PDF: Purdue-Michigan State statistics
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Michigan State’s built a Big Ten empire off one singular characteristic above all others: Toughness.
It’s the pillar of the Spartans’ identity and the key to their success.
On Sunday, it was the key to its opponent's success.
“Any time you have an (opponent) that’s been a staple in your league and had the success they’ve had, you’re not gonna beat them your way,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said. “You’re just not. You have to beat them at their game. You have to be tougher than them.”
And that’s just what Purdue did on Sunday afternoon, scoring its biggest win of a season in which the Boilermakers have transformed on the fly from possible Big Ten also-ran and NIT contender to a force to be reckoned with in the league, a seemingly and suddenly viable contender with an impressive NCAA Tournament résumé in-hand.
Sunday was its centerpiece, along with the flashpoint for potential championship contention, a largely dominant 73-63 win over the sixth-ranked Spartans in which the Boilermakers proved their mettle in all of mettle’s forms.
Start with physical toughness.
Purdue’s effort was distinctly different for this game, whether it was Carsen Edwards tearing off screens or defending at a different level in the first half, or Grady Eifert hitting the hardwood for three extra possessions within a matter of minutes to start the second half.
Or the physical toughness shown in Purdue outrebounding the Big Ten’s gold standard for rebounding, 42-33.
"Our bigs got their butts kicked," Spartan coach Tom Izzo said. "Give (Purdue) credit for that."
Purdue finished with 16 offensive rebounds and still didn’t let the Spartans’ lethal transition offense really rev its engines.
Or on defense, where Purdue held Michigan State to 23-percent first half shooting and only 19 points, dominating the first 20 minutes against an elite opponent. Michigan State didn’t crack a half dozen on the scoreboard until more than seven minutes had passed.
“You have to flip it on them,” center Matt Haarms said after getting 10 points and eight rebounds and two blocks off the bench, “because they’re good at the most important things in basketball — rebounding, getting in transition on offense and playing hard on defense. You have to beat them at their own game. You can’t be cute about it.”
When these two teams last met, Michigan State won by 18.
“I feel like everything we didn’t do in East Lansing,” Haarms said, “we did do today.”
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Purdue’s toughness is reflected throughout the box score.
But you had to see the game for its less-tangible forms to be apparent.
You see, Michigan State has an extra gear. It’s shown that this season, most recently at Iowa, where it trailed by nine early in the second half and won by 15 on the homecourt of one of the Big Ten’s hotter teams.
So even when Purdue led big — up 23 with less than 15 minutes left — it had to know.
“There were times you were thinking in the back of your mind, ‘They’re going to make their run, they’re going to make their run,’” said senior Ryan Cline, after scoring a team-best 17 points. “I felt like there were times where they thought we were fatigued and we kind of had to battle through that.”
It was indeed a battle.
Michigan State’s run did come, and quite a run it was, a 24-5 Spartan burst fueled by not only star guard Cassius Winston, but pinpoint shooting all around him, and a couple Purdue lapses here and there that helped it all along.
With five minutes to go, Purdue led by just five, and the floor seemed tilted in the Spartans’ favor.
But then, Carsen Edwards was fouled on a three-pointer and made all three, Nojel Eastern answered a Winston bucket, and Michigan State began sending Eastern to the foul line on purpose.
Eastern has shown improvement of late, but has struggled from the stripe in his career, and last time Michigan State saw him, he was 1-of-6 in East Lansing.
Izzo said the strategy was also implemented out of concern Michigan State was running on fumes after a day spent chasing what he called “the best screening and cutting team in college basketball.”
With 3:16 left, Eastern’s first free throw hit the back of the rim, then reluctantly rolled in.
“After that,” Cline said, “I knew he was going to make the rest of them.”
He did, six of them in the span of about 41 seconds, the first four after purposeful fouls and the final two after he was fouled after grabbing a defensive rebound, sealing a needed Purdue stop.
“It’s just walking up to the line confidently, letting the two I missed (earlier) go,” said Eastern, after scoring 12 points and grabbing 11 rebounds, “let that go off my shoulders and just focus on the next however many free throws I had to shoot to help my team win.”
That’s mental toughness, one of the highlights of the day for Purdue, after which Izzo was left saying everything about the Boilermakers that people normally say about his Spartans.
“They took it to us,” Izzo said. “We didn’t take it to them.”
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