If you just glanced at the box score, you’d probably think Purdue’s 87-77 win over Oakland was just another day at the office. A nice, comfortable 10-point victory for the top-ranked team in the nation. Business as usual, right?
Wrong. So very wrong.
For anyone who actually sat through the nail-biting, sweat-inducing rollercoaster at Mackey Arena, that final score is a flat-out lie. It was the kind of game that makes you question everything you thought you knew about basketball, gravity, and the general order of the universe. The Boilermakers were tied at halftime and were clinging to a five-point lead with less than six minutes on the clock. It was a street fight, and for a while there, Purdue was getting its lunch money stolen.
Once again, the Boilers were navigating the court without the formidable presence of Trey Kaufman-Renn, and his absence was felt especially on the glass. The first half was a comedy of errors—clanked open shots, a defense that looked more like a welcome mat, and a rebounding effort that would make a high school JV coach tear his hair out. But then, the second half happened. And more specifically, Braden Smith happened.
The Good, The Bad, and The Rebounding
Let’s be honest, that first half was ugly enough to crack a mirror. But amidst the chaos, there were glimmers of what this team can be, and some glaring red flags for what it currently is.
What Went Right: The Smith Takeover
For a short stretch in that dreadful first half, Braden Smith took a seat on the bench. It felt like Matt Painter was sending a message: “Alright, fellas, figure it out yourselves.” They didn’t. It was the basketball equivalent of a toddler trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube.
But coming out of the locker room for the second half, Smith decided he’d seen enough. The lead guard put the team on his back and became the one-man wrecking crew Purdue desperately needed. He exploded for eight points and two assists in the first four minutes, sparking a 16-5 run that felt like a gulp of fresh air after being underwater for 20 minutes. He put Purdue back in the driver’s seat, and you could feel the entire arena breathe a collective sigh of relief.
After a quiet six-point, 11-assist performance in the season opener, where he was content setting up Fletcher Loyer’s 30-point party, Smith knew this game required a different approach. He needed to be the aggressor, and he delivered with 11 points and six assists in the second half alone. When the shots weren’t falling, he drove to the basket, creating chaos and, more importantly, points.
Shoutout to the new guys, too. Jack Benter and Liam Murphy, stepping into the void left by Kaufman-Renn, provided some much-needed firepower. Benter’s three-pointer early in the second half was a momentum-shifter, and Murphy’s back-to-back corner threes felt like daggers that kept Oakland at bay.
What Went Wrong: Where Are the Rebounds?
If Painter was a little miffed about rebounding after the Evansville game, I can only imagine the paint was peeling off the walls in the locker room at halftime. Oakland outrebounded Purdue 27-17 in the first half, grabbing nine offensive boards. That’s not a typo. The Boilermakers were getting absolutely manhandled on the glass.
Sure, missing Kaufman-Renn hurts, but it doesn’t explain the whole disaster. Balls were bouncing off Boilermaker hands like they were coated in butter. It was a mess. They managed to clean it up in the second half and mostly evened the boards by the final buzzer, but this has become a disturbing trend. You can’t let teams hang around by giving them second, third, and fourth chances.
And the shooting… yikes. Puedue shot a frosty 5-of-20 from deep in the first half. While they have shooters, sometimes you just have to admit it’s not your night from downtown and take the ball to the rack. It took them until the second half to figure that out.
What Does This Nail-Biter Really Mean?
This game was a wake-up call wrapped in a win. Loyer said it best: “If we’re supposed to be the No. 1 team in the country, we’ve got to be better than that.” He’s not wrong. A win is a win, but this performance won’t cut it against the big dogs.
And a big dog is waiting.
This was the final tune-up before the real test: a road trip to Tuscaloosa to face No. 15 Alabama. That’s an NCAA tournament-level environment, and the Crimson Tide won’t be as forgiving as Oakland was. The Purdue Boilermakers have seen what they look like without Kaufman-Renn—sometimes brilliant, sometimes baffling. Getting him back for that showdown might not just be a luxury; it might be a necessity.