What Purdue’s Matt Painter said about Creighton, lineups, more
Purdue coach Matt Painter discussed his progress on finding optimal lineups and making roster decisions ahead of Saturday’s exhibition at Creighton.
- Saturday’s game: Purdue at Creighton (exhibition), 8 p.m., Nebraska Public Media
WEST LAFAYETTE – Purdue men’s basketball plays at Creighton for a good cause Saturday, in a charity exhibition to help Omaha area residents affected by tornadoes last April.
The No. 13 Boilermakers still expect a hostile basketball atmosphere. Welcome it, actually. Include that among the many basketball benefits potentially gained against the No. 14 Blue Jays in their arena.
Purdue assigned itself some challenging matchups away from Mackey Arena. The Big Ten Conference added several more. Might as well begin that adjustment as soon as possible for the freshmen expected to contribute this season.
“It’s showing all the young guys how it is to be on the road and being in that tough of an environment right off the bat,” third-year center Will Berg said. “It’s a good way to start it all off — set the tone and kind of see the seriousness of everything.”
Purdue believed a similar exhibition against Arkansas provided important preseason context a year ago. What else the Boilermakers can learn from the 8 p.m. tipoff at CHI Health Center:
Lineup shuffle
We know Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn will start, as they did in all 39 games last season.
Painter remained non-committal on the other two spots. He said the frontcourt has not seen much separation in practice in recent weeks. Caleb Furst started along with that established trio in last week’s first period of the Fan Day scrimmages.
So did freshman guard Gicarri Harris, whose ability to defend from his first day through the door pushed him to the top of the rotation.
Painter wrote the same starting lineup out for all 39 games last season. He seems destined to write a few different ones in the months ahead.
“I like a lot of different looks, but it kind of depends on us,” Painter said. “Kind of depends on our team. Depends on our opponent at times. We’ll see.how things go.”
Redshirt questions
Painter said he does not expect to play all scholarship 13 players at Creighton. Someone will redshirt this season — possibly multiple players. He said as of Thursday afternoon he had not finalized that decision.
Even with tough decisions to make on the fringes of the roster, Painter does not want to compromise performance against a talented team.
Players can play in exhibition games and redshirt. However, unlike football players who can play in four games and still carry forward a year of eligibility, basketball players cannot play in any regular-season games. Yahoo reported in September the NCAA is considering applying that football standard across all sports.
Center of attention
Purdue’s multitude of frontcourt options will tussle with Creighton preseason All-American Ryan Kalkbrenner. The 7-1 senior — who, you will not be surprised to learn, Painter once recruited — is the three-time Big East Defensive Player of the Year.
He averaged 17.3 points, 7.6 rebounds and 3.1 blocks last season and is back for the fifth season afforded him by the NCAA’s COVID-19 related eligibility leniency in 2020-21.
Purdue grew accustomed to facing such talent in practice every day during Zach Edey’s tenure. Saturday allows them to step back in time and see where they stand for the near future. In particular it could be an eye-opening experience for 7-4 freshman Daniel Jacobsen.
“You’ve got to understand, guys like that, you’ve got to get to their body,” Painter said. “You’ve got to be careful challenging him when he’s just sitting there, waiting on you. Guys that can block shots like that, you just have to be leery of them and make good decisions.”
