Purdue basketball’s most consequential win of the season came despite one of its returning All-Americans not taking a shot in the first half.
Trey Kaufman-Renn provided the No.12 Boilermakers what they most needed to secure a wild 81-78 victory at No. 8 Nebraska on Tuesday. Never mind that a player with over 1,000 career points who had averaged 17.4 per game since the start of last season took as many shots in the first 20 minutes as you did.
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Plenty of other Purdue players can score. None can physically win matchups at the 4 spot the way Kaufman-Renn can. None can augment the rest of the offense with his decision-making inside.
Purdue coach Matt Painter more or less challenged Kaufman-Renn before the season to prove himself as a next-level rebounder. Tuesday obviously provided the big man’s best response so far to that challenge. The rebounding outburst came as he continued to improve as a fulcrum in one of the nation’s most efficient offenses.
It’s the sort of play which made Kaufman-Renn the team leader in box plus-minus at Nebraska despite not attempting his first field goal until over four minutes had passed in the second half.
“When you become a senior, all that matters is winning,” Painter said. “You don’t worry about anything else. You don’t worry about averaging 20. He showed NBA scouts, he showed people he can score. He averaged 20 points a game. He was a third-team All-American last year.
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“Now we’ve added some pieces to make us a better team, so hopefully we can win more. Now he’s showing how good he can be when he puts his mind to it when he rebounds.”
Kaufman-Renn’s scoring is down almost eight points per game — 20.1 to 12.4 — from last season. His 23 points at Indiana marked his first 20-point game of the season.
He’s also averaging four fewer field goal attempts and 3.2 fewer free-throw tries. You can do the math on that.
What changed most is what Purdue needs him to do, and how it needs him to do it. Kaufman-Renn remains fully capable of a scoring spike on any given night. As he showed in Tuesday’s six-point effort, though, he can also be the most valuable player in a given game without a single one of his signature floaters.
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The fifth-year senior’s career-high 19 rebounds continued a recent resurgence on the boards. After a stretch of three or fewer rebounds in four of five games, he responded with 10, eight and that big number at Nebraska over his last three.
Kaufman-Renn now ranks 46th nationally in defensive rebound rate, and first among Big Ten plays in conference games only. Sometimes Purdue needs that to offset an opponent’s talents on the offensive boards. Against Nebraska, though, he exploited a vulnerability — showing what one of the league’s best rebounders can and should do against one of the country’s worst offensive rebounding teams.
For a long stretch of the second half, when Kaufman-Renn slid down to center as the Boilermakers used their small lineup, an even greater rebounding responsibility fell on his shoulders.
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Kaufman-Renn’s two assists against the Huskers broke a streak of five straight games with three or more. It was the longest such stretch of his career, though he did have a run of four games earlier this season.
The short-roll interchange between Kaufman-Renn and Braden Smith — and by extension what that opens up throughout the offense — is another benefit to the small-ball lineup. Kaufman-Renn’s assist rate has risen to 18.4 from 16.8 last season. In Big Ten games, though, he’s at 21.4 — among the top 25 players in the conference regardless of position.
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The returning first team All-Big Ten selection is trending up in key areas as Purdue enters a crucial stretch. First, it must respond to the adrenaline spike of Tuesday’s overtime win with another road trip to No. 25 Iowa on Saturday. Then No. 2 Michigan awaits on Tuesday. Indiana — which already won the first rivalry game — and No. 10 Michigan State round out the home stand.
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You could probably name a half-dozen Boilers who notched signature moments in the Nebraska win. Kaufman-Renn simply laid the relentless, prodigious foundation expected of a veteran starter.
“Trey’s a winner,” Painter said. “Trey’s very selfless. He’s a good dude, and he just wants to see Purdue win.”
It took every last one of those 19 rebounds, but that’s what Kaufman-Renn saw Tuesday night.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue basketball’s Trey Kaufman-Renn rebounds, assists to make winning impact
