GoldandBlack.com Analysis and Wrap Video: Purdue's win over Illinois

No. 3 Purdue moved into a first-place tie in the Big Ten Tuesday night, with the Boilermakers' 84-68 win over Illinois.

Our post-game analysis and Wrap Video.

Purdue's become known for running a playbook that might look more like a phone book, running intricate offense and sharing the ball.

Lately, it's boiled things down to modern basketball in its simplest form: Give Jaden Ivey a ball screen and let him cook.

Look what's happening.

Ivey dominated Illinois after halftime without Purdue really having to run anything for him. That's when Ivey's been at his best — in transition, in ball screens.

Illinois coach Brad Underwood credited Painter — sort of — for just giving Ivey the ball and "getting the hell out of the way" lately.

Purdue's been the most efficient offensive team in college basketball this whole time, so it's not like this move was necessarily overdue, but rather something that Ivey had to grow into, which he clearly has.

During this Boilermaker winning streak, his patience and poise have stood out and his decision-making has been excellent. He has been caving in defenses off the bounce, and making the right pass more often than not when need be, playing off two feet, whereas earlier this season he might have tried — sometimes successfully — to just jump over everyone.

"That trust isn't something that just gets handed out," Painter said.

Ivey, Painter said, has earned that trust, and has Purdue more often weaponizing its most gifted player since Glenn Robinson by just letting him play, basically.

That's the result of Ivey's marked improvement lately, highlighted by a performance against Illinois that just made him front-runner for Big Ten Player-of-the-Year, maybe even national player-of-the-year.