Purdue vs. Marshall player grades: New starting lineup debuts in blowout

For all you can glean from 30 competitive minutes, here goes: player grades from Purdue’s 80-45 win over Marshall in Mackey Arena.

Purdue made a major starting lineup change, opting to start the way it’s finished several games with Camden Heide and Myles Colvin in for Will Berg and Gicarri Harris. Trey Kaufman-Renn played the five.

Heide started at the four-spot for Purdue, and the sophomore did his best Mason Gillis impression. Heide went 3-of-3 from deep to score 13 points while making the most of his sporadic opportunities.

Heide only played six minutes in the second half, but the damage was done. The athletic wing also managed to nab three rebounds while he was in.

He impacted the game, as always. Nine assists, three steals, including one of the most artistic possessions I’ve seen this season, when he poked the ball and converted an assist on the same play seven minutes into the second half.

But he didn’t score. Smith has been inconsistent at times this year, and it isn’t like Purdue needed a heroic performance today, but against Marshall the junior was factored out. Purdue’s offense was often clunky and relied on squeezing its sizeable post advantage dry.

Against better competition, Smith can’t go dry.

Loyer was low-impact, finishing with 6 points on 1-of-3 shooting. Purdue allowed more points with him on the floor than off it.

The junior was missing his touch on his signature runners this game, multiple times curling around a couple of screens and freeing himself as he buzzed around the key and downhill, only to have his open, high-speed attempt clank off the back iron.

Kaufman-Renn showed Marshall who was boss. In a game where Purdue was content to give it to the big fella and watch him work, the junior collected 18 points on 7-of-12 shooting in only 23 minutes, including a pair of offensive rebounds.

His assist was a thing of beauty – spotting a darting Raleigh Burgess out of the corner of his eye, he whipped it to the freshman, who scored without slowing down.

After making three starts this season, Berg didn’t check in until 10:42 left in the second half, when Purdue had built a 30-point lead.

Matt Painter preferred Burgess and Furst to spell Kaufman-Renn in the first half. Those two provide more versatility on offense and defense, as Berg’s main strength thus far has been limited to rebounding.

Colvin continued to give Purdue valuable minutes, this time in his first start. The sophomore scored 13 and gave high-energy defense.

Cox played primary ball handler for much of the second half. The freshman was off shooting, going 1-of-8.

The freshman guard got more run in this one than he has all season, with X minutes. Harris popped with the second unit as its secondary ball handler, giving fans glimpses of Purdue’s future backcourt next to C.J. Cox.

Harris has Purdue’s highest plus/minus, at +29.

Furst went 6-of-6 at the line, which will be a great boon for Purdue in the late game if that skill continues.

He was his typical, blue collar self, diving to the floor at one point while comitting a foul and tweaking his shoulder (he reentered the game). It was emblematic of his high-effort style, though at times misspent.

Burgess played plenty down the stretch, knocking in a 3 and adding 6 points.

A lot is anchored to Game Score, a metric invented by John Hollinger which (quite imperfectly) estimates a player’s box score contributions. It’s just something to anchor the grades to, and it’s readily available.

During the game, I focus most of my attention on watching defensive reps, box-outs, offensive movement/involvement, and non-assist passing. I’ll add all the off-ball value to these grades that my eyes can catch.

Late game heroics earn bonus points, and the opposite is true for important errors. And I hate missed free throws.