SAN JOSE, CALIF. — It was as if they were born for these moments. Clock winding down, game on the line, season on the brink. Purdue doesn’t frighten teams with its size or overwhelm opponents with its athleticism. It just knows how to do the right thing when the right thing is required.
On Thursday night at SAP Center, aka the Shark Tank, the Boilermakers snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. As the No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament’s West region, they should have put away the 11th-seeded Texas Longhorns with ease. But when 6-foot senior point guard Braden Smith brought the ball upcourt with 11 seconds left in regulation, the score was tied at 77. A Sweet Sixteen game teetered on his next move.
Smith was being checked by 6-foot-3 Texas guard Chendall Weaver, one of many longer, quicker defenders the Longhorns had rotated on him all night. He made his way to the left side of the court, crossed Weaver over sans ball screen, drove down the right side of the lane and lofted an attempt toward the glass. Smith later said he thought the shot was going in, but instead it glanced off the rim.
His fellow senior, 6-foot-9 forward Trey Kaufman-Renn, was battling 6-foot-8 Texas forward Dailyn Swain underneath. Kaufman-Renn gave a hard, barely legal shove to Swain’s back, reached out his right hand and tipped the ball in with 0.7 seconds to play. Texas immediately inbounded to 6-foot-1 senior guard Jordan Pope, whose heave from beyond halfcourt was off the mark. The horn sounded and the Boilermakers celebrated a thrilling 79-77 win that sent them into the Elite Eight for the second time in three years.
“Coach always says that a lot of times, it’s not the first shot that goes, it’s those tip-ins at the end of the game,” Kaufman-Renn said. “He said that for my four years here, so it’s kind of cool to actually experience that.”
Purdue will face No. 1 seed Arizona, which dominated Arkansas 109-88 in the nightcap in Saturday’s regional final. The game will tip off at approximately 8:49 p.m. ET on TBS.
Kaufman-Renn’s putback spoiled a valiant effort by the battered-and-bruised Longhorns in a game that featured 10 ties and 16 lead changes. Pope was a game-time decision after injuring his foot in the second-round win over Gonzaga. He had 12 points on 4-of-9 three-point shooting and revealed afterward that he had broken his foot. “I don’t know how many guys that I’ve coached under these conditions on this stage would have chosen to play,” Texas coach Sean Miller said.
Senior guard Tramon Mark also rolled his ankle badly late in the first half. He left the game to get his ankle re-taped, and though he came back in, he was clearly hobbling. Still, Mark finished with a season-high 29 points, including a three-pointer with 5:20 to play that put Texas up 70-66.
In an age of rampant turnover and transactional cultures, the Boilermakers are still kickin’ it old school. They rank among the nation’s best on KenPom in both experience (No. 16) and continuity (No. 5). Smith, Kaufmann-Renn and Fletcher Loyer have spent their entire college careers in West Lafayette. Thursday was their 146th game together, with 439 starts between them. “I think it benefits us more than anybody in the country that we’ve played together for four years,” Smith said. “We know where our strengths are and our weaknesses. We understand what gets each other going.”
The Boilermakers needed every bit of that experience to make up for an uneven performance. Loyer made his first two three-pointers at the start, but from there the Boilermakers were 2-of-18 from behind the arc. They made up for it by shooting 15-of-20 from the foul line (Texas was 8-of-15) and committing just four turnovers. They also fought the Longhorns evenly on the glass. Fittingly, they won that battle by a single rebound, the one by Kaufman-Renn that decided the outcome.
The win extended a remarkable postseason run for a team that has underachieved, comparatively speaking, for much of the season. The Boilermakers started the season as the consensus preseason No. 1 team, but they lost four of their last six regular-season games to finish sixth in the Big Ten. They also lost five games at home, even though they’ve been near unbeatable in Mackey Arena the last several years. From there, however, Purdue won four games in four days at the Big Ten Tournament and now have reeled off three more in the NCAA Tournament.
“These guys are winners,” coach Matt Painter said. “To be able to now win seven straight, all on a neutral court … these guys are responding. A lot of times you say the right things but you’ve got to be able to do the right things. It makes your job easier as a coach when you’re talking to someone who’s been there for four years or five years. A players-led team is always the best team, and that’s what we have.”
Painter has long described Kaufman-Renn as the thoughtful type — perhaps too thoughtful. “He has to process information and know what’s going on before he can perform,” Painter said. “He wants to get everything set, and then if something bothers him, it’ll hold him back a little bit. I compare it to watching TV and listening to the radio. He’s like a second behind.”
On Thursday night in the Shark Tank, Kaufman-Renn was right on time. So were his teammates. That’s why Purdue is moving on to the Elite Eight and Texas is on its way back to Austin.
“We love moments like these,” Kaufman-Renn said. “End of the game, it’s tied, one-point lead, two-point lead. We have so much experience. I think you stay composed and you execute, where when you have either younger teams or teams where there’s so many different guys from different schools, you just don’t have that connectivity. I’m glad to be a part of it. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else.”
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