Purdue Rips N.C. State, Advances to First NCAA Final in 55 Years
GLENDALE, Ariz. — It wasn't always pretty, and it wasn't without its fair share of flaws. But Purdue beat N.C. State 63-50 on Saturday in the national semifinals and now will play in its first NCAA Tournament championship game in 55 years on Monday night.
Purdue. In the NCAA finals.
Wow.
"This is what we've been working for for two years, all of us,'' Purdue forward Mason Gillis said. ''Everyone of us, all of us, we're not going to leave anything in the tank on Monday night either. We did a lot of good things today, but we weren't great either. We've got stuff to clean up, but we've done that all year long. We'll be ready.''
There's plenty of truth to that. The Boilermakers are now 34-4 on the season, and they've never lost back-to-back games all year. They'e also, to be honest, never played bad games back to back either. Every time they've lost, they won at least six games in a row afterward.
Win Monday, and it'll be another six straight — and their first men's basketball title ever. Monday's title game against defending national champion Connecticut will be their first since 1969, when they lost to UCLA. This was their first Final Four since 1980, and it's been a long time coming. UConn (36-3) beat Alabama 86-72 in the second game Saturday night.
It wasn't easy, though. Purdue turned the ball over 16 times, which is usually a problem. But their defense was exceptional, holding N.C. State to a season-low 50 points. The Cinderella Wolfpack, who won four NCAA games as a No. 11 seed, shot just 36.8 percent from the field and made just 5-of-19 threes.
"I thought our defense was really good in the second half,'' Purdue coach Matt Painter said. "We didn't have any breakdowns. In my opinion, we had too many breakdowns in the first half defensively. Anytime we have those breakdowns in that one stretch, it seemed like they scored. But I thought we were very competitive, thought we played hard. We just didn't play great. I don't think either team played great. If you look at their run to get here and our run to get here, both teams were way better offensively than you saw today. That happens in basketball at times.
"You got to give our guys credit for hanging in there and grinding one out. Really, we've grinded it out the last two games (including the regional final win over Tennessee). When it's freewheeling and you're scoring the basketball, it's more enjoyable to watch, more enjoyable to play, more enjoyable to coach. To be able to win six games, you're going to have a game in there, a game or two, where you don't play as well offensively. You got to find a way to win that. So congrats to our guys for finding a way to do that.''
Purdue's 63 points were a season-low as well. (They scored 67 twice, in wins over Maryland and Michigan State). National Player of the year Zach Edey led the way with 20 points and 12 rebounds, and senior guard Lance Jones had 14 points, including four three-pointers. Fletcher Loyer had 11, Mason Gillis had eight points off the bench and Trey Kaufman-Renn had seven.
Sophomore point guard Braden Smith had a rough night. He only scored once all night, but his three-pointer with 3:24 to go gave the Boilers an 18-point lead. He was 1-for-9 shooting and had five turnovers.
"The scoring part was frustrating, but I'm really upset with my turnovers. I need to be better about that,'' Smith said. ''That first half, I don't know what it was because I just wasn't there. It upsets me a little bit because I felt like I let these guys down.
"The turnovers, yeah, they had something to do with it, but I still can't let that happen. They're a great defensive team and they're great at swiping at the ball. Thankfully I'm surrounded by a great coaching staff and great players and they continue to give me confidence and want me to have the ball and shoot the ball, even when I'm shooting poorly.''
Lance Jones, the transfer from Southern Illinois, hit four threes and all of them slowed down mini-runs by N.C. State. Purdue never trailed in the game, but N.C. State had it down to three late in the half and seven with just eight minutes to go. Gillis and Jones hit back-to-back threes to stretch the lead to 12 and the lead got as big as 20 in the final three minutes.
It was a good finish, despite the imperfections.
''Turnovers are our worst enemy,'' Gillis said. "There was a little bit of everything that goes into it, whether its not being careful with the ball, not stepping into our catches. No matter what it is, we'll clean it up.''
The showdown of big men between Edey and N.C. State's DJ Burns never really materialized. Burns settled for a lot of fadeaway jumpers and scored only eight points and had just one rebound. Guard DJ Horne had 20 points to lead the Wolfpack, but he needed 21 shots to get it.
The Wolfpack frustrated Edey into five turnovers, but he steadied the course through the finish. It was his sixth straight NCAA Tournament game with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds.
"They threw a lot of different looks at me., and I have to be more ready for it,'' Edey said. "I think I kind of tried to force it a few times. That led to some bad offensive possessions for us. When they keep going, you get the rhythm, you get the flow, you understand it. I think toward the end of the game they kind of picked it up, I understood what they were doing, we kind of made that run there.''
Now the Boilermakers, who were upset as a No. 1 seed a year ago, are one win away from a title. It's the stuff dreams are made of.
"We all grow up dreaming about these moments that you're in the national championship game, and hit the game-winning shot and your team is celebrating,'' Kaufman-Renn said. "You have the trophy in your hands, and that's a thing of dreams. Now we have a chance to do that. It's special.
"I was telling the guys that not every gets to have this chance to play in a national championship game. We have our chance now. We've all been there since we were young. We've hit all those shots when we were little. Now we just have to hit the shots on Monday night. It's super important to win that national championship for Purdue. It's so important, and it means a lot. To do it for Coach Painter, it means a lot. We really want to do it for him. As players, you want to play for a guy like that, but you really want to win for a guy like that.''
Tom Brew is an award-winning journalist who's worked at some America's finest newspapers, including the Tampa Bay (Fla.) Times, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and the Indianapolis Star. He also owns the book publishing company, Hilltop30 Publishing Group, and he has written four books and published 16 others.