No. 7 Purdue (19-5, 11-2 Big Ten) dominated the glass and in transition to beat 90-72 USC Friday night, holding onto its lead in the Big Ten.

Here's what stuck out after the final buzzer sounded:

Junior forward Trey Kaufman-Renn is the only player in the country averaging 18 points, six rebounds and 2.5 assists while shooting at least 60% from the field. In fact, only three players have done that this century.

It wasn't enough, apparently, to land the post player on the list of 10 finalists for either of college basketball's foremost big man awards, the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone award for the best center and power forward in America, respectively. Kaufman-Renn hasn't been on the internet lately, evidently.

"I didn't know the Kareem thing was an award," he said. His teammates saw it, though, especially Braden Smith, who knows exactly what it's like to be snubbed in the same manner – the junior guard was inexplicably forgotten among the top 10 point guards this time last season.

"I appreciate it. I appreciate that he's got my back," Kaufman-Renn said of Smith. "But that's what this team is, everybody has each other's back. It's great to be a part of a locker room like that."

Painter, who was outspoken about Smith's snub last year, noticed Kaufman-Renn's exclusion.

"It's like anything," the coach said. "If you're an English professor, you should be good at English, right? They're showing that they don't understand the game. It's like the NBA All Star game, and saying, 'Hey, you know what? The two top guys that are going to be MVPs, you're not an All-Star.' It makes no sense"

The snub could also be rooted in Kaufman-Renn's positional fluidity. The big man himself, another player and an assistant coach were all asked Thursday what Kaufman-Renn's position is, and no one gave a straightforward, traditional answer.

Kaufman-Renn's had a Batman quality to it: "I'm whatever I need to be."

Purdue won the rebounding battle by 17, 48-31. Painter didn't know it until he saw the box score printout.

"I thought as a team we rebounded well, even though we had that one stretch where we struggled," Painter said. "I never would have thought that we'd out-rebound them by 17 after the way you feel during the game, giving up some of those offensive rebounds. But I thought we had good balance."

Junior guard Fletcher Loyer thought there was room for improvement.

"I thought we started off making shots, which obviously helped – it's tough to rebound makes," Loyer said. "But I thought we struggled rebounding tonight, and we won by 17 in rebounds. So we've come a long way. But like (Painter) always says, It doesn't stop. You got to rebound every single night. Some teams are better, but it's a focus every night."

Caleb Furst contributed plenty on the boards, with a season-high 10. Loyer said the senior forward has taken Purdue "from a good to a great team."

Painter talked about his complimentary role next to Kaufman-Renn.

"Getting us 10 rebounds, just being around the basketball, like, that's what we need on offense and defense for him," Painter said. "Trey (Kaufman-Renn) gets a lot of attention, so now just trying to slip your way to the rim, find those opportunities where you can help us."

Purdue's shooting misfires continued Friday night.

Sophomore wing Myles Colvin has been among the most dogged recently, shooting 15% from deep across his last seven games. His first attempt Friday decided to go in after a bounce on the rim, but he only made one of his next seven tries. Medicine for the inaccuracy can be varied. For Colvin, it's attacking the basket more in lieu of firing away all the time.

"One thing I feel like I haven't done enough of trying to get to the basket or get downhill," the forward said Thursday.

He's not alone in his struggles in that timeframe. Purdue's team percentage has dipped from near 40% in the season's first two months to 30% in those last seven games, which include wins in which the Boilers have shot as low as 17% (at Oregon) and 15% (Indiana).

The directive from Painter when shots go wayward is often to keep taking good ones – so long as the right players take them.

"I'm not encouraging people to make shots they can't make," Painter said. "So when they do miss them, I think being positive and encouraging them really helps. Nobody goes through a season, maybe even a month, without having a slump. Even the greatest player in the world has self-doubt. So just getting them to understand being process based, take good shots."

The coach said problems arise when someone takes a bad shot and sees it go in – "They think it's OK. But 15%, you're still gonna kick one in every now and then."

That's an area where Painter can add percentage points to his players' hit rates. "There's about 20–30 shots they just absolutely shouldn't take in the course of a season."

Optimizing shot selection even down to whether a player is dribbling left or right, pulling up or shooting off the catch, or shooting in a low shot clock matters, too. So does the area of a player's frustration. A player's own shooting percentage doesn't mean much to Painter on its own – it's the team rate that counts.

"A lot of times people, when they're upset or frustrated, they're upset about personal things," Painter said. "So you have to get them to understand, 'You've gotta take the best shot for you, but you've gotta take the best shot for us.'"