It is the last day of June and we have our last Exit Survey. In the same vein that The Floor Slap did season previews and in season spotlights for every team in the Big Ten, now it’s time to look back on everyone’s season and reflect. Going from the Bottom to the Top in the standings, we will be releasing Exit Survey’s for all 14 teams in the conference. Today, we have the Big Ten Champions Purdue Boilermakers.
This is the final Exit Survey! All 14 Big Ten teams were covered here on The Floor Slap. Please check out the Exit Survey on your favorite team. Now to write about mine…
Preseason
Most of the teams lower in the conference standings, I wrote the preseason section to remind you they weren’t always thought of as a pushover or a disappointment. At one point fans were excited and the rest of the article can tell you what went wrong or why they didn’t meet expectations.
For many of the top teams they expected to be there. Think Indiana, Iowa, Michigan State. Others like Maryland and Northwestern I got to write about an unexpected great season.
Purdue is in its own category.
It is important to recenter yourself and remember what the preseason was like for Purdue.
Before the Final Four/National Title hopes and the upset to a 16 seed, Purdue fans truly didn’t know what to expect out of this team.
Part of the success of this season for Purdue was the unexpected nature of its competitive level.
Last year’s team had a great season for Purdue, but it was a season of ‘almosts’.
Almost winning the Big Ten regular season title. Almost winning the Big Ten tournament. Almost advancing to the Elite Eight and playing for a spot in the Final Four.
The Boilermakers lost their transformative Top-5 pick and All-American, Jaden Ivey. They lost arguably the 2nd best player in 6th Man of the Year and two-time All-Big Ten big, Trevion Williams. The Boilers also had an exodus at the guard spot losing big minute getters in Sasha Stefanovic, Eric Hunter Jr., and Isaiah Thompson.
Purdue fans didn’t know who was bringing the ball up before this season.
My entire preview article focused on, “Who is the next great Boilermaker?” because before the season we didn’t know what Zach Edey would become.
All of this is to remind you that this was supposed to be a rebuilding year where Purdue would finish in the 5-8 range and develop some young players.
By the end of November the questions, “Who is the next great Boilermaker?” and, “Who is the starting backcourt?” would be answered, and the expectations of the Boilermakers would dramatically shift
By the end of the February, Coach Painter would turn (most of) the “almosts” into accomplishments.
The Season
The questions of the preseason hovered over this team. Some people thought the world of Zach Edey. I was less confident.
I wondered if Brandon Newman was actually going to break out more than Edey, and be the leading scorer.
That idea was torn down when Painter announced that the starting backcourt would be the freshmen duo of Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer.
I thought I was optimistic at the end of last season for believing Smith could be the starting point guard with Hunter Jr and Thompson gone. Purdue was used to below average play at the 1 and would scheme around that. I thought that might be the case this year with Smith. It ended up being that I was pessimistic.
Still, it was a huge surprise to see him, an almost no-name recruit, be the day one starter, and especially strange to see him paired with Loyer. I thought Loyer would be the first guard off the bench role as a freshman.
Painter thought otherwise and started them both day 1.
Those baby Boilers got a soft launch into College Basketball with easy wins over Milwaukee and Austin Peay. Loyer showed his sharpshooting against Milwaukee making 5 threes. He showed his youth by going 0-4 against Austin Peay. Braden Smith showed his jack of all trades utility by scoring 7, grabbing 4 boards, dealing 4 assists and stealing the ball 7(!) times against Milwaukee.
In game 3, Smith really popped in his performance against Marquette.
At the time, it was a game between two unranked teams in Mackey Arena. By the end of February, both would be conference champions and top 5 teams. In a grinding competitive game, Purdue outlasted the Golden Eagles off of the back of 20 points from both Zach Edey and Braden Smith to win 75-70.
The real test came next for the young Boilermakers as they headed to the Phil Knight Legacy tournament. Purdue and Coach Matt Painter took on West Virginia and Bob Huggins in game 1. Purdue controlled the game with a (mostly) steady hand all game as WVU never led in the game. Edey dropped 24 and 12 to set up a matchup with NPOY favorite Drew Timme and Gonzaga.
Purdue turned around the next day and beat Mark Few and the Bulldogs in Portland 84-66.
It was an emphatic statement win from the Boilermakers. Mark Few, one of the best coaches in the country, had no answer for Edey.
They tried guarding him with Timme, Anton Watson, Ben Gregg, etc. Didn’t work. They tried switching, dropping, trapping ball screens. Nothing worked.
Purdue grabbed a late lead in the second half and never looked back.
Zach Edey was a bigger influence in this game than the All-American Timme and really introduced himself nationally.
However, it was the play of the freshmen guards Smith and Loyer that stood out to Purdue fans. The two combined to put up 28 points, 12 assists, and 8 rebounds and showed they could play basketball against the highest level of competition right now. The passes Braden Smith pulled off against the Zags still get me excited.
The Baby Boilers didn’t stop there either. Two days later, Purdue beat number 8 Duke in the Phil Knight Championship game 75-56. Loyer had a huge game scoring 18 points, but it was Edey who once again made his presence known to a national stage.
The Big Maple fouled out Duke’s two 5-star, Top 10 ranked 7’ recruits Dereck Lively II and Kyle Fillipowski. BOTH OF THEM! Through the first six games, Edey was averaging 21.66 ppg and 12 rpg and 2 bpg.
Zach Edey was the next great Boilermaker.
Purdue vaulted from ranked no. 24 to no. 5 in the country on the back of the now established backcourt and Edey winning back to back games against top 8 teams.
Coach Painter kept the Old Gold rolling as they cruised past Florida State in Tallahassee, went Gopher hunting, and dispatched Hofstra to improve to 9-0.
The Boilermakers then traveled to Lincoln to play Nebraska.
By the end of the season, we would learn that Pinnacle Bank Arena was a very tough place to play. At the time, no. 4 Purdue struggled against 6-4 Nebraska.
If it weren’t for Fletcher Loyer elevating his game, Purdue would have lost. Loyer scored a career high 22 points and the Boilers escaped with a victory in overtime.
The victory sealed the deal for Purdue to be ranked no. 1 in the country for the 2nd straight season.
Loyer followed that game up with another double digit performance knocking down clutch free throw after clutch free throw to beat his brother Foster Loyer and Davidson in the Loyer Bowl.
Next, Purdue beat two more directional schools to wrap up non conference games at 13-0(2-0) and held on to being ranked number 1 for 3 weeks.
Until… they met Rutgers.
Rutgers for the second straight year upset number 1 ranked Purdue with late game heroics. Two years ago it was Ron Harper Jr from halfcourt. This year it was Cam Spencer’s dagger three.
The Boilers regrouped and you know just went on to win 9 straight Big Ten games. Yeah, nine straight conference games.
The first game was against a top 25 Ohio State team at the time (LOL that didn’t last). As Fletcher Loyer’s late three secured the win. I was at the game. It was pretty sick.
Purdue rolled through Penn State in the Palestra, dismantled Nebraska, and survived a nail biter in East Lansing. Zach Edey vs. Tyson Walker was a thing to behold as they both dropped 30. It was Edey with the last laugh as his go-ahead basket was the difference maker.
After that thriller the Boilermakers beat a sad Minnesota team, squeeked past Maryland, and then were just good enough to win in Ann Arbor.
The next game the Boilers rematched with Michigan State and this time it was no contest. Zach Edey cemented his National Player of the Year candidacy with 38 points, 13 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 steals.
In the next game, Mason Gillis went nuclear against the Nittany Lions. Gillis hit 9 threes and Purdue blew Penn State out of the water.
This was the point of the season where it really seemed real that this could be the season for Purdue.
They were 22-1 and had a 11-1 record in conference. Zach Edey was the biggest mismatch in College Basketball. Rotation guys like Mason Gillis, Fletcher Loyer, Braden Smith, Caleb Furst, Trey Kaufman-Renn, and Brandon Newman had all stepped up and had big performances in different games.
From this point on, Purdue was a bit wobbly.
The Boilermakers would lose 4 of their next 6.
Starting with a loss in Bloomington where Edey’s 33 and 18 wasn’t enough to will a second half comeback over the finish line. It was storm courting season at Evanston and College Park as Northwestern and Maryland had statement wins over Purdue. It ended with a loss in Mackey again to arch rival Hoosiers as Jalen Hood-Schifino dropped 35 points to sweep Purdue.
Two confident wins over Iowa and Ohio State in the middle weren’t enough to quiet the questions about Purdue.
The win streak that followed the loss to IU saved some face.
Purdue started with a narrow win in Kohl Center to officially win the Big Ten Regular season title. The Boilers returned home to win their lone game against Illinois this season.
Purdue’s 25th Regular Season Championship extended the Boilermakers’ record for most titles in Big Ten History.
One year after being the best team in the conference and falling one game short to Illinois and Wisconsin, Purdue beat both of them to wrap up their 2022-23 title campaign.
Post Season
Purdue’s post-season (believe it or not) actually started well. Purdue won their big ten opener in a nail biting performance to Rutgers. Only to be outdone by Paul Mulcahy’s performance on this flop.
The Boilers beat the Buckeyes for the third time this season (not easy to do) ending a budding Cinderella story for OSU.
Then they faced another Cinderella in Penn State in the Big Ten Title game. Zach Edey’s 30 points and David Jenkins 11 off the bench propelled Purdue past Penn State. Camren Wynter had a chance at the miracle shot as Purdue’s 17 point lead disappeared down the final five minutes, but it slipped out of his grasp.
One year after falling short in the Big Ten title game to Iowa, Purdue sealed the deal on the double of Regular Season and Conference Tournament.
Like I said at the beginning Matt Painter turned most of last year’s “almosts” into accomplishments.
Another ‘almost’ became an achievement as Zach Edey was (basically) a unanimous Big Ten Player of the Year, National Player of the Year and first team All-American after Jaden Ivey barely missed out on that level of recognition last year.
However, the one big “almost” for Purdue would be a “not even close” this year.
Purdue earned a one seed after their Big Ten Championship run and were slated to play the winner of the First Four 16 seed game in Fairleigh Dickinson.
I went to the game and I have still not recovered from it.
FDU’s Tobin Anderson used a tagging system to essentially front Edey, bring a guy behind him, and often have a third crashing on him. The system worked as it made getting the ball to Edey difficult. Edey was only able to take 11 shots all game and it forced the other Boilermakers to beat them.
The other Boilermakers couldn’t.
Purdue went 5-26 from three and Fairleigh Dickinson eeked out the 2nd ever upset of a 1 seed by a 16 seed.
One of the most successful seasons in Purdue history ended with its most embarrassing loss.
Purdue didn’t turn the ‘almost’ Final Four run of last year into a successful run this time around. Instead, a former Hoosier Dusty May and FAU made the Final Four adding insult to injury.
So, after an upset like that… where does that leave Purdue?
I wrote an obituary for Purdue’s season the week after and discussed the changes they needed. Mainly, players needed to be free to improvise and make more mistakes in the months of November-February from Purdue’s rigid system in order to succeed in March.
Matt Painter addressed some of his mistakes and said that they need to be more athletic. That pop of athleticism will come with Redshirt freshman Camden Heide and true Freshman Myles Colvin next year.
The calls from the reply guys on twitter saying, ”Fire Painter” are dumb, but still there is an open wound for Purdue fans.
Purdue having the All-American talent, top of the line coaching, and regular season success it has had the past 43 seasons make it stupefying how they haven’t made it back to the Final Four since 1980.
Purdue fans will enjoy winning more Big Ten Titles and cheering on the next great Boilermakers, but they won’t be fulfilled until they make it back to the promised land.
The question that haunts me as a Purdue fan is, “Who is closer to winning another National Title: Purdue and Painter or Indiana and Mike Woodson?”
I don’t want to say the answer I’m thinking in my head.
This season had distinct peaks and valleys.
The first peak was after beating Gonzaga and Duke. The Freshmen guards were ready to compete, Edey was a monster, and fans were building expectations.
The next peak came after being ranked number 1 in the country for the 2nd straight season. The absolute peak came after the 9 game win streak in the Big Ten. Sitting at 22-1, Purdue fans had the most hope.
The first valley happened after losing 4 of 6 and being swept by Indiana. They climbed up again by winning the Big Ten Regular Season and Tourney. By losing to FDU, they fell off the top of the mountain and to the bottom of the lowest valley.
Matt Painter is known to have evolved throughout the years to optimize different offensive actions and maximize his best players.
The next evolution for him and Purdue is to make sure that the peaks of future seasons happen in March and April, instead of November and January.
Until then, Purdue will be stuck climbing the mountain over and over again.