Jaden Ivey Showcases Aggressiveness for No. 5 Purdue Basketball in Win Over Rutgers
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Jaden Ivey has a bright professional career ahead of him, whenever he chooses to depart from the Purdue basketball program. But no one could have expected him to be throwing down a ferocious dunk during the NBA All-Star weekend in the middle of his sophomore season.
He may not have taken part in the dunk contest, but when Ivey watched the eyes of Rutgers senior forward Ron Harper Jr. drift away from him, it was all but a luminous green light signaling to attack the basket.
Ivey darted to the right side of the lane and soared above Harper and Scarlet Knight's senior guard Caleb McConnell, dropping a hammer right on top of their heads.
“I saw an opportunity. He was looking around and I just went right by him,” Ivey said after scoring a team-high 25 points Sunday at Mackey Arena. “It felt like there were a couple of dudes when I went up, but I just finished it. And I finished strong.”
We got ourselves a dunk contest.@IveyJaden just hammered down this impressive flush. 😱 pic.twitter.com/NAhAIwHo5i
— Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) February 20, 2022
Ivey was in attack mode right out of the gate, opening the scoring against Rutgers by driving into the lane and putting a shot through the rim with a soft kiss off the glass, even through contact. When the ball was in his hands, he was slashing into the paint looking for an opportunity to score.
But oftentimes in the first half against Rutgers, Ivey found himself instead searching for a teammate to pass to. He may have mishandled the basketball a time or two, but the sophomore star flashed his court vision by notching four assists before halftime.
The Scarlet Knights, in a futile effort to prevent him from taking over the game, swarmed Ivey with as many as three players when he rushed toward the hoop. That left open shooters ready and waiting on the perimeter, and Ivey delivered.
Both Mason Gillis and Isaiah Thompson knocked down wide-open jumpers from beyond the arc in the first half courtesy of Ivey’s passes. Purdue made six-of-nine shots from deep to start the game.
“I thought he made good decisions to start the game and got our guys a couple of threes,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said of Ivey.
Despite not shooting well, Ivey’s constant pursuit of the rim gave him ample opportunities to add to the scoreboard from the foul line. He was just 5-of-11 from the floor, including 0-5 from the 3-point line, by the end of the game.
But Ivey converted on 15 of his season-high 18 free-throw attempts. It was just the second time this season he took 10 or more foul shots. He logged 15 attempts during a 96-88 double-overtime win over Illinois on Jan. 17.
Against Rutgers, Ivey attempted more — and made more — free throws than any Purdue player so far during the 2021-22 season, fueling a convincing 84-72 win at home.
“We want him to be aggressive,” Painter said of Ivey. “Sometimes they take away a lot of things with him, obviously, because he’s a good player. When he does that and gets the ball out of his hands, he really gives us a dynamic that I think separates us.
“When he doesn’t do that, and he has predetermined thoughts, that’s where you see the tough shots and the turnovers come. Today, I didn’t see predetermined thoughts.”
But the Scarlet Knights came having won four games in a row against ranked opponents entering the matchup. They brought the game to within one point with 3:22 left to play in the first half.
Ivey, fed up with the press defense Rutgers deployed to slow down Purdue, wanted the ball in his hands. He scored nine points in the final four minutes of the first half, which propelled the team to a 45-36 halftime lead.
The Boilermakers never let the game get to within single digits after leading by as many as 20 to open the second half. And Ivey scored the final basket of the contest in the final minute — a dunk that put the team up 12, just for good measure.
“We didn’t want it to get close at all,” Ivey said. “We just played great team basketball today. We were able to make plays down the stretch, and they were pressing us the whole game. I feel like we were patient, and we just took what they gave us.”
Ivey, who was coming off a season-low eight points against Northwestern on Wednesday, bounced back in a huge way. Purdue now has six days to prepare for a road game against Michigan State.
And with Ivey leading the charge the way he did Sunday, the Boilermakers have all the tools to claim a Big Ten regular-season title with three games left to play.
“He’s dynamic,” Painter said. “A couple of those drives, there are not too many people in college basketball that can do that.”
Stories Related to Purdue Basketball
- PURDUE RETAKES BIG TEN LEAD WITH WIN OVER RUTGERS: No. 5 Purdue was the first Big Ten team to get to 13 league wins on Sunday, knocking off red-hot Rutgers 84-72 at Mackey Arena to move a half-game ahead of Illinois and Wisconsin in the league standings with three games to go. CLICK HERE
- LIVE BLOG: Here is our live blog, where you can follow along with all the news and views in real time, live from press row. CLICK HERE
- TOM BREW COLUMN: Purdue has a lot of goals this season, but one that's always near the top is winning a Big Ten regular-season title. For senior guard Sasha Stefanovic, finishing strong in this last four-game stretch is huge, especially now that they've worked their way back to the top of the Big Ten standings. CLICK HERE
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D.J. Fezler is a staff writer for BoilermakersCountry.com. Hailing from The Region, he is from Cedar Lake in Northwest Indiana and has spent the last two years covering Purdue football and basketball.