PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The opponents get better and the matchups get more difficult as you continue through the NCAA Tournament bracket, as No. 12 McNeese discovered early in an eventual 76-62 loss to No. 4 Purdue in the second round of the Midwest region.
After leading No. 5 Clemson by 18 points at halftime of Thursday’s 69-67 upset for the program’s first tournament win, the Cowboys found themselves down by a matching 18-point margin at the break against the Boilermakers, who were simply too big, too strong and too good for the Southland Conference champions.
“Purdue was more aggressive from the start,” said McNeese coach Will Wade. “They were tougher and more aggressive than we were and we thought we were on Thursday. We couldn’t carry that over. We couldn’t fill our tanks back up quick enough to bring that again. They’re a great team, really well-coached, great players.”
The win sends Purdue to the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row, the third time in four years and the eighth time overall under longtime coach Matt Painter. After taking care of No. 13 High Point in the first round, last year’s national runner-up heads into the second weekend having won two games at Amica Mutual Pavilion by a combined 26 points.
And the Boilermakers are going home: The region now moves to Indianapolis, a major advantage for a team rallying into form at the right time after a sluggish run through the Big Ten. Purdue will meet the winner of Sunday’s game between No. 1 Houston and No. 8 Gonzaga.
“That’s going to help,” freshman guard Gicarri Harris said. “I know fans are going to pop out for us. It’s just going to help from a fanbase perspective.’
While not unexpected given the quality of competition in two tournament wins, Purdue’s performance so far could be a much-needed palate cleanser following a rough finish to the regular season. The Boilermakers dropped six of nine heading into the postseason, capped by a 86-68 loss to eventual conference champion Michigan in the Big Ten tournament quarterfinals.
“I think everyone kind of looks at the tournament as a new season,” said senior forward Caleb Furst. “A much shorter season, but yeah, definitely.”
One constant across these two wins has been Purdue’s ability to dominate the paint and the glass. Even with two-time national player of the year Zach Edey off to the NBA, the Boilermakers have the size to control the area near the basket against more guard-driven opponents such as High Point and the Cowboys.
Purdue outrebounded these two opponents 86-48, with 31 of those rebounds coming on the offensive glass. The Boilermakers have scored a combined 62 second-chance points, including a 38-22 edge against McNeese.
“I really like the fact that we did a great job in these two games rebounding the basketball,” Painter said. “It’s really put us in a great position from a possession standpoint.”
This bullying behavior can send opponents off their game and into meltdown mode. With 15:47 left in the first half and Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn heading to the free-throw line after bullying his way to the basket against three clingy McNeese defenders, over-the-top jawing at the officiating crew drew a pair of technical fouls against Wade and guard Christian Shumate. The Boilermakers made three of four from the line to push the lead to 53-28.
Purdue seems better equipped to handle the pressures of tournament play thanks to a veteran roster loaded with postseason experience. Players such as Furst, Kaufman-Renn and guards Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer have been here, tasting the highs of last season’s run to the championship game and the lows of an historic first-round exit one year earlier against No. 16 Fairleigh Dickinson.
“They lead by example, but more importantly, they’re always talking to us, always verbal,” Harris said. We’re getting to the point where if I see something, I say something, too.”
Beating double-digit seeds off college basketball’s major-conference path might not say too much about how Purdue will match up with the Cougars or Bulldogs. The Boilermakers went into the postseason having beaten just one eventual tournament team, UCLA, since Jan. 24.
Whether they can advance past an elite opponent and into the Elite Eight depends on how well Purdue can marry a physical identity and strong shooting from 3-point range with a cleaner pace of play on the offensive end. Averaging just over 10 turnovers per game heading into Saturday, the Boilermakers turned the ball over 19 times against the Cowboys’ aggressive defense.
“We have to execute well, we have to shoot the ball well. That’s not really pressure, that’s just a fact,” Painter said. “We’ve got to clean up our turnovers and keep rebounding because both teams that are going to play in the next game are very, very good teams across the board, but also elite at rebounding the basketball.”
Regardless of the next opponent, Purdue plans to stick to the style of play that has yielded one of the most successful runs in modern program history.
“We know that we make it through the right process, the results will come,” Furst said.
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