Nebraska will want to play fast, and Purdue's bigger lineups may not
Nebraska's had a rough go of things this season, and that was to be expected as it resets in every sense under new coach Fred Hoiberg.
The Cornhuskers essentially have one player back from last season.
But while Nebraska is struggling amidst a rebuilding season, it can pose one challenge in particular to Purdue, it would seem.
Pace.
Nebraska plays for transition opportunities, and that's the opposite of what Purdue has seem the past two games after moving to a starting lineup that has centers Matt Haarms and Trevion Williams playing side by side.
In many, Virginia and Northwestern provided ideal conditions for Purdue's tower-and-power pairing of the 7-foot-3 Haarms and 270-pound Williams.
Virginia plays at the slowest tempo in college basketball, 353rd nationally out of 353, per KenPom.com. Northwestern is 207th, not nearly athletic or fast enough to be much of a threat in transition.
Now comes Nebraska, who averaged 73.6 points per game as of Friday, albeit against a weaker schedule than much of the Big Ten, and gives up a league-worst 77.2. They don't shoot great or rebound particularly well, but they have forced 15 turnovers per game — only Penn State and Indiana have forced more, on average, thus far — and tried to run.
The Cornhuskers are 27th on KenPom in tempo.
They'll be the most athletic team Purdue has played since going big.
For Purdue, the goal, obviously, will be to manage pace by continuing its upward trend on the turnover front, but also making sound decisions offensively.
"A bad shot against them may as well be a turnover, because they're going, even on a made shot," center Matt Haarms said. "We have a bunch of (video) clips of them where if you're just not paying attention, they'll be hanging on the rim at the other end."
Nebraska will try to spread Purdue out and "make individual plays," as Purdue players and coaches put it, off the dribble, testing the Boilermakers' containment more than the past two teams it faced did.
"Every guy 1 through 5 is looking to kill their man," Haarms said. "It's something we have to be ready for, something we've been working on. We've had a lot of practice this week."
It does remain to be seen whether Nebraska can find advantages against Purdue. Purdue certainly will intend to find its own.
"It's definitely going to be different," guard Sasha Stefanovic said. "They have a lot of guards who are smaller. Matchups-wise, we'll be shaking things up.
"But they have to guard us as well, and we had a whole different dynamic with those two on the floor and it's been working so far."
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After escaping VCU and Florida State's manic pressure in Florida, Purdue's committed seven and five turnovers, respectively, the past two games, against defenses not exactly built to force them.
Nebraska needs turnovers. It'll be aggressive in man-to-man, much more like Florida State than Virginia, though not as formidable as the Seminoles.
The best transition defense is staying out of transition defense, and Purdue's done just that lately, and that's kept games played in the halfcourt, allowing Purdue to be established on both offense and defense.
"It's best if we have teams alter themselves to us as opposed to us altering ourselves to them," guard Jahaad Proctor said.
Purdue will want to get Haarms and Williams established on the interior offensively, and will hope for a robust rebounding advantage. The defensive glass is a Nebraska vulnerability and a Purdue strength.
Coach Matt Painter says the lineup dynamics may matter only to a point, since Purdue won't play a full 40 minutes with the two big men together, "only about half the game."
Still, style-of-play preferences should be vastly different on Sunday in Lincoln, as Purdue faces a Cornhusker team turned over beyond recognition.
"You're literally starting from scratch," Painter said.
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