Purdue Cruises to Easy Win over McNeese, Comes Home To Indy For Midwest Regional

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The goal was simple for Purdue's basketball team this week. Avoid any double-digit history with mid-majors and get two wins, and then come back home for another weekend of basketball.

Mission accomplished, and with an exclamation point.

No. 4 seed Purdue cruised past No. 12 McNeese 76-62 on Saturday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence. The Boilermakers had a dougle-digit lead within four minutes, pushed it to 20 after just 15 minutes of play and were never really threatened.

They had their way on both ends of the floor against a McNeese team that was 23-1 since Dec. 14 and had upset No. 5 seed Clemson on Thursday.

It was a clinic, sharp and precise.

"You've got to be able to manipulate the defense, but you have to also make good decisions when you're passing and catching. We did that,'' Painter said. "I thought PJ Thompson, our assistant in charge of our offense, did a really good job of getting us ready to play.

"That's where it starts for us. We can't go further without playing great offensively. We have to execute well, we have to shoot the ball well. That's not really pressure, that's just a fact.''

The Boilers (24-11) now advance to the Midwest Regional at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, where they will play the winner of Saturday night's game between No. 1 seed Houston and No. 8 Gonzaga. They play at 8:40 p.m. in Wichita, Kan.

Purdue has now won six straight second-round games, dating back to 2012 when they lost to Kansas. This is Painter's eighth trip to the Sweet 16 as coach of the Boilermakers, and the school's 15th overall. Purdue is now 51-35 all-time in the NCAAs, and Painter is 24-15.

The Boilers, who closed out the regular season with just three wins in nine tries, found themselves in Rhode Island. Their stars, point guard Braden Smith and center Trey Kaufman-Renn, were terrific, but they got plenty of contributions from others as well, and it's made a huge difference.

Kaufman-Renn had 22 points and a career-high 15 rebounds in leading the Boilers to an easy win. He also had three assists, and no Purdue player has ever had a 22/15/3 stat line in an NCAA Tournament game. Smith had 10 points and five assists, and Fletcher Loyer had 15 points and freshman C.J. Cox added 11.

Painter called this Kaufman-Renn's best rebounding game, and dominating on the boards had a lot to do with Purdue cruising through this weekend so easily against High Point and McNeese. They outrebounded High Point by 21 in that 75-63 win, and had 19 offensive rebounds.

They did more of the same on Saturday. They outrebounded McNeese by 17 and got several extra possession thanks to 12 offensive rebounds. The Boilers, who play small often around Kaufman-Renn, aren't the greatest rebounding team, but they sure were this weekend.

And it made a huge difference, Painter said.

"I really like the fact that we did a great job in these two games rebounding the basketball. It's really put us in a great position from a possession standpoint,'' Painter said.

Another key was Purdue's ability to handle McNeese's defense, which swarms and attacks from all sorts of different angles. McNeese held Clemson to just 13 first-half points in Thursday's upset, and Painter was well aware that they would be a challenge again on Saturday.

But the Boilers remained patient on every possession, and made the extra pass when necessary. It helped a lot in building that early 27-11 lead, and they executed well throughout all 40 minutes, with the exception of a few too many turnovers in the final few minutes of the game. They only shot 45.3 percent for the game, but they made 11 threes — many on kickouts — to keep McNeese at bay.

"Yeah, I thought we were really hooked up, starting the game, handling their pressure,'' Purdue guard Fletcher Loyer said. "And really, only toward the end I thought was the only time we didn't (execute well) for the full 40 minutes, so I'm impressed with that and impressed with how we handled the physicality of the game.''

This is Purdue's sixth trip to the Sweet 16 in the past eight tournaments, and this was never guaranteed after losing two-time national player of the year Zach Edey. There was no talk of another national championship run all year — ''just about getting better every day,'' Loyer said — and many brackets had Purdue as an upset special.

That didn't happen. If anything, Purdue has been one of the most impressive teams in this first weekend of the big dance.

Survive and advance is one thing, but dominate and advance is another. It won't get any easier next weekend in Indianapolis, but at least the Boilers are there, just an hour away from campus and in a cavernous building that will hold tens of thousands of local Purdue fans, regardless of who the other three teams are.

“Players are made in the offseason,” Painter said. "Our guys put in a lot of time working out in the summer but when we get our time as a group, we practice. I think it's so important in June, July, August, when you get your time because we start school around August 20th, 21st. The first day of school we practice. We take those four hours and try to put it towards how to grow into it.

"A lot of people don't realize that if you're just talking about it and working out in the summer, your foundation now starts when practice starts. We want it to start in June so now we can grow and then be at our best at this time of the year.''

Purdue's defense was really good, too. McNeese tried to attack the basket off the dribble far too often, and the Boilermakers did a great job of disrupting those drives with an extra defender. McNeese shot just 8-of-26 in the first half, and forced several shots. They were just 7-of-21 from three, and helped out Purdue by making only 5-of-13 free throws on the day.

"We knew we weren't going to be great in terms of keeping the ball in front of us all the time. You see how they play,'' Painter said. "They were isoing us and taking us (to the basket) and we were loading up against them.''

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