SAN JOSE, Calif. — For 39 minutes and 49 seconds, No. 2 seed Purdue and No. 11 Texas battled and bruised and fought through (quite literally) broken bones to put on a sizzling Sweet 16 battle. When the time came for a decider, college basketball’s most prolific assister in history wanted the winner for himself.
But Braden Smith didn’t quite have it.
Purdue ran an action that gave Smith the space he wanted to drive down the right side of the lane. He tried to touch the ball off the backboard, but he shot it just a touch awry. Fortunately, he let go with three seconds on the clock, leaving just enough time for his fellow fourth-year Boilermaker, Trey Kaufman-Renn, to muscle in over Texas’ Dailyn Swain and gently tip the ball back through the hoop with 0.7 seconds remaining to give Purdue the 79-77 win. The man nicknamed TKR delivered more than a TKO — this was an outright knockout shot for Texas in the tournament.
It was also the least amount of time left of any Purdue winning shot in NCAA Tournament history and the first of Kaufman-Renn’s college career.
Conspicuously, Texas’ best big man, Matas Vokietaitis, was not on the floor for the final defensive possession.
Did Sean Miller make a mistake?
Anything but, the Longhorns coach told CBS Sports. For all of Vokietaitis’ size and game-disrupting ability, he managed just two rebounds against Purdue, one on each end. Given Smith’s maestro-like control to work the high screen-and-roll with as much command as anyone in the college game, Miller wasn’t willing to chance getting his big on an island against one of the most seasoned and savvy players in the sport.
“Because Matas was playing the 5, and in my mind, [Purdue would] have to switch that on the game-winner,” Miller told CBS Sports. “So, if we would have done that, Matas would have been guarding Braden Smith. I know he would have guarded Braden Smith there. So, by playing a quicker player, it allowed us to be able to switch.
“In hindsight, the other part of it is, if you don’t involve Matas in that, and he has to guard somebody else? They’re a perimeter team, and they’re so good shooting the ball. So, we elected to go a little quicker to negate that; then, we ended up giving up an offensive rebound. But I don’t know if it was because of our lack of size, as much as, like, you have to block him out on that.”
The sub-in for Vokietaitis was 6-8 sophomore Nic Codie. Texas was told to switch every position, 1 through 5. Miller wanted Swain on TKR so that, if he set a ball screen, Texas would switch onto him in that scenario.
It never played out that way. Purdue slipped out of the screen, Smith never passed and no switch happened.
These are the tiny decisions that can flip a game’s outcome.
“Many times a game is won and lost not on the first shot but the second,” Miller said.
These are the quick decisions that alter how a bracket takes shape.
“When it happened, we didn’t set a screen, and so we curled our screen to act like we were coming up, and then Braden didn’t go through it,” Purdue coach Matt Painter told CBS Sports. “A lot of times, those on-ball guys, they feel that screen coming, and then they open a little bit, and when they open, you’re just trying to get that angle. So, that was the play that we were running.”
The irony: Vokietaitis would have been on the floor, Miller said, if not for Purdue center Oscar Cluff fouling out on the prior possession. Swain, who did not box out Kaufman-Renn, drew Cluff’s fifth foul on an and-one that made it 77-77 with 11.9 seconds remaining.
“The reason that Matas wasn’t in was simply because Cluff wasn’t, and when you take Cluff out, when Renn is at the 5, it’s a very difficult matchup in a game-winning situation for a center. So, we elected to go quicker,” Miller said.
Painter said he felt good about Purdue’s chances regardless of who Texas put on the floor. The experience of Smith and Kaufman-Renn goes a long way toward that confidence.
“It wouldn’t have mattered whether he was out — I mean, I think it would have mattered to the end result,” Painter said. “If Vokietaitis is on the floor, I don’t think Trey gets the tip-in. … But we weren’t setting up all these screens, so it didn’t matter who that was on the floor.”
The teams tussled for 40 minutes, playing a terrific game. The Boilers and Horns gave the Sweet 16 a riveting start to what could be a special four days of tournament ball, volleying through 16 lead changes and 10 ties and inducing only 11 combined turnovers.
Even in defeat, Jordan Pope goes home heroic and literally broken. His status was “literally a game-time decision,” per Texas’ coaching staff, after he purportedly injured his ankle in the second round. After Thursday’s loss, Pope came as clean as the break in his right foot. This was no ankle issue; his foot was fractured.
“I think I can clear the air now. Five minutes left against Gonzaga, I broke my foot, a complete break, so it was definitely tough,” Pope said.
Pope had to grit his teeth through Purdue’s myriad dizzying offensive sets. The staff was unsure whether he would manage even 10 minutes of game time. The tournament inspires a lot out of players; Pope’s showing is the latest admirable effort that shouldn’t be forgotten. What a gamer.
“I don’t know how many guys that I’ve coached under these conditions on this stage would have chosen to play,” Miller said. “It would have been very easy for him just to say, ‘Made the Sweet 16, I’m not going to be 100%, I don’t know how I’ll look, and because of that, I can’t go.’ But he gave us everything and gave us the opportunity to win.”
Pope gutted through 33 minutes and scored 12 points. He was a necessary complementary piece in such a close game, but Texas only ever had a chance because of fellow senior Tramon Mark, who made this Longhorns run possible with his game-winning shot vs. NC State in the First Four nine days ago and put a bow on his outstanding career by dropping a game-high 29 points, including five from beyond the arc.
And he did it after twisting his ankle in the first half on a 3-point attempt when he landed on Fletcher Loyer’s foot. His 29 points were the most by any Texas player in an NCAA Tournament game since Kevin Durant dropped 30 on USC in 2007.
“When he gets in that rhythm, and that was our concern, they have Pope, Swain and him,” Painter said. “They’re three pretty unique guys.”
At 63-63, after Texas got it knotted with 8:24 to go, Painter told his staff, “We’re going to have to go offense/defense.”
He was referring to Loyer, who’s been on a heater from 3 (12-of-20 through three games in the NCAAs) but can be a liability on the other side. But Painter thought better of it and only took out Loyer a couple of times down the stretch. Purdue had enough, barely, to hold off the rare 11-seed from making the Elite Eight.
Purdue is in its seventh Elite Eight in program history and third under Painter thanks to good fortune and right-place-right-time instinct from Kaufman-Renn. Miller hasn’t been that far in 11 years; his most recent regional final came in 2015 with Arizona, which coincidentally enough will face Purdue here on Saturday.
“There’s no moral victory of, that’s OK, because there’s no guarantee you’re coming back any time soon,” Miller said.
For Painter, who has fallen to Nos. 16, 15, 13 and 12 seeds over the years, a third Elite Eight after dodging an 11 is cherished territory. On this night, the scale balanced a bit more for one of the game’s most consistently successful coaches. Sometimes, that scale tips with just one touch.
“We out-rebounded them by one, but that last rebound being pretty damn important,” Painter said.
The difference between survival and a send-off can sometimes be whittled to something as simple as one tap. A maddening thought that encapsulates the thinnest of lines defining whether a team keeps its name around for another round.
That’s the tournament.
