Sat in and watched Purdue Basketball's full practice today and got to speak with P.J. Thompson, Sasha Stefanovic, and Matt Painter.
I'll be posting articles this week on the site here's a quick notes looked at what was a very competitive, physical, and demonstrative practice from Purdue.
Unlike a lot of practices, this practice was almost entirely 5 on 5 competitions. For nearly two hours I got to watch Purdue's squad go at each other while Matt Painter officiated, interjected, and goaded his star player with his whistle. Here's my takeaways:
- Getting Myles Colvin up to speed is one of the coaches' #1 priorities. College basketball is a whole other world. Every play matters in a way that's just not present in high school. Every practice matters, too, and the team had to run an extra suicide early because Colvin didn't touch the line clearly in front of Painter. "We'll go again, Myles," Painter called and one of Colvin's teammates offered sage advice to the true freshman. 'Really exaggerate hitting the line.'
In competition, Colvin showed flashes. There's not another player that can overwhelm and burst through space like him on the team. Colvin can play above the rim and from the three-point line to the rim in one dribble and a blink. He's not a sharp shooter, but he got a lot of open three-point looks and knocked down a few of them during the collection of games. There's not going to be many players that talented getting as little attention as he does on the floor. He was on Edey's team throughout most the different competitions.
Something that Edey learned to work through seemingly from the start of practice to the end.
- Zach Edey showing some 'assholery', first directed at Colvin. Edey had his man sealed early in a contest but Colvin took a corner three instead of getting the ball inside to Edey. Edey was demonstrative in yelling his displeasure. As the play was whistled and teams huddled up, Painter talked to his team. "We've got to learn to talk constructively to each other," he told them. He went on to say it doesn't do any good for Edey to walk to the sidelines and say nothing if Colvin missed him, but it also didn't any good to be an asshole about it. "Got to be able to talk to each other," Painter reinforced.
This was a bit of a new role for Edey who seems to be trying to take on more of a vocal leadership role on the team. A few times his anger got the best of him, yelling at Painter and his whistle, wanting fouls called, missed rebounds, and other blunders on the court. But after Ethan Morton gave Edey a Carsen Edwards gif to calm down, Edey used his growl to encourage his players and help almost come back from a double-digit deficit in one half-court 5 on 5 contest.
-Brian Waddell's athleticism looks to be back. He finished off the practice by winning the final sprints, just edging out Mason Gillis. (Smith didn't run, having not been on the losing side all practice.) Waddell displayed a surprising burst attacking close outs and remains a very large, and much more cut wing option for Purdue. During the contests, Waddell and Heide split time.
-William Berg was still on the sideline though no longer in a boot.
- Matt Painter was not happy with his team's effort and defense early. Through a few expletives and yells he made his displeasure clear, "You guys are so F------ easy on the basketball." Braden Smith seemed to take that to heart. He was Purdue's best player for most the 5 on 5. He was attacking on offense, orchestrating the offense, making Lance Jones life unpleasant on the defensive end, and finished a tied next basket scenario by attacking Edey in space before hitting a fallaway jumper from the right side of the paint.
- The 'black' team of Morton-Edey-Colvin-Jones-Furst weren't having the best time. Losing back to back games by faulting out with two turnovers in each of the first two scrimmages. As they lined up for sprints, Painter quipped, 'You guys don't have the details down, so you run.'
-Camden Heide went down with a turned ankle early in practice, but remained on the court while grimacing off and on the rest of practice. After the injury he had a highlight dunk, hanging above the rim to easily throw down a miss with two hands.
- TKR and Edey might not be friends after the summer. The two consistently went after each other with a lot of physicality and determination. Neither side backed down with TKR taking it to Edey in the post on a couple occasions and trying to use his quickness to get to the rim. Edey at the other end was doubled constantly and battling TKR on the boards.
- Fletcher's brother and father were in Cardinal Court to watch practice and Fletcher put on a show towards the end of practicing, knocking down a handful of threes.
- But Mason Gillis was Purdue's best shooter and showed off an aggressiveness in the paint and on the perimeter with his shot that could spell good things for Purdue's season. He looked aggressively for his shot in the mid-range while starting the practice off by making three threes in one session.
