College basketball analyst Robbie Hummel played for Purdue from 2007 to 2012.
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00:00 Gonzaga Nation rolls on special guest for today's opponent.
00:04 Someone who knows the program about as well as you can without being a player or on staff.
00:09 None other than terrific analyst who works for a number of different networks, Robbie Hummel.
00:15 Robbie, thanks for joining.
00:16 Yeah, thanks for having me.
00:17 I appreciate it.
00:18 Yeah, without a doubt.
00:19 So let's just jump right into it.
00:20 This is a tremendous early season college game.
00:23 Number two, Purdue.
00:24 Gonzaga flying under the radar, ranked number 11.
00:28 When you look at this matchup and you know Purdue as well as anybody, what jumps out at you as must-dos for Purdue to come out on top?
00:36 Well, I think when you look at some of the ways that they've lost tournament games over the last three years, and that's honestly all anyone has talked about Purdue basketball since like last March.
00:47 Turning the ball over is something that's really hurt them.
00:50 And when they've had their guards get heated up, not only are you giving the ball away, that's certainly an opportunity for their opponent to score.
00:57 In transition or just steal points.
01:00 It's also another opportunity they didn't have to get on the offensive glass.
01:04 And that's where they have just been so dominant.
01:07 And I think that's one area where they've really changed since I was at Purdue.
01:11 We were never a good offensive rebounding team.
01:14 I think a couple of games maybe changed Matt Painter's philosophy of how he wanted to recruit.
01:19 And now, I mean, they've been one of the elite offensive rebounding teams in the country for the last couple of years.
01:24 So the turnovers certainly have been something that that's hurt them.
01:29 And then we've seen teams like Faeley Dickinson just all sell out and have four around Zach Yde and dare guys to make shots.
01:38 Purdue has shot it pretty well so far this year.
01:41 I think their freshman guards from last season have really grown up and Braden Smith is playing really, really good basketball at the point.
01:48 So if you're making threes, it's hard.
01:51 You can't do that.
01:52 But in that Faeley Dickinson game, they were not making threes.
01:55 So they just dared everybody else to make plays and nobody could.
01:59 Well, you mentioned Braden Smith.
02:01 I think that's going to be a fascinating matchup, Ryan Nemhart against Braden Smith.
02:06 And then the secondary guards, Hickman and Fletcher Loyal are pretty darn good in their own right.
02:11 But give us a little bit more insight on Braden Smith, because you look at his numbers, 12 points, almost eight and a half assists and about six rebounds while shooting 50 percent from three.
02:20 What makes him so good?
02:22 You know, he's come up with a really different mentality this year.
02:25 And last season, I know the Purdue coaches were all over him to get him to be more aggressive for his own offense.
02:31 And he just by nature wanted to pass.
02:33 And, you know, when when you're seeing drop coverage and that's what you're going to see with that Zach Yde a lot, they're giving him shots off the bounce, whether it's from the midrange or from the three point line.
02:42 So I've I've noticed this year he's really looked for his own.
02:45 He has looked to score.
02:47 He's not the biggest guy by any means.
02:49 He's only six foot, but he does rebound and he's he's still a tremendous passer that has not gone away.
02:55 But I do think that he has really made a concerted effort to look to be more of an offensive threat himself.
03:01 And that's really going to I think it's going to help Purdue, honestly.
03:04 They need somebody like that in the backcourt.
03:06 Yeah, point guards who can pass.
03:08 I've always said if you don't look to score your passing angles and your openings get shut down a lot easier.
03:14 So that's going to be a fascinating matchup.
03:17 You mentioned Coach Painter and his evolution from when you played till now.
03:20 You know, I look a lot of that as Coach Few in similar respects.
03:24 They did some things differently when I played.
03:27 Sure.
03:27 That initial kind of first final four run to even different stuff now.
03:32 Coach Few kind of, you know, for a longest time was the best coach not to play in the final four or coach in the final four.
03:38 Excuse me.
03:38 Now a lot of people are saying that about Coach Painter.
03:41 I don't think those titles are fair to coaches because so many things have to go right to get a chance to play in a final four.
03:50 Share us a little bit about Coach Painter's philosophy and what makes him such a good coach.
03:55 Well, he's really changed.
03:56 I think you can probably appreciate this.
03:59 Every former player that's ever played for any coach always thinks that they were way harder on the players than they played.
04:04 I think he's too nice to the players now compared to what we saw back in the mid 2000s.
04:11 But he's really evolved from a defensive oriented coach.
04:15 I bet we worked on defense 70 to 75 percent of the time and offense 25 to 30.
04:21 Whereas now they work on defense, but they have so many set plays.
04:27 We run a lot of motion and now they are very set dominant.
04:31 So you will see for the most part when Purdue's coming down today against Gonzaga, they're going to be looking at play calls and looking to get something set up.
04:39 We ran some sets, but we were probably at least 50/50 motion.
04:43 And I don't know if you can even do that anymore because no one runs it.
04:46 You know, we were coming out of high school.
04:47 You're not taught it from a young age.
04:48 It was pretty common coming up in my high school.
04:50 We ran motion from fifth grade on.
04:52 So it really wasn't a big deal.
04:54 But now it's so much pick and roll that you don't see anybody run pure motion to this point.
04:59 So he's really changed in that regard.
05:02 I mentioned kind of the offensive rebound philosophy.
05:04 We were certainly more built on skill.
05:07 Jawan Johnson was a really good player.
05:09 He could step out.
05:10 He's a first team All-American.
05:12 He could shoot from the perimeter.
05:13 He could shake inside.
05:14 Whereas now they've got huge people like starting with A.J.
05:19 Hammonds in 2013.
05:21 You know, A.J.
05:22 Hammonds, Isaac Haas, Matt Harms, Zachy.
05:25 You're talking about 7-1, 7-2, 7-3.
05:28 And I think our tallest guy was Jawan at 6'10".
05:29 So certainly kind of a change from his recruiting there.
05:35 And, you know, I hear the stuff about Matt Painter being the best coach to not coach in the Final Four.
05:41 And it's interesting that Mark Fewe dealt with that for a long time until he was able to, you know, get over that mountain.
05:47 And you're totally right.
05:48 I mean, like my junior year, we were.
05:50 I think third in the country when I blew my knee out, we had three NBA players.
05:55 That team could have made the Final Four.
05:57 You know, if that goes differently and we stay healthy, that could be a different story.
06:01 And then we're not even talking about this, you know, like or even you look at
06:04 2019, Virginia coming off their loss to a 16 seed, their redemption story.
06:10 Purdue has a guy at the line who's their best shooter.
06:13 All they have to do is make two free throws.
06:15 The game's over.
06:15 He splits them and instead they, you know, they end up making that crazy pass to Diakite and then Purdue loses in overtime.
06:22 So we've been knocking on the door.
06:24 I truly feel like it's just a matter of time for Purdue.
06:27 And you're so right.
06:30 It's all about luck and staying healthy and matchups.
06:34 I think the one discouraging thing about Purdue has been that for such a long time,
06:40 it felt like the brackets would never break in our favor.
06:43 We were always losing to like my five years at Purdue.
06:47 We lost to Xavier, who was only 18, but really good and really old.
06:51 UConn Final Four, Duke National Champion,
06:55 VCU Final Four, Kansas National Runner Up.
06:59 So you're like, when are we going to get so?
07:01 But then you look, we've lost to North Texas.
07:04 He was a 14. St.
07:05 Peters is a 15 in the Sweet 16.
07:07 Fairleigh Dickinson, 16 in the first round.
07:10 So we've had those opportunities and we haven't capitalized.
07:14 So I think certainly the hard thing for Purdue this year is that the expectations are
07:19 you can win the Big Ten, you can win the Big Ten tournament.
07:22 And if they got the Sweet 16, the fans would be like, what a crappy season.
07:25 And that's that's a high bar.
07:27 Yeah. Welcome to the fandom where the bar is set so high,
07:32 which is great because it means people care and you've been enough for a long time
07:35 that that people still follow.
07:37 But Zack Eaddy gets a ton of attention, and rightfully so.
07:41 Reigning Player of the Year.
07:43 You know, he's looking like he's in line to be Player of the Year again.
07:46 Something hasn't been done since Ralph Sampson in the 80s.
07:49 Back to back Player of the Year.
07:50 But you've probably seen every type of coverage thrown at Zack Eaddy.
07:55 What do you expect Gonzaga to do
07:58 to slow him down in today's matchup in Honolulu?
08:02 Yeah, I haven't gotten to see Gonzaga play yet this year,
08:06 so I'm looking forward to watching today for that reason as well.
08:09 There's really two schools of thoughts on this, where you play him straight up
08:14 and you shut the water off on everybody else or you post double
08:18 and you try to rotate and maybe leave certain guys
08:22 and rotate to others.
08:26 I feel like Gonzaga will probably trap,
08:29 but I really don't I haven't seen him play enough, so it's hard for me to say.
08:33 Didn't they trap him in at PKI last year?
08:37 They tried a little bit of everything.
08:39 They did everything.
08:40 But I think that's I think to be successful against Eaddy,
08:42 you got to change up the coverage.
08:43 No, I get it.
08:45 One thing. Yeah, I would think that would be who's starting for Gonzaga Center.
08:49 Is it Craig? It would be EK, the Wyoming transfer.
08:52 OK, and then Anton Watson at the four.
08:54 But Braden Huff, their their young freshmen has been playing great.
08:57 What was the shooter's name?
08:59 610 size. Yeah, he's the shooter.
09:01 OK. Yeah. Yeah.
09:02 So they can at least rotate bodies at him.
09:04 I love watching the entire watch.
09:06 I think he's so tough and versatile and just does whatever Mark
09:09 for you asks of him.
09:11 But yeah, I think it's fair to say they'll probably mix it up.
09:13 But I just haven't seen Gonzaga enough to really know.
09:16 Well, I'm in the same boat with Purdue.
09:18 It'll be interesting for me to watch what they do.
09:21 So, Robbie, I appreciate the time.
09:23 I know you're you're crazy busy with your analyst schedule as well.
09:26 So enjoy this matchup.
09:28 And who knows, maybe I'll fire off a disappointing text
09:31 one way or the other at some point when the game's over.
09:34 There you go. Too bad we're not in Maui enjoying the game ourselves, right?
09:37 We're in our lovely hometowns.
09:39 Yeah. How about this one?
09:40 Bill has texted me yesterday morning asking if I was in Honolulu.
09:44 And I texted back.
09:46 No, I woke up to snow this morning in Spokane.
09:48 Yeah, it's that time of year here.
09:51 My mom and dad went. I'm so jealous.
09:53 And then Andy Katz every morning sends me a photo of the ocean.
09:58 I was in East Lansing.
09:59 I sent them back a picture of the Michigan State B-Dubs
10:02 that was out my hotel window.
10:04 Not the same. Not as good.
10:06 Not the same at all. Well, thanks again for joining.
10:08 Have a great time watching the game.
10:11 And I'm sure we'll connect at some point.
10:12 Sounds good. Thanks, Dan.
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