Matchup Rewind | Purdue vs. Nebraska

Purdue was able to defeat the Cornhuskers behind Fletcher Loyer’s scoring 27 points along with Zach Edey’s double-double of 12 points and 13 rebounds. Walker and Tominaga were again problems for Purdue’s defense scoring 19 and 16 respectively but missing Juwan Gary and Sam Griesel was just too much for Nebraska to overcome.

Let’s take a look back at the important matchups in our ‘Matchup Rewind.’

1 | Zach Edey vs. Nebraska’s Low Side Double Team

As opposed to what we saw in the first matchup in Lincoln, Edey did a great job of reading the defense and passing out of double teams to find open shooters. This time though the shooters around him hit their open shots and were able to drive by defenders to get to the rim. Overall the Boilermakers hit 7-19 from behind the arc with Loyer going 4-10 in the first half to open things up in the second in the lane. In the second half, the Boilers shot even better going 4-10 and ended up 11-29 from behind the arc for 37.9%. That goes with the 35% that I believe the Boilermakers need to be at to function effectively on offense to keep winning tough games.

Edey’s continued improvement in this regard played out in the post game media opportunities where he was asked about his scoring and passing out of double teams:

Advantage: Strongly Purdue

2 | Who Guards Sam Griesel?

Well, this was an easy matchup for the Boilers to take advantage of because Griesel did not play in the game against the Boilermakers. Griesel is dealing with a hip injury and that coupled with Juwan Gary being out made things incredibly difficult for the Cornhuskers.

Advantage: Strongly Purdue

3 | Purdue vs. B1G Refs

This is where things get a little, shall I say, not so black and white. It seemed like the referees did a good job in the first half calling fouls and controlling the game but the second half featured this, shall I say, less than stellar call on Zach Edey. The quality isn’t great but I am just as confused as everyone inside Mackey about this foul call. Not sure what exactly Zach did to get a foul here but it as bad as I’ve seen.

Purdue ended up drawing 19 fouls and got to the free throw line 20 times which is right about where they should be with the style of offense and players that they have but the referees frequently missed some foul calls that seemed to favor Nebraska big man Derrick Walker with the other two Nebraska big men out with injuries. Another case of referees influencing the game in a manner where a foul should be called no matter what. A guy overwhelmed and overmatched because the man he is guarding in 7’4 shouldn’t get the benefit of the doubt.

Advantage: Purdue, but the B1G referees are still terrible.