Purdue basketball steadily perfecting its championship-caliber defense

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WEST LAFAYETTE — Purdue basketball, so accustomed to practicing contagious shooting, has learned turning defense into offense can be communicable as well.

In one first-half crescendo from Monday's eventual 101-60 thumping of Kent State at Mackey Arena, Gicarri Harris and Braden Smith turned takeaways into layups on back-to-back possessions. Almost a quarter of the points on the Boilermakers’ second excursion past the century mark this season came off of turnovers.

Two months ago, Purdue opened the season as the consensus No. 1 team and the betting favorite to win the national championship. The Boilermakers spent the past three weeks making an upwards turn toward a key aspect of those expectations — that they can grow into a championship defense.

“For me — I can’t speak for anybody else but myself — I think I let off on the defensive end to help offensively, which doesn't help,” Smith said. “This year I think pressuring the ball and kind of bringing that energy defensively helps and gives us a better chance to win games.”

In the two weeks immediately following the home blowout loss to Iowa State, the Boilermakers built real defensive momentum. Smith’s five steals sparked a bounce-back performance against Minnesota. They secured a 20-point win over Marquette by denying the Eagles’ downhill attack. They similarly clamped down on an athletic Auburn squad in an 88-60 rout their last time out, back on Dec. 20.

So in some ways, the biggest test on paper Monday came from the calendar. How would this team respond to a nine-day layoff as a heavy favorite with bigger concerns — the resumption of Big Ten play — lingering at the end of the week?

Purdue opened the game with a “kill” — Painter’s term for three consecutive defensive stops — and posted four more before halftime. Loyer absorbed a moving screen to force one turnover, then came down to double the post and steal the ball on the next defensive possession. Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn contributed active hands as well — the latter literally ripping the ball from Rob Whaley Jr.’s hands at one point.

Mostly, though, this was a successful resumption of the more connected brand of defense the team had been practicing before the layoff.

Kent State came in averaging 94.3 points per game against a schedule of teams you’ve maybe heard of (Portland, Troy) and ones you almost certainly have not (Penn State Shenango, enrollment 264, and Roberts Wesleyan).

The Golden Flashes did not have veteran starting point guard Cian Medley for undisclosed reasons. Big man Delreco Gillespie, who had scored 20 or more points six times in the first 12 games, played only 12 first-half minutes due to foul trouble. Those absences crippled their chances to establish any offensive rhythm.

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Purdue defenders got into their Kent State assignments and forced an array of missed mid-range jumpers and some wildly missed 3-pointers. The Golden Flashes made all three of their first-half layup attempts and one wide-open 3-pointer by Morgan Safford on a blown rotation. They made only 23% of their other 26 shots.

In the most emphatic stretch of the first half, the Boilers rattled off eight straight stops in a 14-0 run to take control. Loyer said the team kept an emphasis on defense in practice and film study during the layoff.

“Our attention to detail is a lot better right now,” Jack Benter said. “We’ve done a better job doing our roles defensively. Our low man/out man, we’ve really emphasized that the last couple of weeks in practice. We’ve done a better job in that and also a better job containing the ball.”

These first two months of play also reinforced those areas Purdue knew would be strengths.

The big three reigned Monday. Kaufman-Renn fell a rebound short of a double-double in the first half and finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds. Smith’s own double-double bid settled in at 12 points, eight assists. Loyer scored what would have been a team-high 19 points, except Benter could not miss while scoring 14 of his 20 after halftime.

Oscar Cluff and Daniel Jacobsen combined for 17 points and seven rebounds as one of the nation’s most consistent 40-minute combos of center production. The Boilermakers are deep and versatile and skilled offensively and have few rebounding equals.

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Monday, though, provided the final 2025 reminder of the future-tense promise of what this team may still achieve defensively.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said.

That journey does not seem as long as it did only a few weeks ago.

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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue basketball defense improving to championship caliber vs Kent State

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