WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. –– Alabama coach Nate Oats was born and raised in Badger Country, so he knows a little bit about the fairytales of Big Ten basketball at Mackey Arena. Depending on who you ask, the tall tales or horror stories of Mackey Magic have spread far and wide for decades.
On his first trip down John R. Wooden Drive, Oats got to see all of it up close and way too personal. Fueled by a trio of killer treys from freshman CJ Cox, No. 13 Purdue outlasted No. 2 Alabama 87-78 in a back-and-forth thriller on Friday.
“I’ve been in most of the Big Ten arenas, but I hadn’t been here yet,” Oats said. “As a fan, this would’ve been a great game to go to. As the opposing coach, it makes it a little more difficult.”
Cox embodies all of it. The lowly-recruited, three-star freshman played just five minutes in the first half, but he was the spark that a tinder-box crowd at Mackey Arena certainly didn’t need. He scored nine points in 53 seconds to cap off a monster 13-0 run. If your ears weren’t ringing before, they certainly were after Cox sent the home faithful into a frenzy.
“When he makes one, he thinks he’s instantly hot,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “And that’s all that matters. Once he makes two, he’s going to go back to the well.”
But it was way more than just Cox. It’s fellow freshman Raleigh Burgess drilling two buckets, including a monster 3-pointer, right before Painter had to sub him out of the game. It’s Cam Heide, who entered Friday in a bit of no-man’s land trying to figure out what his identity would be in life A.E. (After Edey), stepping up with six monster rebounds in the second half and splashing a monster right-wing trey with less than six minutes to go.
It’s the tongue-wagging, mean-muggin’ Fletcher Loyer who makes the biggest shots at enormous moments. 17 points on nine shots? Just another day at the office for “Big-game Fletch.” It’s Myles Colvin, a former prized recruit and certified bucket-getter, buying into becoming a lockdown perimeter defender. He didn’t take a shot but Purdue doesn’t win the game without Colvin’s blanketing Mark Sears and holding Alabama’s All-American to just five points on 2-9 shooting in the second half. It’s an utter refusal to turn the basketball over. Alabama went deep into its rotation, it pressured the basketball with numerous guys, it was tough and handsy, and Purdue still had no interest in coughing it up. Even on a night when his 3-point jumper didn’t fall, Purdue point guard Braden Smith was excellent, tallying 17 points, 10 assists, six turnovers and just one turnover.
Purdue beat Alabama its way. Purdue’s biggest strength may be its stubbornness. Painter is a brilliant offensive mastermind who still does things his way.
Oats has built the Tide into a national championship contender with excellent shot quality. Alabama takes a bunch of 3-pointers or shots at the rim and leaves those inefficient non-rim 2-pointers for the dinosaurs. Fifty of Alabama’s 63 shots (79%) were either 3-pointers, layups or dunks against Purdue and that’s actually a little down compared to Alabama’s season average.
Purdue finds creative ways to confront some tenets of modern basketball. The Boilermakers managed 1.41 points per possession in a second half when just nine of the 28 attempts (32%) came from 3-point range or at the rim.
“We try to play the numbers, but they defy them a little bit,” Oats said. “I think like almost half their shots were non-rim 2s and they shot 45%. We have them 12-27 on non-rim 2s. We needed to do a better job of pushing them down both the rim to our shot-blockers. We need to be better on defense. Our defense struggled last year. Our defense will definitely be better this year than last year and we’ve been better so far, but this was not one of our better performances. But they’ve got some skilled guys that made us pay too.”
Even without Zach Edey, Purdue is still the best post-up program in America. When Painter sniffed out that Oats was not bringing a double-team, he fed forward Trey Kaufman-Renn as many touches as the big fella could handle. At one point, Kaufman-Renn had taken eight shots for Purdue in a 12-possession span.
Rinse. Lather. Repeat.
Purdue ripped Alabama apart for 14 key points, via post-ups. When Grant Nelson was in the game, Kaufman-Renn got a touch on the block. When Cliff Omoruyi checked into the game, Purdue dipped into its excellent bag of pick-and-roll offense to put the Alabama center in conflict. The Boilers scored 30 points on Friday directly off … pick-and-rolls.
Alabama’s defense tried just about everything to no avail which sounds eerily familiar to everyone else who has dared to enter Mackey Arena’s doors.
“They have a complete team,” Oats said. “They don’t have Edey, but they’re still going to be really good.”
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