Looking Back: 3 Takeaways from Friday’s Win vs Nebraska
The Fletcher Loyer Game. I guess that is what Purdue can consider the victory vs Nebraska on Friday. Fletcher had his best game to date, of his young Boilermaker career and the best is yet to come.
After a short break this weekend, Purdue will head to East Lansing to play a hot Michigan State team. But first, let’s look back at the victory from Friday Night, round 2 against the Cornhuskers.
Fletcher Loyer Is Finding a Rhythm
Fletcher Loyer has his pump fake, side-step three-point shot down to a science like he has been practicing it his entire life or something.
The true freshman might not be the most intimidating player on the court on any given night, but he can fill it up with the best of them. Fletcher went ahead and scored 27 points against Nebraska Friday, shooting 50% from three, making Nebraska pay for their heavy double teams of Zach Edey.
In the first game at Nebraska, the Cornhuskers rolled out a game plan the others have done since, a heavy double or even triple team on Edey, making others beat them. At the first meeting in Lincoln, the shooters did not show up.
Coach Hoiberg rolled out the same gameplan vs Purdue again, but this time, Fletcher led the way in ensuring that it would not be as successful.
The other day I ranked Fletcher as the 5h best Freshman Basketball Player in the B1G, he may be in the top 3.
Zach Edey has his 9th Double-Double in a Row
The most dominant player in college basketball continues to… dominate. On Friday night he had 12 points, 13 rebounds, and 4 blocks while being climbed on for the majority of the game.
What has become more and more evident is that even after 10 years of big-man success at Purdue, the Big Ten officials still are having problems officiating them. Zach may be the most obvious case of this, being called for this ghost offensive foul call.
Regardless, Zach Edey remains the most dominant college basketball player of the season. Nebraska put so much emphasis on Edey, he actually had seven shot attempts in the game, making four of them
Kudos to Zach, he did not force his shot, rather he looked to move the ball back to the perimeter to find an open shooter or create ball movement.
How will Tom Izzo defend big Zach? In the past, he has defended Boilermaker Centers with a singular defender.
Matt Painter is a Top 5 Big Ten Coach Ever
Tom Izzo, Bobby Knight, Gene Keady, Lou Henson, and Matt Painter.
That’s the list of Big Ten Coaches with 400 wins within their program.
Coach Painter joined the elite company Friday Night, these are all Hall of Fame coaches, or should be in Coach Keady’s case.
While catching Izzo and Knight is feasible, it will take quite a while to do so. Izzo has 678 wins at Michigan State and Knight has 659 at Indiana. Coach Keady has 112 wins more than Coach Painter, which could be an achievable mark within 5 years and Lou Henson only has 21 more wins than Coach Painter, which will be surpassed early next season.
Some fans take advantage of the fact that Coach Painter has made Boilermaker Basketball great and one of the more consistent teams in America. He has created his culture, a winning culture and a buy-in culture that is hard to do in the modern-day college basketball landscape.
He wins the right way and will never waiver from that. There is a reason why his name always pops up when another power five programs has an opening.
So, a big congratulations to Coach Painter and what he has built here in West Lafayette.
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