If one wondered why No. 2 Purdue was ranked atop the first Associated Press Top 25, the Boilermakers delivered an emphatic reminder on Thursday night.
Trey Kaufman-Renn made his season debut with 19 points and 15 rebounds. Braden Smith looked like a national Player of the Year in a 21-point second half. And Purdue left No. 8 Alabama a loser for the third straight season with an 87-80 road win that could have major seeding implications in March.
Now what can the Boilermakers do for an encore Sunday night when a sneaky good Akron team ventures into West Lafayette, Ind. for another nonconference contest?
One way for Purdue to back up its excellent showing against the Crimson Tide is for Kaufman-Renn to continue pounding the boards. He hauled down eight offensive rebounds, helping the team earn a 52-28 overall advantage on the glass.
“I know at the four position, coach (Matt Painter) is wanting me to rebound more,” he said after the win in Tuscaloosa. “I showed him I could today.”
It wasn’t just Kaufman-Renn. As Alabama coach Nate Oats ruefully noted, Smith also outboarded his entire starting frontcourt in addition to his scoring outburst. Going plus 24 on the boards gave the Boilermakers (3-0) enough cushion to afford committing four more turnovers.
“You’re putting yourself in a pretty good position,” Painter said of dominating the glass. “Our centers did a good job between them; they had 18 rebounds in 40 minutes. TK got 15 in 34 minutes and I think that’s the difference.”
Smith enters this game averaging 18.3 points and eight assists per game, while Fletcher Loyer supplies 17.3 ppg. Painter’s two-headed center, South Dakota State transfer Oscar Cluff and 7-4 Daniel Jacobsen, teams to score 18 points and grab 15 boards per game.
Meanwhile, Akron (3-0) comes to town averaging 99.3 ppg with back-to-back 100-point outings on the scoreboard. That includes a 109-51 blowout of Penn State-Shenango Wednesday night that saw 13 Zips get into the scoring column.
Amani Lyles leads a balanced attack with 16 points and 7.7 rebounds per game, while Shammah Scott contributes 14.3 ppg and is canning 40.9% of his 3-pointers. He’s coming off an 18-point, eight-rebound, four-assist outing Wednesday night.
Akron coach John Groce, who knows something about playing in Mackey Arena from his years coaching at Illinois, said the trip to Purdue is a great opportunity for his team.
“It’ll be a great challenge for our guys,” he said. “Purdue is strong, tough, deep and coach Painter does an outstanding job. We’ll be ready to compete when that ball goes up at 7:30 Sunday night.”
This will be the first road game for the Zips, who started the year with home wins over James Madison and Princeton. They carved up the Tigers, a perennial Ivy League power, for 104 points.
“I think this is the deepest team we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Groce said. “Guys have been turning down good shots for great shots, playing the right way.”
The Boilermakers have won both previous matchups of the programs, though they haven’t played in 25 seasons.
