Myles Colvin<\/a><\/strong> didn\u2019t attempt a shot. <\/p>\n\u201cMyles Colvin doesn\u2019t take a shot, and he really helps us win the basketball game,\u201d Painter said. \u201cThat\u2019s different for him because he\u2019s a shot maker. But it shows \u2013 do you want to be a shot maker (or do) you want to be a basketball player? You\u2019ve got to do other things, and now he\u2019s doing other things.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIT\u2019S UNREAL\u201d <\/h2>\n
The fanbase has already embraced Cox, whose quick release and scoring ability in bunches have left an early impression.<\/p>\n
But what the native of Lexington, Mass., did Friday night was borderline ridiculous. Who hits three 3-pointers in 52 seconds against one of the nation\u2019s top teams in just his fourth collegiate game?<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, it\u2019s unreal,\u201d Loyer said about Cox. \u201cHe\u2019s made shots on us all summer, shots you just shake your head like, \u2018Man, how do you make that?\u2019 But he came in ready to go, not afraid of the moment, and knocked down four huge shots, but three huge ones that just really sparked us in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n
His first 3-pointer in the stretch was nearly a four-point play after he was fouled. He missed the free throw but regrouped to extend Purdue\u2019s lead, raising the noise level inside Mackey Arena.<\/p>\n
\u201cP.J\u2019s always telling me to look for my shot, and that\u2019s something I\u2019ve been working on throughout the season,\u201d said Cox, referring to P.J. Thompson, the program\u2019s director of player development. \u201cWhen I was open, I just felt like I need to let it fly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cox finished with 11 points, his second straight game in double figures after 12 points against Yale. How high was Cox on Alabama\u2019s scouting report?<\/p>\n
\u201cReputation coming out of high school as a shooter, but he hadn\u2019t done this in a game,\u201d Tide coach Nate Oats said. \u201cThey had some guys step up. They got him free, and we didn\u2019t do a great job guarding them. His 18 minutes were big.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t anticipate him being that good, but we definitely knew he was capable of shooting it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHE KIND OF KILLED US IN THERE\u201d <\/h2>\n
Kaufman-Renn shouldn\u2019t have been a surprise to Alabama.<\/p>\n
He played 20 minutes against the Tide last season in Canada and wasn\u2019t effective with his performance. It\u2019s not that Oats and his staff dismissed Kaufman-Renn, but they weren\u2019t quite sure what the junior could do after playing next to Zach Edey.<\/p>\n
They found out Friday.<\/p>\n
Although it took 23 shots to reach a career-high 26 points, Kaufman-Renn kept forcing the action inside against Alabama\u2019s big men. He handed out four assists and no turnovers in 29 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got beat up in the post more than I thought we were going to,\u201d Oats said. \u201cGetting Cliff (Omoruyi), I didn\u2019t think we would need to double as much. Kaufman-Renn obviously wasn\u2019t their primary post-up guy playing with Edey for pretty much his whole career. He didn\u2019t post up as much, and I didn\u2019t know he was that good. He kind of killed us in there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaufman-Renn collected 16 points in the paint, including 10 in the second half. His hook shot with 3:36 left helped put the game away as the Boilermakers led 78-71.<\/p>\n
The Tide sent multiple defenders at Kaufman-Renn, including Grant Nelson and Omoruyi.<\/p>\n
\u201cP.J. gave me some post-up opportunities versus (Nelson),\u201d Kaufman-Renn said. \u201cWhen Cliff was in the game, we tried to get in more ball screens because we knew Cliff was going to be in drop coverage, and that gets Braden downhill and getting me in the short roll. However they\u2019re going to guard, we have counters to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kaufman-Renn also had to battle foul trouble and played with two fouls down the stretch before halftime. Painter couldn\u2019t afford to have Kaufman-Renn sitting on the bench during a critical period.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrey\u2019s ability in the first half to play with two fouls and not get that third, it\u2019s always a little dicey,\u201d Painter said. \u201cI just thought at that 4:30 mark in the first half, I didn\u2019t see us finishing the half if we didn\u2019t have somewhere to go with it. And getting the basketball to him to score right away and then get a couple more field goals, I thought that was a big thing for us just to hold serve.\u201d<\/p>\n
CLOSING THE REBOUNDING GAP<\/h2>\n
The final numbers show the Tide outrebounded the Boilermakers by two (37-35). But Alabama nearly stretched the margin to double-digits in the second half, and that likely would\u2019ve spelled doom late in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that was the most important part of the game,\u201d Kaufman-Renn said. \u00a0\u201cThat\u2019s what coach told us. Our days of practice would be the free-throw line box outs on just everything. You\u2019ve got people coming off the bench (Labaron Philon), he\u2019s crashing hard every single time. He\u2019s a guard. I wouldn\u2019t be surprised if they\u2019re a top-three rebounding team in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Purdue received rebounding contributions from nearly everyone. Along with Kaufman-Renn\u2019s eight, Heide pulled down eight, Colvin had two important rebounds and Furst added two. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not there yet, but we did better,\u201d Painter said. \u201cI thought Cam Heide gave us a boost, and went got some basketballs. Myles got a really good rebound, and he had two. But he got a really tough one late that we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n
The post Cox\u2019s 3-point stretch sparks No. 13 Purdue past No. 2 Alabama: \u201cHe ignited the game\u201d<\/a> appeared first on On3<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mackey Arena remains the nation\u2019s best host for a big-game party. And C.J. Cox stole…<\/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-75549","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\/75549","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=75549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75549\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/demo.wztzfm.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}