With his team clinging to a wavering lead against a player who just wouldn’t miss, Matt Painter did what would have been unthinkable two weeks before: He turned to his bench and sent Myles Colvin in to stop the bleeding.
The sophomore guard had previously fallen off track with his expectations, which stem from his status as a former prized recruit and his last name, which he shares with two All-Big Ten Purdue athletes: his father, Roosevelt, and sister Raven.
After ending his freshman season with 12 minutes against Connecticut in the National Final, Colvin began this year with 16 in a heavyweight exhibition against Creighton.
“He has bigger goals than being our sixth, seventh man and playing 15 minutes a game,” Painter said.
In the defensive transformation Colvin has undergone since the start of November, he’s put himself back on track for those goals. And Purdue may soon need him for more than 15 minutes, because his latest defensive assignment – Yale’s John Poulakidas – is tame compared to whom the Boilers will see in the coming weeks.
First up is Alabama’s All-American guard, Mark Sears. It’ll take a village to stop him. He victimized Purdue for 35 points last season.
Likely to get the first crack is Gicarri Harris, the freshman starter who has unleashed furiously focused defense on the best opposing guard in this young season. “Shutting somebody down is his main focus,” teammate Fletcher Loyer said.
Poulakidas was Harris’ first staunch test, and he didn’t exactly ace it.
“To start the second half, he got away from us and got a couple easy ones,” Painter said. Harris was pulled four minutes into the second half and didn’t see the court after.
With Colvin on Poulakidas, he kept making shots, but tough ones: A dribble in pullup jumper here, a stepback 3 there. It got frustrating – “(Colvin) was getting upset about guys making tough shots when he didn't make a mistake,” Painter said. “And then you say, ‘Don't worry about that. You did your job.’”
That frustration is progress for a player whose wholehearted commitment to defense is new. Painter might need to stay in his ear, though, because even after Sears, the gauntlet won’t let up. Tuesday, preseason All-American guard Kam Jones and Marquette will host the Boilers. Two weeks later the guards will have to worry about All-Big Ten guard Ace Baldwin Jr. and Penn State. Then Texas A&M star and preseason All-American Wade Taylor IV a week after that.
That slate, especially before the rhythm of familiar Big Ten play, would be a nightmare for veterans. It will be two freshmen (Harris and CJ Cox) and a sophomore in Colvin bearing a great deal of the defensive load in the backcourt.
“It’s a lot being thrown at them,” Painter said. “We have to do a better job of guarding the basketball and them not being able to get angles.”
Harris’ game plan is centered on never losing track of Sears, as well as “making sure he doesn't get downhill,” he said, “and making sure I have a great contest, making sure he's not taking any open shots.”
Harris became a defensive stopper at a younger age than most. Growing up, he said, he played on teams that made on-ball defense a priority in age groups where some would rather break the scoreboard.
It perhaps gives him an outlook on that side of the ball that goes beyond his years.
“If I play tough defense, like one-on-one,” he said, “and they make a tough shot, I just got to give them their props.”
The maturity seems to make him dauntless ahead of matchups even as imposing as the one he’ll have Friday night. He doesn’t see himself as the freshman thrown to the wolves.
“No, I don’t think it’s pressure,” Harris said. “All the coaching staff, the players, they tell me the key of whatever I need to do to guard whichever player. Because everybody knows I can lock him up.”
