GoldandBlack.com Analysis and Wrap Video: Purdue's win at Nebraska

Our post-game analysis and Wrap Video from Purdue's 75-58 win at Nebraska.

Jaden Ivey's making a name for himself with his dynamic athleticism, cleverness offensively and highlight-worthy acrobatics, but all of that may also overshadow the layer of substance the freshman has really begun developing underneath it all.

Saturday evening at Nebraska, you saw him score 15 points. Saturday night, he'll be all over the news and highlight shows because of his dunks.

But from the outset at Pinnacle Bank Arena, Ivey was a tone-setter in more ways than one.

He Impacted this game defensively just as much as he did offensively, especially in the beginning, his early steals setting a tone for the Boilermakers and helping them offensively. He blocked two more shots; between him and Brandon Newman, Purdue may have the best young shot-blocking backcourt in America. Not sure who other candidates would even be, admittedly.

Steals and blocks alone do not necessarily make a great defender, but Ivey seems to be progressing as a sound defender across the board, too, understanding that this is a freshman who didn't really have to guard anyone most of his life before getting LaLumiere for his senior season and playing EYBL the spring prior. Still, even that is nothing compared to what's asked of him at Purdue.

That's one part of that emerging substance.

The other is his improved decision-making with the ball in his hands. He committed four turnovers at Nebraska, and that's the cost of doing business sometimes for aggressive scorers, but he is striking a balance when attacking the basket or in transition between setting himself up and setting others up. His drive-and-dish assist to Zach Edey for that dunk was a highlight for Purdue and an example of a young player who doesn't have tunnel vision when looking for his own shot.

Ivey's becoming a star at Purdue, but he's also becoming a pretty good all-around player, and that's really shown the past two games especially.

Finally, a glimpse at the Sasha Stefanovic Purdue hadn't seen in literally a month, that knockout-punch burst of threes being vintage 55.

If this marked the real return for him, then remember this day, because him rounding back into form remains the single-biggest personnel piece Purdue has been needing to fall back into place.

So much else is trending upward, between Jaden Ivey's improvement, Trevion Williams' consistency, Eric Hunter's offensive play lately and so on. Purdue needs Stefanovic back to form and needs to make threes at a higher rate. Those are not mutually exclusive issues.

Things are going to be different for Stefanovic now. Jaden Ivey's not coming out of that starting lineup any time soon and it would be unlike Painter to mess with a good thing, as long as Purdue is winning.

This role coming off the bench, playing fewer minutes than before, that might be Stefanovic's new normal. Is that fair? Probably not, but there's a pandemic.

If this game helped bring Stefanovic not only back to form, but back to form in this role, then those could have been some of the most important eight minutes of the Boilermakers' season.

Give Nebraska credit. They're in an impossible situation.

No one's really stopped Trevion Williams this Big Ten, and Nebraska didn't seem to either have the personnel nor the prep time to do so.

They did.

Williams managed just eight field goal attempts in his 21 minutes, the Cornhuskers being able to crowd him effectively. But holding Williams to nine points and three rebounds was a feat for Nebraska.

And that makes Purdue's win more Impressive than any victory over a one-win team might be otherwise.

This was a chance for Jaden Ivey to really lead the way and for Stefanovic and Aaron Wheeler to come up situationally.

Williams has been Purdue's foundation, its rock, and his consistency has been something Purdue could almost take for granted if it was so conditioned.

Matt Painter always harps on the importance of finding ways to win when a team's not making shots. The same principle would seem to apply when your best player Isn't getting his normal 17-and-10 level of productivity.

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