Purdue plays flawless team basketball, makes bad shots, and has won Gonzaga and Duke, two of any team’s most impressive victories in 2022.
Okay, so the Boilermakers looked unsure at first before quickly becoming one of college basketball’s most efficient machines.
The Boilermakers committed a lot of turnovers in the first few minutes, but the Blue Devils were unable to capitalize. Purdue kept poking the ball away to create transition points, Duke started 1-4 from the stripe, and Purdue’s ball movement resembled that of the 1996 Bulls or the 2014 Spurs.
Then, at that point, Zach Edey took over while avoiding foul difficulty, drawing twofold groups while knowing when to pass, and when to shoot and, explicitly, when to drop-step for simple (as far as he might be concerned, at any rate) semi-snare shots.
His hooks with his left hand appeared good enough to make Purdue men’s basketball world champions in 2022.
We had men ranging in height from 6’0″ to 7’4″ diving for loose balls and clearly sliding in their own sweat all over the floor, demonstrating their fervent desire to maintain their unbeaten record.
For Purdue, it was a total team effort.
The Boilermakers appeared united and determined to establish a lead, keep it, and carry it forward.
Furst was blocking shots from outside, getting rebounds, and passing to the outlet.Heide.Morton was also.
So, too, was our enormous Canadian, who doesn’t need to be explained (while his mother watched the game in a Purdue hockey sweater, which may be the most Canadian thing I’ve seen since I was in Ontario).
Loyer played the most minutes of his career and continued to score clean open shots while his teammates made excellent decisions off the ball to make open passes available to everyone else.
Smith was getting steals on a regular basis, and when he wasn’t running downcourt for layups high off the glass, he was dishing it to those players who kept making space for themselves and making shots while Duke’s defense looked confused.
Since UCLA in 1968, Purdue is the only team to ever win by more than 18 points against the top ten teams on a neutral floor. That team went on to win the national championship, and the team’s star was a man named Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who got a small part in the popular movie Airplane! That’s a respectable group.
Matt Painter, the team’s head coach, has developed an offense centered on Edey’s physical dominance; His teammates have excellent court vision and know when to drive, drop back, pass, or wait for the pass—it’s really beautiful basketball.
Edey can do the same thing. When he is inevitably double-teamed down low, he is passing precisely where his teammates know they need to be. Since last year, his awareness of the paint has significantly increased, and the Boilermakers are seeing significant results as a result.