Purdue’s night at Mackey Arena started with a fresh look around the building and ended with a gut punch at the buzzer.
The new season brought plenty of visible changes inside the arena: the LED lights running up and down the handrails, the new prize for missed opponent free throws, the updated video boards with a gold border, and Lilly’s name on the court. But the biggest change for Purdue was on the floor, where the Boilermakers are working with four new starters - and the growing pains showed in an 83-80 loss to Valparaiso.
This one never really found a clean rhythm for Purdue, especially on offense. The game was tied 2-2 at the under-16 timeout, and the first half quickly turned into a slog.
Purdue managed just 32 points in the opening 20 minutes, though Daniel Jacobsen gave them a real lift with 11 of those points. He has also taken on the role of the Purdue player who gets the shit kicked out of him on just about every possession, but he’s been able to absorb it so far after what the source described as 50 pounds of muscle added to him.
It’s only been two games, but he’s already looking like a major piece.
There were a few other first-half bright spots. Caden Pierce crashed the boards hard and finished the half with five rebounds, bringing energy on the defensive end.
Jack Benter also stood out, knocking down 2 of 4 from three while the rest of the team went 2 for 9 from deep in the half. On the other side, CJ Cox had just one point at the break after going 1 for 2 at the line, and that’s a number Purdue can’t live with if he’s supposed to be a steady scoring presence.
The one thing Purdue did do well was protect the ball, committing only two turnovers in the first 20 minutes.
Rotation-wise, Raleigh Burgess was the backup five in the first half, while Enzo Shahrvin never got off the bench. The source noted that Shahrvin didn’t impress against Gonzaga, and Burgess appeared to move ahead of him. That said, if Shahrvin is going to help this team at all, he needs minutes in games like this one.
Neither team shot it well from deep before halftime. Purdue was 4 for 13 from three, while Valpo was even colder at 1 for 11. Still, Purdue went into the locker room with a 32-20 lead despite what was described as an offensive performance that only a mother could love.
The second half, though, unraveled into a mess.
Purdue’s final 30 minutes were rough enough that the source flatly called them ugly for 30 minutes of basketball. The Boilermakers never settled in, and the offense stayed stuck in the mud.
Omer Mayer didn’t play at all in the first half and didn’t enter again until halfway through the second overtime after Antione West Jr. fouled out. Mayer finished 1 for 11 from the field and missed a huge three in the second overtime after getting away with a blatant pushoff.
Jacobsen kept carrying the scoring load and finished with a team-high 28 points, but even he wasn’t a clear focal point when the game got tight in overtime. That was one of the more puzzling parts of the night.
Valparaiso, meanwhile, made the shots that mattered most. The first buzzer-beating three came after Purdue fouled up three, Valpo missed the first free throw, grabbed the rebound, and launched a contested three to force a second overtime.
Then, after Jacobsen tied the game with 4.4 seconds left, Valpo walked it up and buried another three at the horn to win it. The Beacons were only 7 for 27 from deep overall, but they hit the two biggest threes of the night.
Purdue’s starting guards need to be much better. Mayer, Cox, and Harris combined to go 7 for 24, and that kind of production won’t cut it from the group expected to lead the team. The Boilermakers also finished just 5 for 28 from three as a team, and that kind of shooting makes it hard to survive, let alone close out a game like this one.
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Purdue Needs A Much Cleaner Response After That Opening Loss
Purdues season opened with a reminder that even a veteran program can be forced to reset in a hurry. Matt Painters team dropped its opener to No. 15 Gonzaga, only the second time in his 22 seasons in West Lafayette that the Boilermakers have started with a loss, and the performance left plenty of room for a cleaner showing as the schedule moves on.
There were still some encouraging individual signs in the loss, with center Daniel Jacobsen giving Purdue a scoring presence inside and newcomer Caden Pierce making an immediate impact in his debut. The next chance to settle things down comes against Valparaiso, which arrives with some momentum after opening its own season with a win over Western Illinois, and Purdue will be looking for a more polished response. [Read more 🡒]
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The conversation around this one keeps circling back to whether Purdue can control the parts of the game it should control. The Boilermakers will need steadiness on offense and a clean overall performance to avoid letting a struggling opponent hang around, and the details in this matchup figure to matter more than the records suggest. It is the sort of test that can say a lot about where Purdue really is, even before the final score tells the rest of the story. [Read more 🡒]