Purdue Roundball Roundup: Long-range shooting, Emmanuel Dowuona and more

When Purdue last met Michigan State — its Tuesday night opponent — the Boilermakers made just 3-of-24 three-pointers, yet won a thriller.

When Purdue last took the court — its loss at Minnesota — the Boilermakers made just 2-of-17 three-pointers, and lost a thriller, their long-range struggles this season catching up with them.

Purdue's enjoyed a rousing success of a season thus far regardless, but has done so in the face of shooting difficulties atypical of the program's recent reputation offensively.

In Big Ten play, Matt Painter's team has shot just 30.4 percent from three-point territory.

It's made a lot of big ones, and shot the lights out, so to speak, in a win at Indiana, and in the second half of a home win over Minnesota, but the percentages speak for themselves, and Purdue's are better than only Nebraska, Michigan State and Minnesota among Big Ten teams.

"We have too many guys who can shoot who aren't knocking down shots," Painter said following the narrow loss in Minneapolis, where the Gophers, the worst shooting team in the Big Ten, made four of their last five to close the game.

Losing Sasha Stefanovic for three games didn't help — and he's yet to make a field goal, let alone a three, in the two games since he returned — but Purdue wasn't shooting great across the board prior to that disruption, despite the fact Painter seems to believe in his players' ability to shoot, there was optimism prior to the season about it, and some flashes of excellence early in the year.

"You know the law of averages as a shooter, that you just keep taking them," said Painter, who says he's a believer in averages working themselves out. "Keep shooting good shots and the ball's going to go in for you. But you have to put your work in, whether you're making shots or missing shots or somewhere in between, you have to keep putting in your work and things will work out for you."

By every indication, Purdue does just that.

"Our team, we really work, after practice, before practice, getting shots up," Stefanovic said. "It's not something we'll stop trying to improve on."