The Minute After: Purdue

Conor Enright drives at Purdue.

Thoughts on a 93-64 loss to the Boilermakers:

Indiana didn’t just lose tonight.

It got its doors blown off, as the Boilermakers flipped the script from their loss in Bloomington last month.

In the midst of a slump, Fletcher Loyer mustered a 2-of-6 performance from deep and eight points in Assembly Hall. Tonight in Mackey Arena? Loyer went a perfect 5-of-5 from the floor, including 4-of-4 from deep and 4-of-4 at the line for 18 points. Conor Enright made Braden Smith work for everything he got in Indiana’s home win on Jan. 27. This evening, Enright picked up three first-half fouls. Smith, meanwhile, established himself early and got comfortable — both scoring and distributing. The mid-range jumper was falling, and Smith, as he does, found his teammates all over the court. The reigning Big Ten player of the year scored 15 points (5-of-10) and dished out eight assists.

Omer Mayer played seven minutes and scored just two points in Bloomington. But he went on an absolute heater in the second half in this one, making all five of his shots, four of which came from deep. Each shot made by Mayer seemed to send an already raucous Mackey Arena to another level. He ended with a career-high 18 points.

Add in 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting from Trey Kaufman-Renn and you get a picture of a Purdue team that shot the lights out tonight. The Boilermakers scored 1.46 points per possession against the Hoosiers. That’s their second-best mark of the season, eclipsed only by the 1.51 points per possession they scored against Eastern Illinois on Nov. 28. Purdue shot 10-of-18 (55.6 percent) from 3-point range and posted an effective field goal percentage of 75. It was an absolutely dominant performance.

Conversely, this was Indiana’s worst defensive performance of the season, beating out the 1.28 points per possession it allowed against Iowa on Jan. 17. The Hoosiers couldn’t string together stops or make the Boilermakers uncomfortable. Purdue got what it wanted to great effect this evening, the crowd and the players in a feedback loop as they smelled blood in the water in the second half.

After seeing much less playing time of late since working back from his ankle injury, Tayton Conerway was a bright spot for the Hoosiers tonight. Thrust into more playing time due to Enright’s first-half fouling, the Troy transfer got to the basket with ease (5-of-7, 12 points), but also coupled that with a strong ability to find his teammates as he broke down the Purdue defense (seven assists). Lamar Wilkerson was held in check in the first half (two points, zero field goals). But as we’ve seen after teams have schemed hard on him in the first 20 minutes, Wilkerson eventually found daylight in the second half and went on a run. He shot 7-of-10 over the final 20 minutes and finished with a team-high 20 points.

It’s been this kind of year for the Hoosiers on the road against the Big Ten’s elite. This 29-point drubbing is Indiana’s third loss by 20 or more on the road in conference play. Michigan State beat the Hoosiers by 21. Illinois beat them by 20. And had Michigan not taken its foot off the gas in Ann Arbor in January, that 14-point loss the Hoosiers suffered could have easily been by more.

Indiana needs to flush this one and move on. A path to the NCAA tournament is still well within play, though nothing is guaranteed at this point.

(Photo credit: IU Athletics)

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