Purdue hasn’t lived up to preseason No. 1, but do not write off the Boilermakers yet

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue’s big three was the reason the Boilermakers were No. 1 in the preseason.

On paper, no one in college basketball had a more proven trio that had produced together. Add in one of the best coaches in the game, Matt Painter, and it made a lot of sense to make Purdue the preseason favorite to win the national title.

But, as Painter said earlier this week, that preseason ranking means nothing. No. 7 Purdue is not and has not been the best team in college basketball. It got to see what that looks like Tuesday when top-ranked Michigan came to its house and showed that, when motivated to prove a point, no one is better in college basketball this season.

But Friday night in a 93-64 win over Indiana, the Boilermakers showed they can still accomplish some special things when their big three is clicking — and primarily when Trey Kaufman-Renn serves his role as one of college hoops’ most dangerous chess pieces.

Indiana’s initial game plan was to double-team Kaufman-Renn, bringing help from whoever fed the post. The first time Purdue went inside, Fletcher Loyer was the post feeder, so Indiana rotated toward Loyer, one of the best spot-up shooters in the country, and because Purdue center Oscar Cluff had cut to the opposite block, that occupied the other perimeter defender (Lamar Wilkerson), who was tasked with defending the other two perimeter players.

Kaufman-Renn correctly read the floor and hit Smith for a wide-open 3.

On the next possession, Smith was the post feeder, and his man also went to double. But instead of staying put, Smith cut to the opposite corner and the other two Purdue guards rotated toward the ball.

Again, Kaufman-Renn read the floor correctly and found Smith, who drove a long closeout and forced Loyer’s man to help, and Smith found Loyer for a wide-open 3.

“The one thing about dealing with the post-up guy is that you can put the other guys where you want,” Painter said. “They can’t control that, right? So if we want to cut through, we can cut through. If we want to stay ball-side, we stay ball-side. If we wanna get post splits, we could get post splits. If we wanted to dive a different guy, we can. If we’d want to hold people out, (we can).

“And the reason I throw all that at you is that that changes rotations. And so if you just run one thing and do the same thing every single time, and you don’t even do anything on an overloaded side, or you don’t look at things from a screening standpoint, now they can get set on their double, they can set on their rotations. So you can control a lot of things on defense, but you can’t control where the offense puts their players.”

The one part Painter left out is that when you have a big man who can also pass out of the post like Kaufman-Renn can, if you do keep the defense guessing, you’re going to get great shots whenever they double.

The Hoosiers realized right away that plan wasn’t going to work. So after Smith and Loyer made those two 3s, they started guarding Kaufman-Renn one-on-one. That’s what Michigan did Tuesday, staying home on shooters, and Kaufman-Renn scored 27 points but needed 24 shots to get there. Michigan is one of the few teams in college basketball equipped with the inside personnel to at least make it hard.

Indiana does not have that personnel. And Kaufman-Renn made the Hoosiers pay, scoring 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting. On one of those misses, he got it right back and scored.

This was peak Purdue, with Loyer having a perfect shooting night — 18 points on 5-of-5 shooting, four of those from 3 — and Smith playing at his usual All-American level (15 points and eight assists) and the team going 10-of-18 from 3.

Smith has been awesome all season, but the other two seniors are both averaging fewer points, and their shooting numbers haven’t been as good. But with Loyer’s perfect night, he is now back over 40 percent from 3, which he eclipsed in each of the last two seasons. He’s shooting 48.9 percent from 3 in February. This is water finding its level.

And Kaufman-Renn, whose average is down from 20.1 points as a junior to 13.3 this year, just had two straight 20-point games for the first time all season.

That’s important because there are few teams in college basketball with a low-post scorer capable of dominating games with his back to the basket like Kaufman-Renn. And because of that, most teams aren’t used to coming up with a plan to stop a low-post scorer who can score and pass.

It’s like seeing a zone in March. You might go all season without playing a zone team, and then you run into Jim Boeheim and Syracuse, and everything you’ve done all season is out the window.

A low-post scorer is Painter’s zone. It’s why he seems to always have one. He loves the ability to make defenses have to think about a lot of scenarios. Go back and read his answer on post doubles. He was almost giddy to talk about all the possibilities. Purdue also has an excellent pick-and-roll attack, but most teams play out of pick-and-roll. Not a lot have the diversity Purdue has on offense.

Painter is not satisfied with how this season has played out. He says his goal is always to win a Big Ten championship and then have success in the NCAA Tournament, and with the loss to Michigan, the Big Ten title is not happening.

The latter, however, is still possible. And while Michigan is the best in its league and in the country, Purdue likely wouldn’t have to play Michigan until the last weekend of the season. It’s kind of advantageous to have the most dangerous team in the country in your conference for that reason. And in a one-game tournament, someone else might knock out the Wolverines before Purdue could ever see them.

I’m not anointing Purdue one of the non-Michigan favorites to win the national title after one awesome performance, but it was a good reminder that this is a team with the second-best offense in college basketball. This is a team with one of the game’s best coaches, the best passer in the country, one of the best shooters and, now that Texas Tech’s JT Toppin is finished for the season, the big man with the most unstoppable hook shot.

When the outside shots are falling, which they typically are for Purdue (38 percent from 3 on the season), Painter has all the solutions on the offensive end. Purdue’s defense is the area it needs to continue to improve, but this team is now 5-1 in February, with the loss coming to a team everyone would have lost to that night.

And what was true in the preseason is true still. The Boilermakers have the most proven trio, and it’s been through the wars of March together three times already. Do not write off Purdue just yet.