jacobsen chasing a guard around while a Purdue guard is matched on somebody bigger. But when Jacobsen is stuck here, you’re damn glad he’s 7-foot-4.

This probably isn’t a huge deal, but you see here that Cluff gets turned around once he’s recovered to the rim. This is not really the area on the floor you want Cluff operating on defense. We’ll see if Purdue continues with it, and if they do, how they avert some of the risk involved.

PURDUE DEFENSE

Purdue has to do a better job against the dribble. It is tied to the rebounding issue. They are inextricably linked.

There are moments where Purdue definitely gets caught at iffy angles on the ball or being too aggressive. It gets away with this, but this is just a straight drive here past Gicarri Harris after Oakland turns down the screen. Harris is trying to go over the would-be screen and just got got.

Braden Smith gets caught fishing for a steal here, which he has the leeway to do, but it doesn’t always work out obviously.

When you’re as aggressive 94 feet out as CJ Cox is here, this stuff is going to happen sometimes.

Cox is playing really hard on the ball, so issues can be forgiven.

This is just a good play by the offense. Harris has the ball steered away from the lane, but there is enough space for the ball-handler to cross it over.

Regarding the rebounding, Purdue obviously needs to do a better job grabbing the ball and getting bodies on people when shots go up, but containing the dribble is a huge part of the solution, too.

All of this happens because of the breakdown on the wing.

Really important context here, too, is Kaufman-Renn’s absence. It’s not just about the physical presence and width and effort you’re playing without, but also who’s playing instead. Jack Benter and Liam Murphy are perimeter players, not naturally wired to be physical as rebounders. Benter is punching above his weight class, to his credit, but he is no TKR.

Purdue absolutely needs to be better here, but there is also some very circumstantial undercurrents to this.

ETC

• This is just masterclass zone offense.

Don’t know what to call that zone, because it took on a lot of forms, but Smith did a great job isolating this one dude in the middle and cracking it right down the center.

Here’s it out of pick and roll with Cluff.

This is just Smith hunting the matchup.

You see him just deciding who he wants to pick on.

Don’t take passes like this for granted from a right-handed player going left. This is highest-level stuff.