Purdue Falls to Creighton in Charity Exhibition - 93-87 Final - Hammer and Rails

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Creighton is gonna have a great season.

For those that were able to get through the technological hurdles of the Creighton website, we got to see a pretty entertaining charity basketball game. For those curious about the charity aspect, a check for $150,000 was presented during a timeout early in the game. One of the main questions going into this game was who was going to be the starting lineup. The starters were Fletcher Loyer, Braden Smith, Gicarri Harris, TKR, and Will Berg. So, for now, TKR was the 4 with Berg at the 5.

Given how Matt Painter views these scrimmages, not a ton of opponent specific prep, throwing some strange lineups out there, trying to get most guys a lot of run, we shouldn’t be surprised that Purdue looked disjointed at times on both ends of the floor. Purdue was a step slow on defense at times allowing far too many easy buckets in the paint, far too many wide open threes, and missed some obvious rebounds that you just know Zach Edey would have grabbed. Just a constant reminder of how difficult it will be to replace his production. On offense, Smith was masterful but his assist numbers, just 4, were underwhelming given that a lot of his passes weren’t caught cleanly by his teammates. That will improve given time playing together. I have no doubt.

Creighton played a great game overall and showed why they are a top 15 team. They shot 13-28 from three and had 6 different players hit at least one three. Their offense looked in mid season form. Kalkbrenner went 6-7 from the field. Gotta give kudos to the Bluejays for having it all together.

Purdue was just too inconsistent. They brought it back to 1-2 points on a number of occasions before allowing Creighton to go on run. At one point Creighton hit 11-12 shots. Hard to stay in a game when your opponent is doing that. At the end of the game Purdue found themselves down 5, just over a minute to go, and Smith took a good look from three that just bounced out. Purdue then got a turnover on the other end and had multiple chances to cut the lead but missed a number of buckets to get within a possession. A foul on the final possession would push the lead for Creighton. Don’t forget that Purdue lost to Arkansas in a charity game last year and that team turned out fine. Here are some stats/performances that stood out to me.

Those are just some quick thoughts on this one. Remember folks, it’s an exhibition. Let’s not overreact one way or another. I’m just glad baseball is back.