Gonzaga Basketball: 3 keys for Sweet 16 matchup against the Purdue Boilermakers

Make Threes

The Boilermakers have lost four games this season or one game for each month of the season and the recipe to beat Purdue has been the same all season long. Everyone who has beaten them has gotten hot from deep and has been able to keep the game within arms reach by making a ton of threes. In the first meeting, the Bulldogs were doing exactly that in the first half and went to the locker room up 5 and looked like they were going to clip Purdue. Then in the second half the Bulldogs went ice cold from the floor and 0-13 from deep and as a result the Boilers went on to outscore the Bulldogs by 15 points in the second half.

Zach Edey is in the middle of the floor for the Boilermakers and in addition to his offensive ability he is a great rim protector and rebounder.  Gonzaga had the right game plan for playing Purdue and winning the game for the first half. They were moving the ball well and were making threes. Once the threes stopped falling in Maui it was going to be tough for the Bulldogs to stay in the game. Dusty Stromer, Ben Gregg, and Nolan Hickman are going to be huge in this one for Gonzaga as they are the three players that Coach Few is going to rely on to make shots from outside and keep the Bulldogs at arm’s length.

Gonzaga has been shooting the ball very well in the NCAA tournament and that has helped them stretch the lead. They made 10 threes in the opening round blow out against McNeese and then against Kansas Gonzaga made 8 threes. The 8 threes against Kansas is a big deal because Kansas was actively trying to take away the three point line and even though they only took 15 attempts they made 8 of them to spread that game out. Purdue will give up the three point line and the way the Bulldogs are shooting that may spell good news for the Bulldogs. If they want to keep this game close and give themselves a chance down the stretch the threes are going to have to fall at a high rate.