Breakdown: Purdue's win over Oakland

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Last season, Sasha Stefanovic had this knack, as if he was riding a wave of Mackey Arena's energy to game-changing runs of torrid three-point shooting.

Tuesday, when he headed to that same arena to play in front of family members and cardboard cutouts and no one else — the surreal state of Big Ten basketball in the COVID Era — he figured things might be very different.

They were, but not so much that Stefanovic couldn't uncork another of those long-range onslaughts.

Stefanovic made 6-of-9 threes against Oakland Tuesday afternoon, spearheading a 17-of-32 outburst from Purdue during its 93-50 rout of the Golden Grizzlies.

"I thought it was going to bother me a lot, to be honest, initially," Stefanovic said, "but once you get going, once you get into warmups, you tune the fans out usually anyway.

"It was definitely different. It felt like more of a scrimmage-type of thing in the beginning, but it's obviously a high-level game once you get into it, so you have to make sure you're ready to go."

Purdue was just that, all across the board, especially on offense, an effort that looked like a team that's played together more than it actually has.

Turnovers again were a slight issue — 13 of them — but Purdue assisted on 27 of 33 field goal and showed some of the hallmarks of past Boilermaker teams, moving the ball decisively and wisely and trading good shots for great ones.

"When we make simple plays, and we make good decisions, our skill level is going to be enhanced," Painter said. "And tonight I think that happened

Brandon Newman again made 4-of-7 from long range and led the Boilermakers with 21 points, another outstanding performance from the redshirt freshman. He was 4-of-5 from three in the first half.

After a brief lull that saw Oakland erase a seven-point Purdue advantage to take a series of one-point leads over the Boilermakers, Stefanovic made three threes in the span of a little more than two minutes, with an Isaiah Thompson triple mixed in. Newman's driving and-one capped a 12-0 Purdue burst that turned the game on its side.

Seeing zone defense for the first time this season, the Boilermakers laid waste to it.

"We put a lot of a lot of time in on their zone," Newman said. "I thought we were pretty prepared for it. Our ball movement was key tonight, because we needed to move the zone and get them moving. And we'll get shots we want when we do those kind of things."

Stefanovic paired his 20 points with a career-high seven assists, and Thompson and freshman Ethan Morton each handed out a half dozen assists themselves.

"We have a lot of really unselfish guys, guys who love to pass," Morton said, "and it starts with the older guys, between Sasha and Trevion (Williams) and Aaron (Wheeler) and Eric (Hunter) when he's back. They love to make people better and make the right plays and as younger guys, we kind of feed off that, and it's always fun when guys are making the extra passes and guys are getting to make shots and stuff."

Everyone made shots.

Eight different Boilermakers drained three.

When Matt Painter emptied his bench in the final minutes, Matt Frost and Jared Wulbrun each came in, launched threes and stuck 'em, pushing the hosts' lead to its peak of 46.

It was that kind of day for Purdue.

The Boilermakers shot 55 percent from the floor and turned the screws on an Oakland team still smarting from its preseason being wiped out by coronavirus. The Grizzlies committed 13 turnovers, seven of them by the focal point of Purdue's defensive plan, guard Jalen Moore. Oakland missed two-thirds of its shots, and Purdue outrebounded it 40-21, 14 of those rebounds collected by Trevion Williams.

Williams, Purdue's preseason All-Big Ten center, again struggled from the field, going 4-of-12 for eight points, but freshman Zach Edey again stood out, as he scored 13 points on 4-of-5 shooting, with seven rebounds.

There aren't many college basketball programs that enjoy a more distinct homecourt advantage than Purdue historically has, because of the raucous environment normally associated with Mackey Arena.

That in mind, Tuesday afternoon's environment was more like a, well, Tuesday afternoon.

There was no student section, no fans at all really, just a few dozen family members dotting the lower-ball stands behind the benches.

It brings to mind what eventually may be a challenge for this Purdue team: Energy.

Painter and every coach in America most likely recognizes that in this bizarre season, energy must come internally.

"Where's it gonna come from when the ball doesn't go in? We made shots. And any time you make shots, I think that you feed off that energy. You've got to be able to feed off your defense, feed off of just having a competitive spirit as a whole. And we've just got to keep working on it in practice. So when we get into games, when we get into tough times, we're there for each other. I think all coaches across the country will feel that way because it's a little different, but you feel that in practice, because you have two teams going against each other in practice and it's like, 'Who's gonna bring that energy? Who's gonna have that excitement for their team and for other people on their team?' Well, you see it in practice all the time. You know, if one team gets on top and then all of sudden they start to pick it up, but it's normally the team that plays better. But can you have that energy when you struggle a little bit to get out of that rut? A lot of times home crowds are the ones that are there for you. And now we don't have that. So we've just got to keep working at it and just plugging away."

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