Yahoo Sports contributor Dalen Cuff reacts as the #2 Boilermakers outlast the 11-seed Longhorns 79-77 to advance to the program’s 7th Elite Eight.
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Video Transcript
Purdue and Texas gave us a treat.
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That was a game of playmaking, shot making, an outstanding game where Texas, an eight-and-a-half point underdog, almost pulled the upset and this 11 seed got themselves into an Elite Eight.
Tremont Mark, although hobbled through, you know, a last quarter of the game, scored 29.
Jordan Pope hobbled as well.
Dalen Swain, they all made plays, but they were slightly outplayed by the trio of seniors from Purdue that have been doing this together for four years and would will themselves to a win.
Fletcher Loyer was great early, making some big threes.
Braden Smith didn’t have a vintage game.
He wasn’t great.
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The, the size and length of, of the Texas guards did affect him at times, but he made enough plays, and in the end it was his miss and Trey Kaufman-Renn’s tip-in that put the Boilers through to the Elite Eight.
I would’ve loved to see Trey Kaufman-Renn a little bit more in that middle isolation that got him in the first half, a little more in the short roll.
Didn’t matter.
He still put up 20 points.
He shot 80% from the field, and when they needed him, he was there on the offensive boards to give them the two-point W and push them forward as a two seed to that Elite Eight.
What a run, what a play, what a team, what a group of seniors, which we rarely see in college basketball anymore, playing in the Elite Eight.