Marquette Basketball: 3 biggest takeaways from Eagles win over Purdue

1) Purdue needs a go-to guy

The biggest question Purdue faced coming into this season was how they could replace Carsen Edwards, who led them in scoring each of the last two years and generated so much of their offense last year. Instead of one player stepping up to fill that role, Matt Painter’s squad has used a balanced, team-first approach to find their offense.

That has worked for the Boilermakers in the first half of games. Where it hasn’t has been at the end of games against Texas and now the Golden Eagles, the two NCAA Tournament-caliber teams they’ve faced.

After scoring 38 points and shooting around 50 percent from the field in the first half, Purdue went ice-cold in the second. They only managed 17 points over the last 20 minutes and didn’t make a field goal in the final six minutes – the three points they got came from the foul line.

It was eerily reminiscent of Purdue’s loss to Texas, where the Boilermakers didn’t make a shot in the final four minutes until there were 11 seconds left – when the Longhorns were simply trying to avoid fouling.

During those stretches, Purdue gave up a 9-0 run against Texas and was outscored 16-3 by Marquette. Painter blamed those collapses on a lack of physical and mental toughness by his players, who he doesn’t trust yet.

"“When you have more of a balanced team, you have to be able to execute and get good lucks. And, when the ball doesn’t go in, it builds on itself. You don’t always have that guy. I’ve coached a Carsen Edwards. I doubt I’ll have another one. We have to have some young guys grow up in a short amount of time. “We have some good players but I don’t trust them all yet. Right now we have more talent than we have production and, right now, that’s more important than finding a go-to guy.”"

Last year, Purdue had Edwards to bail them out of these situations and get them back on track by making big shots. This team simply doesn’t have that – at least not yet – and no one that appears to be waiting in the wings to take over.

Painter says they won’t have that guy, but they also won’t reach their full potential until they find someone they can rely on to get them a basket when they need it.