Afternoon Delight: Purdue 97, Omaha 40.

Matt Painter and the Boilermakers put on an absolute clinic Friday afternoon in a 97-40 route of the Omaha Mavericks inside Mackey Arena.

While this was expected out of Purdue, it doesn’t make a performance like that any less impressive. Purdue’s firepower, shooting, size, and skill were way too much for Omaha to even be competitive today. The Boilermakers lived up to their nickname as they steamrolled the Mavericks, making it look extremely easy.

Purdue was able to set a few season highs today, as the Boilermakers put up a season-best 97 point performance. Purdue has now scored 93 or more points in 5 out of 6 games so far this year. The massive 57 point win is the most since Purdue beat Chicago State 111-42 back in the 2017-18 season.

The 40 points score on the side of Omaha can be attributed to Purdue’s defense, the Maverick’s lack of scoring ability, or a mixture of both. It has still been tough sledding for Omaha as Purdue’s win preceded a 56 point loss they suffered against Texas Tech.

In games like these, there can be things to take away from the performance although not as much as Purdue’s previous two wins against North Carolina and Villanova. Today massively boosts the confidence of the team if nothing else, but they also got more time to grow as a team and become just that more comfortable. This is a scary thought if you are the rest of the country.

Omaha began the game with a mere 3-2 advantage for a whopping 26 seconds over Purdue... and that was where the success would halt. The Boilermakers then went on a ridiculous 29-0 run to make the score 31-3, and the game could have been called at that time.

Zach Edey and Trevion Williams continued their dominant stretch as Matt Painter’s lethal one-two punch in the frontcourt. The big man duo combined for 34 points on 13-18 shooting from the field and 16 rebounds all in 37 minutes as well.

Something I think could get lost in all of the great performances was the play of Brandon Newman today. Newman has struggled with his shot a little bit this season but had a stellar output tonight with 16 points on 4-9 shooting from the field which included three connections from behind the arc. A game like this could send Newman into a hot streak with some tough games coming up.

Today also gave Mason Gillis a chance to get his legs under him a bit more after his suspension to start the year. Gillis only played 10 minutes in the win over Villanova compared to 17 minutes tonight, this could allow him to get back into the flow of things and knock some of the rust off that he might have had.

Altogether, nobody is critiquing that type of performance at all. Purdue is going to do that to these low-level squads that come into Mackey Arena. The important part is not letting this go to their head and getting overconfident, which as Purdue fans know Matt Painter will not allow that.

Purdue will have a major step up in competition next time out against Florida State. The Seminoles are 5-1 but have not looked like a normal Leonard Hamilton squad as they’ve gone down to the wire with the likes of Tulane and Boston University. Purdue will host Florida State on Tuesday evening as a part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge inside Mackey Arena.