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WHAT HAPPENED
Down a few bodies but buoyed by its backcourt scoring and a strong defensive performance, 23rd-ranked Purdue opened its season with a 79-57 win over Green Bay.
The Boilermakers turned the ball over too much and didn’t make threes as efficiently as they’d have preferred, but newcomer Jahaad Proctor — in his Purdue debut — and upward-trending returnee Eric Hunter combined to score Purdue’s first 15 of the second half, ensuring a far-from-insurmountable halftime margin of 13 points would hold up.
Purdue’s lead peaked at 24 in the second half, and the Boilermakers finished up having shot 51 percent from the floor.
WHO MADE IT HAPPEN
Purdue coach Matt Painter has been trying to get Jahaad Proctor to shoot more in practice, encouraging aggressiveness to a player who may be working to fit in, but also one clearly likes to play off his shot fake.
Wednesday night, as Purdue debuted without projected starter Sasha Stefanonic, who’s out with a foot injury, possibly for a few games at least, Proctor was aggressive.
He scored off the dribble, off cuts into the lane and along the baseline alike, shot jumpers off the dribble and catch, buried runners and got to the foul line. He again made plays at the end of shot clocks, as he did in the exhibition vs. Southern Indiana, a knack he chalks up to experience.
When it was all over, he’d debuted with 26 points on 11-of-17 shooting, in his first formal game in Mackey Arena.
“I’ve never played in front of a home crowd that big,” said Proctor, who previously played at Iona and High Point, “because the schools I went to before, they weren’t that big.”
Proctor delivered, as did Hunter, who looks transformed from last season.
The sophomore was 7-of-14 for 15 points, with six assists.
Looking for his own offense for the first time in his young Purdue career, Hunter made a series of jump shots, including a turnaround to beat a shot clock and a couple pull-ups off the dribble.
“Our main goal is just to be aggressive and make plays,” Hunter said of his and Proctor’s combined productivity.
Still, that wasn’t Hunter’s role last season; it is much more so now, and therein has lied a significant difference in the sophomore.
“He gets to play,” Painter said, adding his standard spiel about the difficulties of impacting games and generating “rhythm” in capped minutes.
The guards starred, but the frontcourt did its part, too.
Matt Haarms impacted the game as a low-post scorer, made both his threes and drew four fouls, finishing with 16 points on just six shots.
Defensively, he blocked seven shots.
WHY IT HAPPENED
Obviously, Purdue rolled with superior personnel and especially superior size, and that factored heavily into the outcome.
But, the Boilermakers also did a nice job offensively with one of their points of emphasis, outscoring the Phoenix 44-16 in the paint. That’s a credit to the big men getting involved, but more so the guards producing off the dribble.
Additionally, Purdue’s halfcourt defense was pretty good, holding Green Bay to 37-percent shooting overall and contributing to its 16 turnovers, many of which were Green Bay itself’s doing.
Linc Darner believed the Mackey Arena crowd affected his team early.
“We want to play fast,” Darner said. “Not that fast.”
Nevertheless, had the Phoenix been able to generate more field goals, they might have been able to set up more full-court pressure defensively.
WHAT IT MEANS
It just means Purdue’s off to a good start, and some important players have every reason to be confident, but things change now, as Texas visits Saturday and the comes a trip to Marquette next week.
Purdue wants to lay the foundation for an NCAA Tournament résumé in November, and Green Bay was more a buy game than a résumé game.
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