Outside of a few bluebloods, going to a Sweet 16 makes a season a resounding success.
But Purdue’s 2021–22 season ending at that stage, particularly against a No. 15 seed, felt like a disappointment. That Boilermakers team was one of the most talented in school history, with a top-five NBA draft pick in Jaden Ivey, dual star bigs in Trevion Williams and Zach Edey and talented role players galore. It often showed glimpses of its tantalizing ceiling, but in large part left us wanting more until the final buzzer sounded against Saint Peter’s. It was one of the rare times under Matt Painter that it felt like the Boilermakers underachieved their talent level.
Purdue’s 2022–23 roster is not as talented as the ‘21–22 Boilermakers were. That’s not up for debate. Ivey and starting point guard Eric Hunter Jr. were replaced with a pair of freshmen ranked outside the top 100 recruits nationally, and third team all-league selection Williams also departed. But sometimes the whole can be better than the sum of its parts, and there’s no doubt this year’s Boilers fit that bill. That’s why this iteration of Purdue may just be better than last year’s, and it was on display in a pair of dominant showings against Gonzaga and Duke to win the Phil Knight Legacy bracket.
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The most clear difference between the two teams is identity. The Edey/Williams pairing was intriguing in theory but difficult to balance in practice: While both dominant post presences, the duo couldn’t share the floor together without creating spacing and defensive woes, and there wasn’t a clear answer as to which star big should be on the floor to close games. Ivey was as dynamic a player off the dribble as anyone in college basketball but was another alpha who needed shots late in games. Purdue’s offense at its best under Painter has been a beautiful display of ball and player movement, but in big moments last year the ball seemed to stick, with a near-palpable tension around who was supposed to make the big plays.
Sometimes it produced brilliance, like Ivey’s masterful fadeaway three to beat Ohio State at the buzzer in late January. But that play only came about because Ivey ran the wrong way on the set play out of the timeout, meaning the decisive shot came in a broken-play situation instead of getting the ball into the paint. It was a microcosm of Purdue’s season: It was often gifted enough to overcome its mistakes, but never was truly a cohesive unit.
This year’s group could not be more different. Edey is the unquestioned star, playing 30 minutes instead of platooning with Williams. The offense flows through him, and he’s arguably the most unstoppable force in the sport. No. 1 recruit Dereck Lively II was no match for Edey on Sunday, fouling out and being held scoreless in his 22 minutes. Edey scored 21 points and added 12 rebounds, drew eight fouls and left a few points on the board with missed bunnies.
The pieces around Edey fit almost perfectly. They were overlooked in major recruiting rankings, but few teams in the country have two freshmen more impactful than Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer. Playing their fourth, fifth and sixth college games this weekend, Smith and Loyer took over games at times and played like quintessential Boilermakers: skilled, confident, mature and team-first.
Smith’s coming-out party was Friday night against Gonzaga, when he tallied 14 points, seven assists and five rebounds, outdueling a former elite recruit in Nolan Hickman. But even in quieter statistical games like Sunday’s title game (four points, two assists), Smith makes his presence felt. In his 24 minutes, Purdue outscored Duke by 22 points. In the 16 minutes he was off the floor, Duke outscored Purdue by three.
“It just shows you his impact,” Painter said Sunday. “As a point guard, he gets us eight rebounds. He’s just got it. He’s got savvy, he knows what’s going on, he can make plays, he can distribute the basketball. Just a really good lead guard.”
Painter had tried telling anyone who would listen in the preseason about Smith’s abilities. He compared him at Big Ten media days in October to Celtics guard Payton Pritchard, who Painter coached with USA Basketball while Pritchard starred at Oregon. But for a freshman ranked No. 196 in his class to make this type of impact this early is still hard to believe. He runs the offense flawlessly and makes plays in ball screens when sets break down, a huge part of the Boilermakers’ ability to pull away in the second half against Gonzaga Friday.
“[Smith’s] great in the pick-and-roll, and we always have that as a fallback option,” Edey said Friday. “When you can buckets just purely off of bad offense sometimes, that’s really helpful.”
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Loyer had his breakthrough game Sunday, scoring 18 points and outperforming Duke’s backcourt of former five-stars despite being the 120th-ranked recruit in his class. He drilled four threes in Sunday’s win, including some big ones to stem the tide as Duke made its run in the second half.
“He’s one of those guys that when he misses, you’re kind of shocked.” Painter said postgame.
The freshmen have brought cohesion to an offense that struggled to find it a season ago. The Boilermakers can surround Edey with four players capable of knocking down threes and keeping the ball moving, a dangerous combination considering the 7'4" star’s dominance on the block.
“I think we really share the ball really well this year,” Edey said. “We have a very deep team … Coming into the season there were a lot of questions around us but I think every guy we have is really, really good.”
The difference in last year’s team with this year’s is also noticeable on defense, a consistent pain point a year ago. Purdue didn’t allow a point in the final seven minutes of the Duke win and is now up to No. 27 nationally in KenPom’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric. Last year, it ranked 93rd. And while marginal improvement could be attributed to things like Edey’s improved mobility guarding ball screens, the drastic growth on that side of the ball feels more execution and effort-related than anything. Both Painter and Edey cited improvement in how the team carries out its game plan on defense than it did a season ago, when lapses were aplenty.
A lot can change throughout the college basketball season. Purdue spent seven straight weeks in the top three of the AP poll early last season, including a brief appearance at the top. This year’s team may not crack the top five on Monday, even though its résumé makes it hard not to put it among the nation’s truly elite. But while they may lack the top-tier NBA talent, the cohesion the 2022–23 Boilermakers have is why this group may top last year’s come March.
