Feature image from @BoilerBall

What Happened?

I…definitely thought this game tipped off at 6pm. I’m still not in game shape. I apologize. I could blame ESPN and all of the other apps that told me it started at 6pm, but listen, we don’t pass the buck here at Boiled Sports dot com. I will do better. I will be better.

Purdue beat Liberty 77-64, in the first game of the Space Coast Challenge. Liberty is a very coming off consecutive 30-win and 29-win seasons, so they’re absolutely in no way the traditional walkover opening opponent. Matt Painter has lost only one season-opening game while at Purdue – 2012, which is a year we do not speak about.

They kept calling the tournament the Space Coast Challenge, and I keep thinking it’s the Space Ghost Challenge. I didn’t have a place where this piece of information fit easily, but I needed to convey it to you. Also this is a place where I could share the Space Ghost Coast To Coast Without Context Twitter account, one of the few good things about Twitter.

Let’s get into it:

The Good

• The redshirt and true freshman were dominant, scoring 22 of Purdue’s first 28 points, and 44 of Purdue’s 77 points tonight. These 2020 young pups might be living up to the standard set by the 2007 Baby Boilers (E’Twaun Moore, Robbie Hummel, JaJuan Johnson Johnson), and met by the 2014 class (PJ Thompson, Dakota Mathias, Vincent Edwards, Isaac Haas).

• Zach Edey. Let’s talk about him. Oh my goodness, the coaches and reporters hyping him up this offeseason weren’t kidding. He looked immediately more mobile than Trevion Williams, bigger and more decisive than Haas, and stronger than JaJuan. No center has had as memorable a debut under Painter, unless we’re counting Biggie Swanigan, and really let’s just assume Biggie holds all big men superlatives in the Painter Purdue era. Edey finished with 19 points on 9/10 shooting and 5 rebounds. Coming into this year, the question of the starting center if/when Williams got into foul trouble weighed heavily on my mind…and boy oh boy is that the least of Purdue’s problems this year. It’s impossible to believe he’s barely played two years of organized basketball, and that I was convinced he would redshirt if Purdue’s center lineup was deeper.

• Jaden Ivey is everything I love about basketball. A confident, skilled, athletic guard that will be a constant 4-year presence in the starting lineup for Purdue. When Eric Hunter comes back into the lineup, Purdue’s wing scoring will be dangerous. Ivey finished with 12 points on 5/7 shooting tonight.

• Brandon Newman’s smooth game and shot is absolutely beautiful, and added a LeBron-esque chasedown block to his statline (10 points, 4/9 shooting).

• Mason Gillis could be such a perfect player in this lineup – aggressive driver, skilled rebounder, has the size and length to be a good defender, and has passing vision in the vein of other Purdue playmaking 4s. His statline wasn’t much, but his play was very solid.

• Sasha Stefanovic, particularly late in the second half as the game got slightly closer, was calm and steady shooter and playmaker and kept the lead comfortably at bay. 9 points on 3/5 shooting from three, paired with 5 assists and 1 turnover, makes him a perfect experienced presence on the floor.

• Purdue’s team this year looks to be a very athletic and fast-paced. This might be surprising given Matt Painter’s entire track record, and two large centers (large…very different ways). I don’t anticipate Purdue shooting the lights out this year, but a modest improvement on last year’s 31% team three point shooting, combined with the slashing and playmaking (and the additional target in Edey), could make this team overachieve given modest national expectations.

The Bad

• Still playing at a destination tournament…even though there are no Purdue/Liberty fans traveling or no locals allowed to attend seems absolutely idiotic on many levels. This game was played as a part of the Space Coast Challenge, hosted in the (small) gym of Eastern Florida State College. I don’t even know who this was supposed to benefit.

• Purdue was down to 9 scholarship players, playing without Eric Hunter (knee injury) and without Emmanuel Duwuona (who, unfortunately…it would be surprising to see him ever play a significant role with Purdue given his chronic injuries). The benefit of this is it forces the other freshman into more minutes. [CORRECTION: Previously referred to Ethan Morton as not playing due to having mono, even though he did in fact play. The lesson: do not pre-write sections of your postgame post based on “Doubtful” pregame injury reports, and then forget to change them before hitting publish.]

The Ugly

• A classic Jekyll/Hyde game from Trevion Williams. He didn’t have a great first half, looking a step slow and dash weak, which was startling given our very high expectations for the big fella. He picked it up in the second half, perhaps spurred by the incredible game from his backup and freshman Edey, showcasing his passing vision moreso than his scoring tonight. Given that Liberty doesn’t have a true center (three frontline players were 6’7”, 6’7”, and 6’9”) I would have hoped for a stronger night from Purdue’s best 2019-2020 player. Trevion finished with 7 points (3/7 shooting), 11 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 fouls.

• Aaron Wheeler’s jumper looked much better than last year, but he still didn’t look particularly fluid within the offense. But it’s a distinct improvement, particularly being able to comfortably play 30 minutes tonight without any bad stretches. Purdue’s perimeter defense will be spurred by his energy, but it wasn’t quite that way tonight…

• The defense wasn’t the suffocating, pressuring defense that we’re used to seeing from Painter teams. That side of the ball is where I think we’ll see most of the frustrations from Painter during his press conferences, but tonight it was plenty good enough to keep Liberty at bay. Against stronger offensive teams, we might have to out-run and outscore.

Tweet of the Night:

Listen there were many funny Edey tweets but let’s just watch him grab a contested rebound and dunk on four poor Liberty souls.