Purdue 98, Grace College 51- Exhibition Recap

Purdue's exhibition against Grace College started much the same way its exhibition did against Arkansas, with Braden Smith taking advantage of the attention Edey garners and knocking down a three-pointer off a pick and roll.

The rest of the exhibition went much differently than Arkansas for Purdue, with the Boilermakers dominating Grace College and taking it 98-51.

It was the final tuneup for a Purdue team that will start the season next Monday with a match-up against Samford.

Zach Edey led the way for the Boilermakers with 19 points and 9 rebounds in 17 minutes of action.

If Purdue's test against Arkansas was evidence Purdue's issues from last season - turnovers and poor three-point shooting - are still around, tonight's exhibition against an NAIA favorite was a reminder that when things are right for Purdue, there's not many teams that can beat them.

It started with Purdue knocking down threes, which started with Smith and extended to his back court mate and grad transfer, Lance Jones.

The two made 3 three-pointers each and the team as a whole knocked down 8 for the game.

Smith finished the game with 11 points and Jones had 13.

But out of all the made threes for Purdue, it was a miss early in the second half that got Mackey Arena buzzing.

Braden Smith took another pick and roll and the defense went with him. It left his screener wide open and abandoned at the top of the key. Smith volleyed the ball back over his head and into the hands of Zach Edey who looked ahead towards the hoop as the sell out crowd at Mackey Arena realized what was about to happen.

With zero hesitation, the 7'4" returning National Player of the Year attempted a three-point shot. It looked good almost the whole way, but just deflected off iron and bounced away. The shooter that was promised will have to wait for his first made three in front of a Mackey crowd for a game that counts.

Caleb Furst had a nice bounce back performance for Purdue after struggling against Arkansas as one of five Boilers with double-digit points. He had 10 points on 3 of 5 shooting to go along with 4 rebounds.

Matt Painter said this week he was waiting for his players to figure out the wing position for him. So far through summer work outs and a trip to Europe, his answer wasn't clear.

Camden Heide didn't take long for making a case for himself.

Heide was in for less than a minute when he received the ball at the wing and pivoted towards the hoop. His defender slacked off him and the redshirt freshman knocked down an open three-pointer.

The ultra-athletic, big wing would then make his mark on the defensive end. Heide's help defensive turned an open lay up on a back cut into a blocked shot. He'd add another blocked shot on a floater attempted against him on a drive.

The trend continues. With teams going under on screens against Smith in attempts to keep Edey out of the lane, Smith has continued to be aggressive with his jump shot. Smith took 4 three-pointers and made three of them on his way to double-digit points. Smith was also aggressive getting to his pull up inside the arc.

It was a constant request of Painter all of last season. Shoot the ball, and shoot it more. Smith seems to have gotten the message at the start of his sophomore campaign.

Kaufman-Renn's modest stat line doesn't quite tell the story of how out of sync he's looked at both ends of hte floor at times through Purdue's first two scrimmages.

While he scored well against Arkansas, he struggled to get to spots to take advantage of his post skills against a smaller Grace College squad. His hyper aggressive back to the basket game took second stage to Zach Edey's dominance and it wasn't until late in the game that Purdue started to try and feed the sophomore big.

Kaufman-Renn was able to use his combination of size and strength to get towards the hoop and fouled, but he struggled again to convert at the free throw line. Kaufman-Renn has shown himself to be a rhythm player and it took nearly half the season last year for him to get in a consistent one. So far, his offense seems a little out of sorts. He played just 14 minutes against Grace College and had only 2 points.