Keys To Success: Rebounding

Among the many things that couldn't have been predicted about this Big Ten championship season for Purdue, there's this: The Boilermakers, with a slew of newcomers and a drastically different offensive identity, led the conference in turnover margin.

Obviously half of turnover margin is one's ability to force turnovers, which Purdue did at a slightly higher rate than the year before, but the more relevant half in this season was the Boilermakers' ability to take care of the basketball, averaging just under 10-and-a-half turnovers per game, a number that might not even tell the story of just how secure Purdue was with the ball.

And that had to be considered a question coming into the season.

Prior to said season, Matt Painter scoffed at the notion of having to live with turnovers this season with a younger, newer and significantly more backcourt- and dribble-driven offensive mix.

Turned out, he was right, even during a stretch of the season in which Purdue was featuring on offense a freshman post player in Trevion Williams and alternating on the fly back to last year's M.O. of feeding the post.

That doesn't mean those around Painter weren't surprised by Purdue's success in this sense.

Pleasantly surprised, of course.

"Absolutely," said assistant coach Greg Gary, who oversees Purdue's offense.

Purdue's turnover numbers were solid, and relatively flat, all season, but especially good in Big Ten play. The Boilermakers turned the ball over fewer than 10 times of 20 conference games. Ryan Cline was a key element, as the senior — now a primary ball-handler for Purdue, which was much more pick-and-roll-oriented this season — finished second in the Big Ten in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Improvement all around correlated.

"Coach always says is, that good offense sets your defense,'" Gary said. "Early on we weren't having very good offense. We were turning it over and taking quick shots, and in turn you're giving up points on the other end and your defense isn't looking as good, and it all snowballs."

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