Purdue basketball made a lineup change for offense, but did it help defensively?

Posted by Admin December 19, 2024 Basketball

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WEST LAFAYETTE − Matt Painter made a starting lineup adjustment for the benefit of Purdue basketball’s offense. But did the Boilermakers also perhaps stumble upon their best defensive lineup in the process?

Electing to utilize a smaller, more athletic lineup, the Boilermakers knew they’d have to sacrifice on the opposite end.

Five games in, after Purdue scored a season-low 58 points at Marquette, the Boilermakers had to find a lineup that could generate points against more athletic teams on Purdue’s gauntlet of a schedule.

Aided by an 80-45 thumping of Marshall in the first game with the new lineup, the defense has statistically performed better since the starting lineup alteration, though the naked eye says otherwise.

“We’ve got to do a better job keeping the ball in front of us and containing the dribble,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said.

Texas A&M exposed some of Purdue’s defensive flaws, though the Aggies also turned the ball over 18 times but nearly offset that with 14 offensive rebounds.

Purdue faces another athletic squad that has been an offensive juggernaut this season in Auburn on Saturday.

Last year, defensively, Purdue tried to push things inside, where Zach Edey presented a whole new set of challenges for opponents. Daniel Jacobsen was supposed to provide something similar but hasn’t. Without that luxury, there are alterations.

“There’s some things we’re probably always going to struggle with,” said assistant coach Paul Lusk, Purdue’s defensive guru. “Our numbers aren’t great, but they’re solid.”

Every game for the past three seasons has seen Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer as starters in Purdue’s backcourt. Every game for the last two has featured Trey Kaufman-Renn in the starting frontcourt. The change was Cam Heide and Myles Colvin, sophomores and first-time starters.

Colvin’s status as a starter came while playing similar minutes to his five games as a non-starter this season.

Heide has had the biggest adjustment, moving from a three and D perimeter player to playing the four and averaging ten more minutes per game as a starter. Athletic ability has had to alleviate being 6-foot-7 and having to guard bigger players.

“It’s just being mentally ready,” Heide said. “You kind of have to know these big guys are going to look to get position on me more times than a three or a two or a wing or guard would. That’s something I have to prepare for, always being ready to hit first and not let these big guys get position that they want.”

The schedule is fairly even looking at Purdue’s first five opponents and the last six.

The numbers are eerily similar defensively despite the change.

Purdue opponents shot 43.3% through five games and 42.4% over the last six. The points per game average of Purdue’s opponents dropped by 3.6 per game over the last six, a number skewed by Marshall’s 45.

Perhaps more concerning is Purdue is averaging 75 points per game over its last six and struggled to get into offensive sets in two of its last three games with defenses pressuring and pestering Smith.

The Boilermakers scored at least 87 three times in their first four games and, even after scoring 58 at Marquette, averaged nearly 80 points. Over the last six games, Purdue has surpassed 80 points just once, against Maryland at home.

Purdue also turned the ball over 16 times last Saturday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, its third loss in the last seven games.

“Part of our defense, it’s so important that we run good offense,” Lusk said before playing Texas A&M. “And in our two losses (Marquette and Penn State), we’ve turned the basketball over, and that’s going to put us in a really compromising position.”

Purdue has shown it can take care of the ball. See the game against Alabama as an example. The Boilers also have proven they can’t.

But when they do, the defense looks a lot better.

It’s been a challenge, especially as Purdue navigates not only not having the size advantage its had in the past, but also not having the quickness advantage either, as evidenced just last Saturday.

Purdue is learning on the fly and Auburn is an offense that will try to take advantage.

“This year with smaller guys, we’ve gotten better at keeping things down,” Loyer said. “We’ve done better at knowing their actions and getting on top of things.

“It’s only going to help us moving forward the more different kinds of offensive schemes we see.”

Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on X and Instagram @samueltking.