Purdue won its first two games by an average of 19.5 points but coach Matt Painter wasn’t all that impressed.
The No. 14 Boilermakers (2-0) look to please their leader when they battle Yale (1-1) on Monday night in nonconference play at West Lafayette, Ind.
A showdown with No. 2 Alabama looms on Friday for the program that lost to UConn in last season’s national championship game.
Also, the contest against the Bulldogs definitely rates tougher than opening foes Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Northern Kentucky.
Yale was one of the darlings of March Madness last season. The 13th-seeded Bulldogs of the Ivy League stunned fourth-seeded Auburn 78-76 in the first round before getting stomped by San Diego State in the second round.
So Painter wants a larger effort in Game No. 3 of the season.
“He kind of ripped us a little bit, but it’s simple stuff,” Boilermakers guard Fletcher Loyer said in the postgame press conference following Friday’s 72-50 home win over Northern Kentucky. “It’s just talking to each other. We talk off the floor so we can talk on the floor. And he always says, ‘If you’re doing it, you’re saying it.’
“Just making sure we’re all being positive with each other, make or missed shots. Just keep talking to each other, and ultimately that leads to success.”
Loyer certainly isn’t the cause of any dismay as he leads the Boilermakers with an 18.5 scoring average and has knocked down 7 of 10 3-pointers.
Trey Kaufman-Renn is averaging 14.5 points and a team-best 7.0 rebounds while top-notch point guard Braden Smith is averaging 11.5 points and a team-high 11.0 assists per game.
Starting center Daniel Jacobsen unlikely will be available after sustaining a knee injury one minute into the game against Northern Kentucky on Friday. Painter said Jacobson would undergo an MRI exam Saturday.
Will Berg is the likely starter against Yale.
The Bulldogs split their first two games, beating Quinnipiac to open the season before losing 91-79 to Illinois-Chicago on Friday.
March Madness hero John Poulakidas scored 21 points against UIC and is averaging 20.0 over the first two games.
Poulakidas scored 28 points in the mammoth upset of Auburn. He made 10 of 15 shots, including 6 of 9 from 3-point range.
Yale coach James Jones is in his 24th season at the school. That upset was his second NCAA Tournament victory.
Jones is worried about whether last March could be the Ivy League’s last hurrah as recent changes like NIL and the transfer portal work against the education-minded schools in his conference.
“I don’t know how feasible it is to continue the success we have nationally in the league, given the new structure of things, where everybody is being paid except for our guys,” Jones told reporters earlier this month. “I don’t know if we can sustain. Five years from now, is an Ivy League team going to be able to go to the NCAA Tournament and beat an Auburn team? I don’t know.
“From that standpoint, it makes it hard. We’re 40 minutes away from a Sweet 16 last year and we’ve gotten (to the second round) twice. I don’t know. Different world. Absolutely different world. It’s changed, and I don’t know if it’s changed for the better.”
Yale is 0-2 against Purdue and the most recent matchup came in the 2022 NCAA Tournament. The Boilermakers prevailed 78-56.
–Field Level Media
