GLENDALE, Ariz. \u2013 A combined 234 games.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the total career appearances for Caleb Furst<\/a><\/strong> and Ethan Morton<\/a><\/strong>, but neither saw action in Saturday\u2019s national semifinal victory over North Carolina State at the State Farm Center.<\/p>\n But the two have earned high respect from coach Matt Painter and their teammates. Furst and Morton were mainstays in the rotation early in their careers, but playing time has become more difficult based on who\u2019s in front of them.<\/p>\n \u201cThey started for me the year before,\u201d Painter said Sunday as the Boilermakers finished preparations for Monday\u2019s national championship game against Connecticut (9:20 p.m. ET, TBS). \u201cWith their attitudes, the way they\u2019ve handled things, been professional as young people, we wouldn\u2019t be here without them either. It\u2019s a big part of our team. It pains me that they don\u2019t play. It\u2019s hard for me as a person to do that. I want it to work for each individual.\u201d<\/p>\n But as Painter added, the veteran coach must make decisions that are best for Purdue. Furst and Morton certainly understand Painter\u2019s decisions but called the experience humbling while keeping an attitude of helping the team reach this point. \u00a0<\/p>\n Furst has played in the backup role to Zach Edey<\/a><\/strong> at center and Morton was part of the regular rotation on the perimeter. But those minutes have been trimmed to keep the starters on the floor. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a sacrifice,\u201d Furst said. \u201cI was always used to playing and it\u2019s a new experience and a little bit of a humbling one for sure. Going back to what I\u2019ve said, just realizing our goals as a team and our objectives as a team are greater than my individual desires or goals would be.<\/p>\n PREVIEW:<\/strong> Purdue embraces underdog role in pursuit of NCAA championship<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t always seem like that in the moment. You want to be on the court, in the games, and in the crucial parts of the games, but that\u2019s not necessarily the case.\u201d<\/p>\n Painter prefers that roles define themselves throughout the season instead of forcing players into positions and minutes. Maybe in the regular season, Edey would come off the floor for longer periods, but in the last three tournament games, the senior has played 40, 39, and 38 minutes, respectively, against North Carolina State, Tennessee, and Gonzaga. The same is true for Morton, who sits behind Lance Jones <\/a><\/strong>and could fill in for Fletcher Loyer<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been super hard,\u201d Morton said. \u201cAs a competitor, I\u2019m not going to sit up here and lie and tell you it\u2019s been all love and roses and awesomeness. It\u2019s hard. Everybody that\u2019s in this room wants more, whether you\u2019re the last guy on the bench or you\u2019re Zach.\u201d<\/p>\n But what the Boilermakers have accomplished this season and their current NCAA tournament run make the sacrifices worth it because of how the program and the culture have been built under Painter and former coach Gene Keady.<\/p>\n \u201cYou want to be out there,\u201d Morton said. \u201cBefore I got to Purdue I didn\u2019t know what it was like not to play. It\u2019s something that everybody goes through in their life unless you\u2019re Lebron James. Great life lessons I\u2019ll appreciate them down the line.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, Furst and Morton\u2019s approach, along with members of the scout team, have blended together to make this a special season for the Boilermakers.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m appreciative of those guys, appreciative of the guys on our scout team,\u201d Painter said. \u201cPeople that come to Purdue, they don\u2019t come to be on the scout team; they come to play. When you don\u2019t, you have to be on the scout team, do those things to be able to swallow your pride and do it, try to help us, I have a lot of respect for that.\u201d<\/p>\n Why did Braden Smith<\/a><\/strong> play better in the second half against North Carolina State?<\/p>\n The point guard went from five turnovers to zero. He didn\u2019t hit his only field goal until late in the game, stretching the lead to 18.<\/p>\n It was the shoes. He changed at halftime. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI told him to switch at halftime and it went better,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n Smith recognized he needed a change after a subpar 20 minutes by his standards. He wore Nike Book 1 in the first half and moved to the Nike Kobe 8 brand after halftime. <\/p>\n \u201cI thought I came out just not ready. I wasn\u2019t prepared. It was uncharacteristic of me. I thought I needed a change,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n As far as Monday, Smith plans to stay with the second-half shoes.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll be wearing the ones I wore in the second half,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Remember Cam Spencer?<\/p>\n The Cam Spencer, who drained a late 3-pointer on Jan. 2, 2023, to beat Purdue 65-64 at Mackey Arena when the Boilermakers were ranked No. 1, is the same one who is with the Huskies. It was the second straight season the Scarlet Knights knocked off Purdue when it ranked No. 1. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was a cool shot to make. I was just happy we got the win,\u201d Spencer said Sunday, reflecting on his game-winning basket. \u201cPurdue is a great team and Mackey Arena is one of the hardest places to win.\u201d<\/p>\n He made three 3-pointers and scored 14 points in Saturday\u2019s win over Alabama.<\/p>\n Spencer started his career at Loyola Maryland, transferred to Rutgers, and is using his COVID year to play his final season at UConn. He\u2019s totaled a team-best 98 3-pointers and is shooting 44.3% from beyond the arc.<\/p>\n Spencer is one of several weapons the Boilermakers must deal with Monday.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a great competitor,\u201d Smith said. \u201cThe last time we played them, he beat us. At the end of the day, we have to be ready for him.\u201d<\/p>\n In discussing the matchup Sunday, UConn coach Dan Hurley said he\u2019s sure \u201cCam endeared himself to their fans while he was in the Big Ten.\u201d<\/p>\n Monday is the third Big Ten team the Huskies have played in the NCAA tournament, along with Northwestern and Illinois.<\/p>\n Painter and Hurley are far apart from a personality standpoint but share similar characteristics when building and maintaining programs.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do have a lot of similarities in terms of the culture and the old-school values that we have in terms of the type of people that we recruit, the type of teams we have,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cSo maybe the personalities are a little bit different on the sideline. I wish I had his composure at times.\u201d<\/p>\n The two have spent their entire lives in the game, playing for Hall of Fame coaches, who rubbed off on both of them. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re both very confident people that are authentic and aren\u2019t trying to put on a show,\u201d Hurley said. \u201cI don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything fake about either one of us. We are who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n From Painter on his players being aware of playing the defending national champions: <\/p>\n \u201cThey understand what we\u2019re up against. They understand we haven\u2019t played anybody like UConn. They\u2019re not fools. We have cable where we\u2019re from, so \u2026 we\u2019re very familiar,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n The post Purdue-UConn notebook: Furst, Morton sacrifice, Smith\u2019s shoe switch, familiar face on Huskies<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" GLENDALE, Ariz. \u2013 A combined 234 games. That\u2019s the total career appearances for Caleb Furst…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46822","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46822","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46822"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46822\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46840,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46822\/revisions\/46840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46822"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46822"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46822"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}HALFTIME CHANGE<\/h2>\n
FAMILIAR FACE<\/h2>\n
SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT<\/h2>\n
QUOTE OF THE DAY<\/h2>\n