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Purdue held its annual Fan Day open scrimmages Saturday afternoon in Mackey Arena, the first public look at the 2019-2020 Boilermakers, who'll face Providence a week from today in a closed scrimmage.
A few notables from Purdue's scrimmages today, with much more to come ...
• Aaron Wheeler looks bigger and stronger and more well-rounded as a player and Saturday it all led to productivity. He opened the day with a tough offensive rebound, which kept alive a possession that ended with him draining one of his three threes on four tries.
Later, there was a basket off the dribble and a contested defensive rebound, each of them the sorts of moments that suggested progress in one form or another over his solid redshirt freshman season.
• Sasha Stefanovic led the Boilermakers over three sessions with 16 points. He made 4-of-7 from three-point range.
• Evan Boudreaux, who's playing much more forward than center this preseason, but played both Saturday due to the split-squad format, scored 11 points — 3-of-4 three-point shooting — with a team-high-tying five rebounds.
• Purdue's 17 turnovers were more than Painter would have liked, including a handful of double-dribbles. They did come against 30 assists, though, seven from Nojel Eastern and five from Eric Hunter, another of the afternoon's standouts.
• Hunter: 13 points, five assists and one turnover. He was 2-of-3 from three-point range and effective scoring in transition, and made a pull-up jumper at one point, too.
• Jahaad Proctor's Mackey Arena debut: 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting, 2-of-3 from three.
• Center Matt Haarms was outstanding, especially early, scoring inside, off the dribble and from three-point range against Trevion Williams, and deflecting a number of shots and passes on defenses. But when the two played together during the second session, their team got routed, 19-4.
Williams was just 1-of-5 from the floor, his lone make being an early hook shot over Haarms to beat a shot clock.
• Purdue was 18-of-36, exactly 50 percent from three-point range. It expects long-range shooting to again be a strength, but it's mostly unproven in that area. Saturday was a good start, if you want to call it a start.
• Purdue finished with 15 offensive rebounds, which looked like an Indication one of Its strengths from a year ago might endure, but Painter said part of it was deficient defensive rebounding and blockouts. As with any intrasquad competition, the good and the bad often go hand in hand.
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