Purdue Guard Sasha Stefanovic Talks About the Win Over Rutgers, the Rest of the Regular Season and His Eighth-Place Tie For Most Career Three-pointers
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — In case you missed the Sasha Live! Podcast on Thursday, Feb. 22 at Mad Mushroom in West Lafayette, you can watch the full recording attached to this article.
Purdue guard Sasha Stefanovic joined Boilermakers Country video director Haley Jordan to talk about Purdue's 84-72 redemption victory over Rutgers, the upcoming matchup versus Michigan State and Sasha's eighth place tie for career three-pointers.
Since Purdue's win over Rutgers on Sunday, the Boilermakers got a 6-day break from games.
"Luckily this past week, we're able to have some good quality days where we can get some treatment, get some rest, get some off days, really just get off of our feet," Stefanovic said.
"When you get into February especially within our Big Ten conference season, we call it the dog days of basketball. It's tough. You're really looking forward to March Madness and obviously the postseason tournaments but you know you still have a job to do and really meaningful games to win especially if you're in a position like we are right now," Stefanovic said.
Teammate sophomore guard Jaden Ivey was the guy in the Boilermakers' victory over the Scarlet Knights putting up 25 points, a huge improvement from his four combined field goals he made in the Maryland and Northwestern games. His resiliency is noticeable.
"I think that's something he's really improved on and you can see in his growth from year to year," Stefanovic said. "He's done a great job at handling adversity and moving forward. Nobody's going to have a perfect game every game even when you're a talent like Jaden."
Stefanovic also played a good game putting up 11 points off his 3-for-7 field goal night. Rutgers' defense made it hard on him, and Stefanovic said he should have made more, but three from behind the arc aren't too shabby.
"Caleb McConnell — I think he's one of the best players in our league," Stefanovic said. "He was guarding me both times that we played him, and he's really long, athletic. He tried to make all catches tough on me and just take me out of my rhythm."
It doesn't take long for the Boilermakers to gain rhythm. Right now, they are the second highest-scoring offense in the league averaging 82.2 points per game behind Iowa's 90.1.
"I think the efficiency part of our offense is a big key for us," Stefanovic said. "When we're able to take good, open looks like I mentioned, not turn the ball over and then give ourselves a chance to rebound, I think it's massive for us. We run a lot of great things."
Up next, the Boilermakers head to Breslin Center in East Lansing to take on the Michigan State Spartans on Saturday as part of the last three regular season games.
"They really play hard," Stefanovic said. "They're obviously well-coached. They got a lot of talent around that team. Obviously, they've been on a little bit of a skid lately. They got a lot of older guys on their team who are very familiar with our team and what we want to do, so it's always going to be a tough game against them no matter what."
Following the Spartans matchup, Purdue will face Wisconsin and Indiana, two teams that upset the Boilermakers earlier this season. Stefanovic doesn't like using the word revenge, so redemption will do.
"Any time that somebody beats you, you naturally want to have a lot of those possessions back. I don't think we played our best basketball in both of those games. Definitely looking forward to it, but you got to focus on one game at a time."
Going into the last stretch of regular season, it's certain Stefanovic will pass Chad Austin's eighth most career three-pointers record. Stefanovic tied him in the Rutgers game with 212 made three's. He needs to reach 243 three's to beat the overall record.
"It's just cool anytime that you can be mentioned with a lot of the guys up on that list," Stefanovic said. "I never really imagined myself making a big impact. I'm excited to be up on that list."
Although there's still some time before March Madness, Stefanovic gave his input on where he'd like to play in the tournament if it all works out that way of course.
"I would really love to be in Indy for the first round," Stefanovic said. "I think that would be really cool to see a lot of people, a lot of fans show up to watch us play. Playing in Chicago would be really cool obviously growing up an hour away from there and going to the United Center all the time to watch the Chicago Bulls play."
Stories Related to Purdue Basketball
- SASHA LIVE EPISODE 14 PREVIEW: Purdue guard Sasha Stefanovic is back behind the microphone on Thursday night for Episode 14 of the Sasha Live! Podcast at Mad Mushroom Pizza. The show starts at 7 p.m. ET and can be watched in person or online. Links are in the story. CLICK HERE.
- PURDUE'S VERSATILE OFFENSE SHINES AGAINST RUTGERS: Purdue basketball had five players score in double figures in a victory against Rutgers on Sunday. The team posted 19 assists in the contest and were led by sophomore guard Jaden Ivey's 25 points. CLICK HERE
- PURDUE RANKED FOURTH IN AP POLL: Victories over Northwestern and Rutgers pushed Purdue to the No. 4 ranking in this week's AP College Basketball Top 25 poll. The Boilermakers have a 24-4 overall record and are 13-4 in the Big Ten. CLICK HERE
