By the Numbers: Purdue 80 Memphis 71

Purdue was able to battle through a difficult first game in the Baha Mar Hoops Challenge by beating the Memphis Tigers 80-71. A stiffer test than most thought would happen, the Tigers seemed pushed the Boilers with the help of an officiating team that struggled to be consistent for both teams and call a fair game. Purdue, led in scoring by Fletcher Loyer’s 20 and CJ Cox’s 18, were able to make just enough plays late in the game to push their lead to 10 with just under 2 minutes left.

Purdue will face the winner between #15 Texas Tech and Wake Forest on Friday at 9:30pm.

Let’s see what this game was ‘By the Numbers’:

11

With his 11 assists against Memphis, Braden Smith moved his career total to 803 for his career. That gives Smith 25 through 5 games this season for an average of 9 per game. Smith now moves up two more spots on the all-time NCAA list to sole possession of 54th, just 1 assist away from tying Kansas’ Jacques Vaughn. For the all time B1G record, Smith remains in 3rd place but is just 13 behind Mateen Cleaves and 87 behind Cassius Winston’s record of 890.

215

Fletcher Loyer started off slow against the Tigers but finished with 4 made three pointers. That pushes his career total to 215 made for his career and moves him into 9th place in program history. That moves him ahead of Chad Austin and just one made three pointer behind Robbie Hummel for 8th place. Loyer is currently averaging 3.6 made three pointers per game and if Purdue can make deep runs into both the B1G and NCAA Tourneys, Loyer could hold the career and single season three point records.

3

With their victory over Memphis, Purdue now hold 3 top-100 Kenpom wins. That leads the nation alongside the Gonzaga Bulldogs and Arizona Wildcats. If Purdue can win their game on Friday they will lead the nation with four of those victories in their first six games with five more opportunities over their next six games.

100

With another 20 assist game, Purdue has run their team total to 100 through their first 5 games. The program record is 720 during the 2023-2024 season where they averaged 18.5 per game and that is squarely in sight this season. While Smith leads the charge with an average of 9 per game TKR (3.0), Mayer (2.8), and Cluff (2.0) make up a large portion of the those other assists.

12-0

With 7:01 left in the second half Purdue was trailing 64-61 following a 9-0 run by Memphis and it seemed as though most of the momentum was slipping away. It was at that point, Purdue surged ahead behind a 12-0 run to push the lead to 73-64 behind a set of threes and layups from both Loyer and Cox. That run ended at 3:08 with Memphis’ Thedford hitting a free throw but it seemed as though Purdue was fully in control at that point.

25

With the poor officiating seemingly going against Purdue most of the night, Memphis was able to get to the free throw line 25 times and made 17 of them. That was likely one of the main reasons why this game was close as Purdue was able to get there 11 times. The big key for them was converting 9 of those with the only two misses, ironically, coming from Braden Smith missing two straight.

Those 25 free throws would have been the fourth most in a game for an opponent last season (@ Penn State, USC, @ Michigan, @ Illinois) while it would been the second largest differential between teams behind only the game at Michigan (-18).

39.9

Through 5 games, Purdue is living up to the hype of being one of the best three point shooting teams in the country. Following their 11-30 performance on Thursday, Purdue is now 39.9% from behind the arc which places them at 31st in the country. That is 1.7% better than the shooting from behind the arc from last season’s team.

20

It isn’t necessarily a major strength for Purdue at this point of the season but Purdue’s 20 blocked shots on defense is much better than last season. In fact, Purdue had just 59 all season long. That was good for 354th in the country and was a weak point of the defense. This season, with the addition of Oscar Cluff and a fully healthy Daniel Jacobsen, Purdue ranks 124th overall with an average of 4.0 blocks per game. At that pace, Purdue would likely surpass that total from last season in less than 14 games. Jacobsen leads that charge with 9 while Cluff follows up with 8.