Purdue basketball's 93-87 exhibition loss at Creighton another useful opening night

Purdue basketball’s 93-87 exhibition loss at Creighton another useful opening night

Posted by Admin October 27, 2024 Basketball

INDIANAPOLIS – Purdue basketball confirmed what it already knew it had in three veteran returning starters in Saturday’s exhibition at Creighton.

In a 93-87 loss, the Boilermakers may have also learned what it may have down the line as the supporting pieces come together. The Blue Jays’ 3-point shooting and inside presence from center Ryan Kalkbrenner gave Purdue its second exhibition loss in as many years.

That loss against Arkansas, though, served as an important early calibration en route to the national championship game. What Creighton exposed Saturday could help again in March,.

Preseason Big Ten Player of the Year Braden Smith opened his season with a game-high 31 points, making 5 of 11 from 3-point range. Trey Kaufman-Renn posted 22 points and eight rebounds and Fletcher Loyer added 17 points and five assists.

First on the floor

The most anticipated peice of intel from this game came via the lineup card. Painter last week committed only to returning starters Smith, Loyer and Kaufman-Renn on the floor to start the game. Freshman Gicarri Harris also had seemed to lock up a spot thanks to Painter’s consistent acknowledgment of his defensive energy.

The last spot Saturday went to third-year center Will Berg. He picked up a second foul less than four minutes into the game and yielded to 7-4 freshman Daniel Jacobsen. Berg re-entered later in the half and picked up a third foul within a minute.

Such is life for players across the Big East when matching up with Kalkbrenner, that conference’s preseason player of the year. Jacobsen started the second half, but Berg soon reentered and even blocked a shot despite the fragile foul situation. Alas, No. 4 followed soon after.

With Trey Kaufman-Renn having just gone to the bench for a breather, it forced Painter to play a smaller lineup with Camden Heide at the 4 and freshman Raleigh Burgess at the 5. Later, Burgess and Caleb Furst formed the post tandem. Still, Purdue cut what had been an eight-point decific down to four with 10:25 to play.

The best-case scenario might be Jacobsen’s continued development in all facets allowing Painter to keep his shot blocking on the court more. Purdue did a decent job limiting Kalkbrenner’s touches. It’s lack of rim protection in general still showed through.

Room for improvement

Opening with Creighton gave Purdue a chance to gauge itself against not only a potential All-American center but a well-coached team’s halfcourt sets.

The Blue Jays proceeded to screen and curl their way to a 13 of 26 performance from 3-point range with four minutes to play. That ability to create open looks and knock them down more than accounted for the final differential.

Frehsmen Harris and C.J. Cox drew the assignment on Steven Ashworth, whose 16 points and eight rebounds came with four turnovers. Harris ramped up the defensive physicality on that matchup to start the second half but quickly acquired his second and third fouls. In one memorable sequence, Cox harassed Ashworth into a turnover, and drew an intentional foul.

Kalkbrenner scored 18 points on 6 of 7 shooting and 5 of 5 free throws. Texas Tech transfer Pop Isaacs caused the most problems, scoring 24 points on 4 of 6 3-point shooting.

On the boards

How Purdue accounts for the absence of Zach Edey’s rebounding prowess may be a season-long story line.

It won 33-31 on the boards Saturday despite Creighton shooting 60% from the field. In addition to Kaufman-Renn’s team-leading eight, Smith grabbed seven, Harris contributed six and Jacobsen added five.

However, Purdue scored merely eight second-chance points off 13 offensive rebounds. Painter will gladly take the latter and hope the former better correlates to expectations in the future.