Fletcher Loyer Putting Higher Emphasis on Rebounding for Purdue
Rebounding has become a major focus for everyone wearing a Purdue uniform this year. With Zach Edey no longer on the floor, the Boilermakers are dependent on more players crashing the glass in an effort to equalize that aspect of the game. In Sunday's game against Maryland, junior guard Fletcher Loyer lived up to his end of the bargain.
Loyer finished Sunday's game with a career-high seven rebounds. His effort played a huge role in Purdue's second-half comeback vs. Maryland. The Boilers trailed 36-31 at halftime and the Terrapins own a nine-rebound advantage on the glass through the first 20 minutes.
At the end of the game, Maryland outrebounded Purdue 36-34, but Purdue won the game 83-78.
Loyer says he's putting more importance on crashing the glass, something everyone on the floor has to do now that coach Matt Painter is utilizing a smaller lineup.
"It's just more of a focus," Loyer said. "It helps me get it into my hands in transition, push it and help the team get into more actions. It just helps our team, I think especially now that we're smaller with (Trey Kaufman-Renn) at the five. Other guys are boxing out more, I've just got to do my job and go get it."
Through the first 10 games this season, Purdue has learned just how dominant Edey was on the glass. He was guaranteed to get 12 rebounds every night. The Boilermakers don't have that same size advantage that they had the previous four years.
Purdue is finding new ways to grab rebounds, which usually requires Loyer, Cam Heide and Myles Colvin to crash harder. Even though there's been improvement in that area, it's still a learning process.
"Zach just cleaned up so much for us — cleaned up a lot of our mistakes and things he opened up for us," Loyer said. "But this is a new team, it's a new group and you've got to play differently. Adjusting game-by-game, seeing what we need to do differently and playing hard as hell while you're doing it."
Purdue's rebounding skill will be tested on Saturday, playing a Texas A&M team that has been dominant on the boards through the first month. The Aggies rank 10th in rebounds and have the best offensive rebounding team in college basketball.
It's going to be a challenge for Purdue.
"We always emphasize it, but putting even more focus on it," Loyer said when asked about keeping Texas A&M in check on the glass. "When you get into rotations, that's when it gets tough, when you're mismatched — guards on bigs, bigs on guards.
"Just making sure we're hitting (the glass) and winning the 50/50 balls is what we've got to focus on."
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