Matchup Rewind | Purdue vs. Michigan State

Purdue grabbed an important road victory against the Michigan State Spartans on Monday afternoon thanks in large part to Zach Edey’s dominating 32 points and 17 rebounds and Fletcher Loyer’s late game hot streak to 17 points. Michigan State’s Tyson Walker had a great night as well going for 30 points and 5 rebounds but he just didn’t get quite the same help from his teammates. Purdue raced out to a 13 point lead thanks in large part to controlling the important matchups I highlighted and lost it because they struggled to maintain that advantage.

Let’s get into seeing where Purdue ended up on those matchups in our ‘Matchup Rewind.’

1 | Who Controls the Boards?

This is one reason why this game ended up being a lot closer than it should have been for the Boilers. After holding a distinct rebounding advantage early in the game that led to Purdue grabbing a 13 point lead, the game ended in Michigan State holding a 30-29 advantage in overall rebounds. The teams split on the offensive glass where they both grabbed 8 offensive rebounds but often those second chances for MSU led to points for them.

Advantage: Neutral

2 | Zach Edey vs. Double & Triple Teams

Well, Izzo decided to go with the idea of letting Edey get his opportunities in one-on-one situations and hope that someone else didn’t beat them. Edey was rarely ever doubled and it allowed him to work in the middle freely where he went 13-26 shooting for 32 points. This did prevent Purdue from freeing some other guys at times but Purdue rarely forced up bad shots in the half-court. Loyer (5-9 for 17 points) and Furst (2-3 for 8 points) were able to make the Spartans pay but others, like Ethan Morton, struggled to hit shots (0-7 from the field).

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Purdue’s offense honestly works fine getting those shooters on the perimeter looks cleanly when Edey is left one-on-one and really has only looked scattered this season when doubles are thrown at Edey from different places in the flow of the offense. If teams want to continue doing what MSU did then Purdue is good enough in other aspects, especially on defense, to win those types of games.

Advantage: Strongly Purdue

3 | Caleb Furst/Mason Gillis vs. Joey Hauser

Well, Purdue did a really good job on Hauser and made things tough for the sharpshooting forward but in doing so ended up letting Tyson Walker almost single handily beat them by going for 30 points. Some times a guy gets going and there isn’t a whole bunch you can do to stop them but then the job is to limit those around him so his overall impact is minimalized.

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Not letting Hauser get really going was a big key to Purdue eventually winning this game. Hauser did go 4-8 shooting for 10 points and he grabbed 5 rebounds but Purdue being able to limit him enough to not eventually really hurt them was key. He didn’t get a lot of clean looks from behind the arc outside of some poor defensive communication but allowing Walker to go for 30 might be more of a team wide issue than an individual one.

Advantage: Slightly Purdue

Prediction vs. Actual Result:

Prediction
Boilers: 73
Michigan State: 68

Actual:
Purdue: 64
Michigan State: 63