Basketball Purdue preview and game thread

Matt Jessen-Howard · Mar 15, 2019

Vegas line: Purdue by 10.5
Kenpom: Purdue No. 10, Minnesota No. 45
Massey: Purdue No. 11, Minnesota No. 43

Today's bracketology:

USA Today: 10 seed
CBS Sports: 8 seed
ESPN: 10 seed, eighth-to-last at-large team in

System: Purdue usually gives Carsen Edwards a high ball screen to start possessions and allow him to create for himself or others. The Boilermakers also run multiple set plays with all sorts of off-ball screens. They do a lot of stagger handoff action for their shooters, of which they'll usually have 4 or 5 on the court. Much of their action creates defensive problems because they run lots of big-to-little or little-to-big screen the screener action, so the defense can't automatically switch and needs to communicate well.

Players

Carsen Edwards - All-B1G point guard, maybe the best in the conference at creating his own shot.
Ryan Cline - deadeye shooter from the wing.
Nojel Eastern - Athletic, big-bodied wing. Solid defender, good in transition and near the basket.
Grady Eifert - stretch 4 shooter.
Matt Harhms - center who can faceup, make hook shots, or hit catch-and-shoot threes.
Trevion Williams - was excellent against Minnesota in the first game. Good size, very wide, and stronger than Oturu. In the second game, he had 5 fouls in 5 minutes.

Keys to the game: My keys to the game are similar to previous games against Purdue.

Defensive communication and intensity: Minnesota did not play inspired basketball for the first 30 minutes against Penn State. That obviously needs to improve. Against an offense like Purdue's with so many different looks, Minnesota will have to be especially locked in.
Jordan Murphy: Murphy's struggled against length this year, which Purdue has. He struggled mightily in the first matchup and needs to be smart about when to attack and when to kickout. Purdue has doubled him with every post touch.
Foul trouble: Similar to the post above, Minnesota needs to defend Purdue's talented bigs without fouling, especially now that Eric Curry is out. Fouls went in Minnesota's favor last game, as Trevion Williams, who had a big first game against Minnesota, only played five minutes because of foul trouble.
Transition: Minnesota may have beat Purdue at home because of their success in transition. Edwards took a lot of threes and misses meant long rebounds and better opportunities for Minnesota to get on the break, where Amir Coffey was phenomenal.

Matt Jessen-Howard · Mar 15, 2019