Purdue Basketball: Keys to beating Virginia in the Elite Eight
3. Purdue has to be solid in the front court
I’ve touched on it a little in the previous two slides, but both Purdue and Virginia use a revolving door at the five. Hunter, Guy and Jerome have started basically every game. Kihei Clark has been back in the lineup since the end of February. Then there’s Jack Salt and Mamadi Diakite who rotate at the center position. Purdue has Edwards, Cline, Grady Eifert and Eastern. Then they see Haarms and Williams at the five.
I wasn’t quite sure for a while if Haarms was going to reach 70 blocks this season. He blocked 79 last season and the numbers weren’t quite there during his sophomore year. But he’s up over 70 now, averaging exactly two blocks per game. The rebounding has improved, which was expected with Isaac Haas and Vince Edwards gone, but for being seven-foot-three, you’d expect the big man to be higher than 5.5 per game.
Matt Painter decided to bring him off the bench then periodically. The coach is a genius and by starting Williams for a few games throughout the season, that lit a fire under the sophomore and gave the freshman some confidence. It has prepared both players for a run here in March.
Even though the big man the Netherlands is only averaging 5.5 boards per game, there are two other Boilermakers who are doing the same. They are a very diverse rebounding team. Eight guys in the rotation are averaging just about three rebounds per game. That’s two less for Virginia.
The Cavaliers have Salt at six-foot-ten, Huff standing at seven-foot-one and Diakite at six-foot-nine who leads the team in blocks with 52. But neither one of those three are overly high rebounding guys. In fact, Key, Hunter and Guy all average more boards than the three big men.
Purdue gets some high production from their guys standing six-foot-six or taller. Nojel Eastern was a highly recruited guy for the Boilermakers last season and he’s really come on nice as a decent scorer and a consistent rebounder.
Next. Top 2020 recruting prospects. dark
Eifert is more of a forward and between he and Wheeler, they have combined for over 60 three-pointers. The three big men for Virginia have only 35. If the Boilermakers can control the glass and create a mismatch with their bigs hitting shots from the outside, they might find a way to sneak out a win.