If you haven't seen much of Purdue this season, there's a big, BIG reason the Boilermakers are the No. 1 team in the country.
Zach Edey is a man amongst boys in college basketball at 7-foot-4 and 295 pounds. He's not just big, either. He's incredibly skilled around the basket.
Edey dominated inside against a much smaller Penn State group with 30 points and 13 rebounds to lead Purdue to a 76-63 win Sunday night at The Palestra in Philadelphia.
Here are three key takeaways from the game:
1. Tale of two halves
Penn State (11-5, 2-3 Big Ten) played a terrific first half and led, 37-31, at the break. The Nittany Lions were shooting it well, Jalen Pickett was doing lots of good things and the big Penn State crowd at The Palestra was rocking.
But for all the good things the Lions did in the first half, it went out the window very quickly in the second. Purdue (15-1, 4-1), coming off its first loss of the season against Rutgers, opened the half by scoring the first 12 points to turn a six-point deficit into a 43-37 lead.
The Lions regrouped for a couple of minutes, then Purdue capped a 19-5 run with a 3-pointer, forcing Micah Shrewsberry to take a timeout. Now, Shrewsberry probably should have taken the TO a little earlier in the run, because it was clear Purdue had made all the proper adjustments, but in reality it wouldn't have mattered.
Edey was having his way with the smaller Lions inside, and the rest of the Purdue players were hitting everything. Here's a look at the stats later in the second half.
2. Lions' shooting didn't get it done
Penn State is a dangerous team when it's hitting shots, which was the case in the first half. When the Lions are hitting jumpers and a lot of 3s, they can hang with anybody in the country.
But this team's problem is it goes into prolonged shooting funks, which cost them big time against better competition. There's really no better competition in the country than No. 1 Purdue, and you just cannot afford to miss a lot of shots playing the Boilermakers.
While Purdue scored the first 12 points of the second half, Penn State missed its first eight shots. That just cannot happen.
The thing that will really infuriate Shrewsberry and the Lions when they watch the film is that they had a bunch of good looks during that stretch. They just kept missing and missing.
The first five minutes of the second half changed the entire game, because Purdue came out extremely focused and showed more hustle and determination than it had in the first half, and the Lions clearly were shaken by their own missed shots and Purdue's incredible offensive efficiency.
3. This is danger time for the Lions
Penn State dropped to 2-3 in the Big Ten with the loss. Now, there's no shame in falling to this outstanding No. 1 Purdue team, but the reality is that the upcoming schedule isn't going to get much easier.
No. 15 Indiana visits the Jordan Center on Wednesday, then Penn State visits No. 14 Wisconsin six days later. The Lions absolutely must win one of those two games because they cannot afford to drop to 2-5 in the Big Ten.
Penn State is going to be on the NCAA Tournament bubble all season, and it's going to need to steal a win here or there against the best competition in order to get to at least 9-9 Big Ten, which is what it will take to go dancing.
The good news is Penn State is a good enough to beat just about anybody in the Big Ten.
The bad news is that if the Lions struggle shooting the ball the way they did in the second half Sunday, they can lose to anybody.
TROUBLE WITH REFS
Shrewsberry was not happy with the game's officiating. Here's what he had to say:
Penn State basketball Head Coach Micah Shrewsberry comments on Big Ten officiating and technical foul. pic.twitter.com/oQmXjVR41m
— Noah Riffe (@NoahRiffe) January 9, 2023
THE ESSENTIALS
