As Purdue continues to get its legs under it offensively with this dramatically different team, Wednesday brings the ultimate challenge, Virginia, arguably college basketball's gold standard for defense.
It will cap a three-game stretch for the Boilermakers that probably couldn't have been more formidable as far as defensive matchups are concerned. VCU and Florida State's hyper-aggressive, abrasive approaches to pressure defense tested Purdue's poise; now, Virginia's methodically suffocating pack-line style will test pretty much everything about the Boilermakers at the offensive end, perhaps discipline above all else.
"They're two very different types of styles, completely different," guard Eric Hunter said of the contrast between the Rams and Seminoles and now the defending-champion Cavaliers. "There's really no comparison."
It will certainly be a handful for a Purdue offense continually finding its way, with mixed outcomes. Against four high-major (or the equivalent) opponents this season, the Boilermakers have averaged only 60 points.
Purdue struggled offensively during the two games at the Emerald Coast Classic, though its results there should be viewed in context. The Boilermakers' offensive struggles in those games jibed largely with exactly what VCU and Florida State work toward defensively, and those styles "magnified" — as center Matt Haarms put it — existing growing pains for Purdue.
Purdue also won't soon see opponents similar.
Associate head coach Micah Shrewsberry said that even though Jacksonville State, who Purdue beat 81-49 prior to the Florida trip, it did play a more Big Ten-ish style, against which the Boilermakers cracked 80 and shot 55 percent, despite pulling off the gas pedal late.
"We're still kind of evolving in what we're doing and how we're playing," said Shrewsberry, who oversees the offense. "And then in the middle of that, you feel like you're taking the right steps with where we're going and then we throw in VCU and Florida State that just don't allow you to run offense."
The point: Style of play considerations may suggest the games in Niceville may not be representative of enduring reality for the Boilermakers this season, but rather a temporary deviation in trending after Purdue played its best offensive game of the season vs. Jacksonville State after a full week of uninterrupted practice leading into it.
That said, there's considerable room for improvement in some of those foundational elements of offense for Purdue, regardless of the style of play.
"If you can't pass and catch it makes things really hard," Coach Matt Painter said. "If you can't do simple things and be fundamentally sound, it's really hard to get from A to B. People who don't understand basketball look at it and say, 'What you're doing isn't working,' but when you can't pass and catch, it doesn't matter what you're doing."
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It's not just about "passing and catching," but finishing, and for this Purdue team, that's where the difference between execution and productivity exists.
It's shooting only 65.4 percent at the foul line and those who've watched the games have seen numerous point-blank opportunities at the rim missed or clear-path opportunities taken away from behind.
"We've left some points out there for ourselves when we're doing good things," Shrewsberry said. "We're getting those opportunities. It's just about capitalizing on them. Coach talks about the focus part of it was just kind of slowing down."
That has been part of what's held Purdue back thus far, it would seem, and never was it more apparent than against Florida State, both at the end of regulation and in overtime, as the turnover issue was exacerbated.
"It's people growing in those moments," Shrewsberry said, "and this is the first time for a lot of these guys to have opportunities in those moments."
The good news for Purdue has been that it's fared well defensively and on the glass, two essential components to winning in low-scoring fashion when necessary. That Purdue's only done so once in four tries doesn't mean it can't moving forward.
"I don't think we're phenomenal defensively yet, but I think there's potential for us to be an amazing defensive team," Haarms said. "... I've always said that I think it needs to start on the defensive end for this team, so if we win low-scoring games, let's be positive about that."
Meanwhile, the more higher-percentage offense Purdue can generate the better, and defense and rebounding do often jibe with high-percentage offense — as VCU and Florida State just showed against Purdue.
"I feel like we're not getting as many run-outs or transition points as we should be," guard Nojel Eastern said. "That's one of the big things that can help us offensively.
"We have been good defensively. We just have to turn that into offense more, get out and run and take what they give us instead of having to play in the halfcourt all the time."
But Purdue certainly would like to be more productive in said halfcourt.
A step in the right direction would be to become more "strong with the ball," as Painter put it following the Florida State game.
"That's just a piece of the toughness you've got to have," Haarms said. "Some teams will just straight up take the ball from you. They did it to me against Florida State, the first time I went for a handoff, they just straight up took it. Being strong with the ball is something we have to continue to work on to limit our turnovers."
With the Boilermaker possessions that do endure, however, Purdue wants to be more efficient. To this point in the season, it's averaged .877 points per possession, which puts it in the middle of the 350-plus-team Division I field.
Missed opportunities have bogged those numbers down, obviously, not just at the rim and foul line, but also long range. Purdue never expected to be as potent a three-point shooting team as last season, or the season before that, or the season before that, but it entered the season figuring it would surround a pair of effective big men with a capable corps of shooters, and a valuable balance could be struck.
There's a long way to go this season and November realities in college basketball often have limited shelf lives, but to this point, the Boilermakers have shot 31 percent from three-point range and don't have a starter shooting better than 29 percent.
"We get stuck at the end of shot clocks, because we're not as efficient as we've been, whether that's someone not screening, someone not delivering the ball, someone not catching the ball," Painter said. "We have to handle the basketball better and pass the basketball better to shoot a better percentage, and we don't have the same playmaker out there to save us at the end of a shot clock."
That last part may not change this season. In-season personnel transformation doesn't often occur, last season's Trevion Williams development for Purdue being an exception. That doesn't mean, though, Purdue can't improve — significantly — from an offensive perspective.
It just may be a continued process.
"The playing-hard part is getting better," Painter said. "I don't know if the playing-smart part is, and we've thrived on that in this program with some guys who really understand the game.
"We just aren't making those plays in the heat of the moment right now."
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