Playing Purdue

[RiseUNT]

2 minutes ago, tjreese said:

mean green I see...  😉

The pinned post on this thread is someone being made fun of.

[CMJ]

19 minutes ago, tjreese said:

Thank you.  How do you explain so many people with steals?  It looks like your D is set to keep people out of the lane, more than pressure and yet you have a lot of steals by different postions and players?  Do you find a lot of teams just dribbling or passing into places that there is no room to do so?

Yeah, I think we're very active with quick hands and tend to disrupt teams when they go inside on us.  So, we get a lot of steals and deflections in or near the paint area.

[tjreese]

23 hours ago, MeanGreen_MBA said:

We play some tough defense. Some of the best I have ever seen us play. They may shock them for a C-USA team

Not Matt's style.  He has a lot of respect for your coach and knew him when he coached juco.  If I recall...Old Dominion two years ago played tough D.  The Purdue team that year had a kid that just shot a little father out than Old Dominion was used to.  This team is a lot different than that team in that it is deeper and no where the ability to hit 3s no matter who was defending Cline and Edwards.  This team has more depth and in spite of the numbers have some people that can cash in quickly behind the arc. 1)Sasha has the quickest release and Purdue will have him coming off a lot of off ball screens.  He is also quick to feed the post if covered. 2)Brandon was a starter, but has come off the bench with the emergence of Ivey who is an elite slasher.  Brandon needs a bit more time to get his shot off, but at 6'5" and a second or 2 to shoot he can be deadly...and if he finds his confidence again...the rest of his offense takes off.  He was freshman of the week twice in the Big 3)Eric Hunter a solid on ball defender who has done some very find individual D work for Purdue.  he will be on teh ball or your primary ball handler.  He uses a lot of energy on D and has not shot as well this year.  Still he can score behind the arc, but his best game is probing the lane and getting a basket in between the arc and goal 4) Isiah Thompson ...skinny point guard and only about 6'1.  He has a low release and needs some space but he "can be" deadly?  IN high school on two occasions with witnesses he dropped in 93 and 96 makes out of a 100 behind the arc, but nobody was guarding him.  He can make a team spread their D.  Those are your 1-3 players that are considered shooters.  The other player (Jaden) that is a slasher has improved his shooting behind the arc, but that isn't his game.  Your coach will double down on digs if he is on ball side with our post and why he needs to be on the other side where he is in more space and to prevent the digs on ball side.  Purdue's two 4 men can hit perimeter shots, but that is not what Purdue needs them to do.  I think with the Sag NT plays to defend the post while fronting it with Simmons and such will probably give them some looks for jumpers.

Purdue is VERY young and nobody knows how the youth will respond.  Purdue fans think they are a year away with who they have coming in next year, but I like this team and the pieces.  They just need to learn to play 40 minutes.  😉

[greenminer]

If by some miracle we make a S16 run, it would be my dream UNT scenario (short of an actual national title).

We might wake up half the alumni in DFW, never see the name "North Texas State" announced erroneously again, and Denton might not even be recognizable.  Campus would go bananas for Grant and Co.
 

 

[greenminer]

In the entirety of my Eagles/Miner fandom , I don't think either men's team has gotten an NCAA win.  I know the Miners made a good run in the 90s, but that was before I got into sports.

[CMJ]

Hell, a Sweet 16 run would probably be the highlight of my sports watching life.  Certainly for North Texas, but probably over any of my pro teams, including those that won championships.

Edited March 15, 2021 by CMJ

[SteaminWillieBeamin]

A group of friends went to New Orleans for the post-Katrina tournament... It was great. Until we missed a break away dunk at the beginning of the second half and momentum was gone. I remember it vividly. Gives me tournament anxiety.

"The turning point of the second half came when North Texas missed three close-range shots — two layups and a dunk — on consecutive trips down the floor. The most memorable of those came when North Texas guard Calvin Watson clanged a dunk off of the back rim on a fast break with 14:35 remaining in the game. North Texas trailed by just six points at that juncture."

Edited March 15, 2021 by SteaminWillieBeamin

[CMJ]

31 minutes ago, SteaminWillieBeamin said:

A group of friends went to New Orleans for the post-Katrina tournament... It was great. Until we missed a break away dunk at the beginning of the second half and momentum was gone. I remember it vividly. Gives me tournament anxiety.

"The turning point of the second half came when North Texas missed three close-range shots — two layups and a dunk — on consecutive trips down the floor. The most memorable of those came when North Texas guard Calvin Watson clanged a dunk off of the back rim on a fast break with 14:35 remaining in the game. North Texas trailed by just six points at that juncture."

I thought it was a few minutes later in the game, but I remember that well.  If I recall Memphis came back and immediately hit a three.

 

I think the 2010 team was "better", but the 2007 squad had some serious talent, and actually had athletes to matchup with that Memphis squad.

[RiseUNT]

How many of us are watching JJ Thursday night?

[PlummMeanGreen]

Coach GMac:  Fly the team out to SF, load a bus then drive out & have a practice session in the Redwood Forest?  
 

Jeez-Louise, 1 PU Boilermaker at 7’4”& two at 6’10” ?🤪

[greenminer]

 

[MeanGreenTexan]

3 hours ago, CMJ said:

Yeah, I think we're very active with quick hands and tend to disrupt teams when they go inside on us.  So, we get a lot of steals and deflections in or near the paint area.

Agree here.   Admittedly, I haven’t watched but maybe 1/3 of our games this year, but I’ve seen a lot of steals by hands coming in from collapsing help when someone is trying to post up Zach or Ousmane.  Just reaching in to knock the ball, looking to punch it to a teammate (whoever it may be).

[tjreese]

1 hour ago, PlummMeanGreen said:

Coach GMac:  Fly the team out to SF, load a bus then drive out & have a practice session in the Redwood Forest?  
 

Jeez-Louise, 1 PU Boilermaker at 7’4”& two at 6’10” ?🤪

Those other two are probably Tre 6'8"/6'9" and Aaron 6'9".  Aaron is thin and light and has about a 40" vertical that sometimes but rarely shows up defending the rim in his cyclinder.There is another that has had breathing problems all year and has not logged a single minute I don't think and he is 6'11" Dow.  This team is young and sometimes the youth shows, but they are resilent and very gritty and will battle until the end.  I think every Purdue fan would say they are better than they thought they would be with all this youth

[greenminer]

I don't know why some of you all are so hung up on their forwards/centers.  We've handled strong 4s and 5s.  There is nothing Purdue offers under the basket that will be as good or better than Bassey.

I think the concerns should be about Purdue's size on the perimeter.

[kingwoodgreen]

6 hours ago, BoilerMKT said:

Just noticed you guys are in the same conference with ODU, so that will make it Purdue's second straight CUSA opener.  In '19, we played the Monarchs in a 3-14 matchup, winning 61-48.  It was not a thing of beauty.  We had to adjust on the fly when our starting PG rolled an ankle in pre-game warmups.  They held their own rebounding, but we kept them to 27% shooting.  Game was tight for the first fifteen minutes, but the last five of the first and first five of the second saw us blow it to 20 and then just trade baskets the rest of the way.

All of which has nothing to do with the upcoming game.  ODU profiled similarly to NT on defense, but was much worse offensively.  And, Purdue was a much more 3-point reliant team in that season (remember Carsen Edwards and Ryan Cline?).  In terms of total points scored, however, I won't be surprised if this game is within the same range as that one.

Carson was my sons age and we played against him for many years. He played for atascosita which is Kingwoods rival. They were some great games. Fabian white who is a senior with Houston played for both of the teams. So I went to almost all the Kingwood games and was in awe then of Carson’s talent. I went so far as to watch him in the playoffs after Kingwood was knocked out. He had one of the purest shots I have ever seen. 

[BoilerMKT]

41 minutes ago, greenminer said:

I don't know why some of you all are so hung up on their forwards/centers.  We've handled strong 4s and 5s.  There is nothing Purdue offers under the basket that will be as good or better than Bassey.

I think the concerns should be about Purdue's size on the perimeter.

My amateur assessment, albeit based on just watching your championship game is while Bassey is undoubtedly a better athlete, Trevion is a more-skilled, harder-working and smarter basketball player.  Where that will show up is offensive rebounding and patience in the post, waiting for the defense to show itself.  It's why his assist rate is 5x Bassey's.  That said, I do think NT will do an effective job of denying post entries and forcing us to take a lot of threes   With Edey, sometimes it's easier to just throw it over the top of everyone and let him handle it.  Watch out for backscreens leading to alley-oops.

A couple questions for you guys.  On the occasions that you do feed it down to Simmons, how well does he handle double teams?  He will see them, pretty much always coming from the 4 spot until he proves he can beat them.  

Also, if Hamlet is made to be inefficient, what is Plan B?  Who's the most likely to pick up the slack?  He is definitely very crafty, has good vision and an excellent floater game, but he doesn't appear to be lightning quick, which is what we sometimes struggle with.

 

[CMJ]

MKT: I'm not sure I can answer how Simmons will do with the Boilers double teaming him.  He often plays his best when in the worst situations.  He's a tremendous passer, so I think that's how he'll try and take advantage of double teams. Not sure I'd expect him to score consistently out of them, but he might get a few assists and make Painter try another tactic.

 

When Hamlet doesn't play well we often really struggle.  He doesn't have to score a bunch for us to win (though I feel like when he's scoring, we are very tough) - but he does have to be able to break down the defense.  When he gets confused and we're just tossing it around the perimeter our offense can get really stagnant and cumbersome to watch.

Edited March 16, 2021 by CMJ

[UNT Family Man]

We have to shoot over 42% from the floor, 36% from three, 75+% from the line (probably 80%), fewer than 10 turnovers and hold them under 62 pts. 

 

MG Nation, what say you?

[BillySee58]

28 minutes ago, BoilerMKT said:

My amateur assessment, albeit based on just watching your championship game is while Bassey is undoubtedly a better athlete, Trevion is a more-skilled, harder-working and smarter basketball player.  Where that will show up is offensive rebounding and patience in the post, waiting for the defense to show itself.  It's why his assist rate is 5x Bassey's.  That said, I do think NT will do an effective job of denying post entries and forcing us to take a lot of threes   With Edey, sometimes it's easier to just throw it over the top of everyone and let him handle it.  Watch out for backscreens leading to alley-oops.

A couple questions for you guys.  On the occasions that you do feed it down to Simmons, how well does he handle double teams?  He will see them, pretty much always coming from the 4 spot until he proves he can beat them.  

I think the key to stopping Simmons is making him catch the ball outside the paint. He is a really good passer out of double teams so doubling him can be a bad decision. His struggles have come when he starts his back downs from outside the paint and has to dribble more than 2 or 3 times. He has had the ball stolen from him a lot this year, and also traveled a good bit in these situations. He and the team did a good job avoiding these situations in the CUSA tournament, but they had been ailing us throughout the regular season.

28 minutes ago, BoilerMKT said:

Also, if Hamlet is made to be inefficient, what is Plan B?  Who's the most likely to pick up the slack?  He is definitely very crafty, has good vision and an excellent floater game, but he doesn't appear to be lightning quick, which is what we sometimes struggle with.

There is no plan B. Our 6th man, freshman Rubin Jones, is our only other player really capable of creating shots for other players and he was injured and missed the CUSA tournament. The guard, 5’11” former walkon JJ Murray, who stepped into the 6th man role scored 1 point in 74 minutes of time on the court in our last 3 wins of the CUSA tournament. Our only other guard off our bench has scored 42 points in his two seasons with the team, and he has been available for basically every game of his career.

It’s all on Hamlet unless Rubin Jones can go. 

[Boilerup]

Life long Boiler fan here. Good luck to you! I don’t know much about the program to be honest, but it seems like you have a solid team this year.

I saw a lot of talk regarding Edey and figured I’d chime in w some analysis from someone who has watched 7/8  of the games. 

First, be happy you’re playing us this year and not next. This team is a legit Final Four Contender next year and most of the studs will only be Sophomores then. Ivey, Newman, Gillis, Edey and Morton are all Freshman. 

 

Edey- He’s young, has a ton of potential to be one of the best bigs we’ve ever had. BUT, he’s young - lacks confidence at times, has no mean streak and can disappear in game flow. If he’s on he’s ON. If he’s not he’s not. Not a great defender or rebounder yet. I think the kid is still trying to figure out his body. He was still Physically growing this season (height. Yeah, no shit)

Ivey - Another young one. But this kid will be Carsen Edwards 2.0 and already shows flashes of it. He’s not as good of a pure shooter, but he can completely take over a game at times, plays with a nastiness to him that I love. Not at all dirty, just plays like he’s been caged.  And when he decides to penetrate, he WILL get a shot at the rim regardless of how hard he’s fouled. 
Good defender, gets out of position due to aggressiveness at times. Decent court vision. 

Williams - He’s our stud. Versatile big man that is nearly impossible to guard 1 on 1 in the paint. Shifty feet/hips and a good ball handler down low. Can be contained with help defense, but if Sasha/Wheeler/Newman/Ivey are knocking down shots from the perimeter, Williams might be unstoppable on the offensive end. Competent defender, strong rebounder. 
 

Newman - Another young one who will develop into a special player. Some games he already legitimately looks like the best player on the court. Other times I wonder why he’s even getting minutes. He could put up 28 pts or he may not even score. Who knows. Solid defensively.

Wheeler - 2 years ago, I’d have said he would be the best player on the team by now. He’s not. Decent player from everywhere on the court, but hasn’t developed 

Hunter - See Wheeler

Stefanovic/Thompson - Decent Guards who likely won’t light up the box score, but don’t make dumb mistakes and play sufficient D. 
 

Gillis - Stud athlete, build like a man and can play great D. He’ll be really really good in a year or 2 as well, but doesn’t get a ton of minutes to establish any type of rhythm. 
 

Overall, I wasn’t expecting a great year from this young team, but considering our schedule, this team greatly over achieved and has gelled very well late. I think we win by 6-8 pts.
 

 

 

[CMJ]

That is a good formula UNT Family Man.

 

I think it'd help if the game was in the 50s with us using 25+ seconds of every shot clock, and making them do the same.  We can definitely win an ugly game like that.  We're not gonna rain down threes and win a game in the 70s or 80s.  Not against a team like Purdue anyway.  This isn't Rice or UTSA when we could let them score and still win.

 

If Purdue score 65+ they win.  We need to limit possessions, get to the free throw line, hit a few timely threes, and play D like a bunch of junk yard dogs.

[BoilerMKT]

1 hour ago, kingwoodgreen said:

Carson was my sons age and we played against him for many years. He played for atascosita which is Kingwoods rival. They were some great games. Fabian white who is a senior with Houston played for both of the teams. So I went to almost all the Kingwood games and was in awe then of Carson’s talent. I went so far as to watch him in the playoffs after Kingwood was knocked out. He had one of the purest shots I have ever seen. 

Great story!  I remember Purdue recruited Fabian White a little bit.  CJ Walker, currently a senior PG for Ohio State originally committed to Purdue and then backed out, so we "settled" for Carsen.  🙂  I think that turned out OK.  Those AAU teams with Carsen and D'Aaron Fox had to be just ridiculous.  You weren't at the game where he hit like 13-15 threes on the way to 50+ points, were you?

[BoilerMKT]

1 hour ago, CMJ said:

MKT: I'm not sure I can answer how Simmons will do with the Boilers double teaming him.  He often plays his best when in the worst situations.  He's a tremendous passer, so I think that's how he'll try and take advantage of double teams. Not sure I'd expect him to score consistently out of them, but he might get a few assists and make Painter try another tactic.

 

When Hamlet doesn't play well we often really struggle.  He doesn't have to score a bunch for us to win (though I feel like when he's scoring, we are very tough) - but he does have to be able to break down the defense.  When he gets confused and we're just tossing it around the perimeter our offense can get really stagnant and cumbersome to watch.

Thanks for the response.  If he passes well out of it, Bell is the likely beneficiary and it looks like he's capable of knocking them down from the perimeter, so that may work well for you.  Pretty sure we'll try doubling, though, because it looked like Simmons was effective one-on-one vs. Bassey, at least in the first half.

Purdue is very analytically driven, so I'm certain they will focus a ton of attention on Hamlet.  Eric Hunter is really good on the ball--held Notre Dame's leading scorer Prentiss Hubb to 0 points, forced Minnesota's Marcus Carr into a 2-for-13 night, held Wisconsin's D'Mitrik Trice to 2-for-10 one game after he had lit Illinois up for 29 points.  Hunter and Hamlet are essentially the same size (and both left-handed), so that battle will be very interesting to watch and may be the most important matchup in the game.

[Boilerpride]

7 hours ago, BoilerMKT said:

Thanks for the response.  If he passes well out of it, Bell is the likely beneficiary and it looks like he's capable of knocking them down from the perimeter, so that may work well for you.  Pretty sure we'll try doubling, though, because it looked like Simmons was effective one-on-one vs. Bassey, at least in the first half.

Purdue is very analytically driven, so I'm certain they will focus a ton of attention on Hamlet.  Eric Hunter is really good on the ball--held Notre Dame's leading scorer Prentiss Hubb to 0 points, forced Minnesota's Marcus Carr into a 2-for-13 night, held Wisconsin's D'Mitrik Trice to 2-for-10 one game after he had lit Illinois up for 29 points.  Hunter and Hamlet are essentially the same size (and both left-handed), so that battle will be very interesting to watch and may be the most important matchup in the game.

A couple comments from my perspective....

Purdue usually does well against teams that try to slow it down and win ugly, or which play tough defense, provided they don't have world beating talent in that system. Virginia was like that in '19 and they barely escaped with their W. Wisconsin is another example and we have handled them pretty well over the years. Purdue from the days of Gene Keady onwards are no strangers to tough defense, we play it with the best of them. At Mackey, our slogan is" "Defense Lives Here".

That said, this is not a prototype Purdue team this year and our outside shooting is not nearly as deadly as it usually is. That will limit our potential this year in my opinion. On a positive side, we have a ton of young talent and the 7'4 kid Edey is going to be a superstar before he is done. He will be the best big man we've had and we've had some good ones. At 7-4 with long arms and decent hops, we can always lob it right in there to him near the basket. 

I think Williams will be a good test for your guys down low, he's a skilled player with alot of size and strength, and a crafty passer. 

Eric Hunter is our best on ball defender and I think he will do a good job on Hamlet(?), in the past, we have usually been able to frustrate the mid-major alpha scorers we face in the tournament, so we will see if that continues. Super athletic wings are usually more of our weakness. 

Looks like UNT is a good program heading in the right direction, and I think with their senior leadership, defense, shooting and guard play, they have the potential to be a Cinderella this year. Good luck!

[CMJ]

I have to say, between reading their board and the Purdue folks that have made the trip over here, it's obvious the stereotypes about the state of Indiana and basketball are correct.  Very knowledgeable fanbase.

Edited March 16, 2021 by CMJ