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EspañolWEST LAFAYETTE — Purdue basketball lost one game Thursday night, Braden Smith’s potential game-winning 3-pointer clanging off the back of the rim.
No. 13 Michigan State’s 76-74 victory, though, slots in along with a set of losses over the past three months. The No. 8 Boilermakers expected this season to be defined by what they accomplished when they shared the floor with the other best teams in the country.
Instead, the trend has unfolded in the other direction.
“We are where we are because we’re not playing to the best of our ability sometimes – I don’t think for a full 40,” Smith said. “We’ve got to get to that point where for a full 40 minutes we can be really good. And we’re not there yet.”
The runway to facilitate that takeoff gets a little shorter every game.
On Dec. 6, when Iowa State owned Mackey Arena for an afternoon, Purdue faced a long timeline for improvement. Its next game, Sunday at Ohio State, will be played in March. Three regular-season games remain, followed by the Big Ten tournament, followed by the last NCAA tournament the veteran senior starters will ever play.
The four home losses are the most since 2019-20. That team did not have NCAA tournament designs, let alone championship aspirations.
The three Big Ten home losses – and that fourth one, against the Cyclones – create a collective weight on the season. They obliterated any chance of Big Ten championship contention. They may deprive the Boilers a top-four Big Ten tournament seed – rewarded with a triple bye into the quarterfinals – for a second straight season. Those losses could push them a bit farther down the NCAA tournament seed line and, in theory, into more threatening matchups in every round.
The consequences, though, should be of less concern than the cause. None of the losses stemmed from a single cause, but all shared common denominators. Purdue tends to succeed, sometimes in key areas, but not succeed enough to win.
It happened again Thursday, in a somewhat surprising fashion.
Purdue exploited one of Michigan State's biggest strengths
Michigan State won Thursday. Purdue didn’t give a win away. The Spartans out-executed in myriad ways and deserved to win in West Lafayette for the first time since 2014 – a span of eight games.
“We couldn’t play much better,” Michigan State coach Tom Izzo said. He called it the program’s best road win “in a couple of years.”
No one had outrebounded his team this season. Not since a Sweet 16 victory over Mississippi last March had anyone done so.
The Spartans came in as the nation’s leader in defensive rebounding percentage. While offensive rebounding has at times been a weapon for Purdue, it was fair to expect a win to come via other methods.
Instead, the Boilermakers won on overall rebounds 27-25, including 8-6 on the offensive glass. That led to a 16-6 edge in second-chance points.
Purdue took an opponent’s chief strength and slapped them in the face with it.
Except Michigan State still won points in the paint 40-32. Carson Cooper thrived inside in the second half. Jeremy Fears Jr. could drive at the Boilers’ hedging centers to attack the basket. The Spartans shot nearly 60% from the field after halftime.
“Going into every game, we want to see what they’re great at,” Trey Kaufman-Renn said. “I thought we did our job rebounding.
“... The part we didn’t do was we didn’t keep the ball in front of us when they were in ball screens or off the dribble-drive. They got where they wanted and after that, it’s kind of hard.”
Losing the offensive boards contributed to the Illinois and Michigan losses. Winning them came up big in wins at Wisconsin and Nebraska. Coming off a 13-0 advantage over IU – allowing only a single offensive rebound for only the second time in program history – Thursday's performance on the boards should have been the difference-maker.
Instead, Michigan State prevailed by capitalizing even more against one of Purdue’s typical strengths.
Michigan State turned the tables on Purdue in 1 key area
The Boilermakers rank in the top 20 nationally in turnover rate. C.J. Cox and Gicarri Harris have turned the ball over three times apiece in Big Ten play. Oscar Cluff has only turned it over nine times.
Purdue had gone 16 straight games without being outscored in points off turnovers. Matt Painter’s nightly goal is eight turnovers or fewer. Against a top-10 defense Thursday, the Boilers only turned it over nine times.
And it felt like the Spartans scored at least two points on all of them. In reality, they only scored off seven, but the resulting 19-5 edge in points off turnovers decided this game.
While that typically indicates live-ball turnovers leading to fast breaks, that was not the case early. Michigan State forced a five-second call on a Purdue inbounds, then Fears converted a four-point play in halfcourt offense at the other end. Smith committed an offensive foul, and Kur Teng followed with a 3 at the other end. Smith threw one away, and after the under-four minute TV timeout, Jaxon Kohler knocked down a 3.
Those 10 first-half points explained why Purdue led only 39-36 at the break despite success in so many other areas.
The run-outs came in the second half, fueling MSU’s surge into the lead. Cooper picking off Smith’s pass and hitting Fears for a driving layup. Kohler stealing one from Kaufman-Renn and finding Teng for another 3 before the defense could reset. Teng grabbing Jack Benter’s errant pass and throwing up ahead to Coen Carr for an emphatic dunk.
That last one capped a spurt in which the Spartans flipped a one-point deficit to a six-point lead. Their last field goal off a turnover came with 10 minutes to play, but the damage had been done.
“If they’re 4 on 2, you’re up against it, or 5 on 3, you’re up against it,” Painter said. “But even 3 on 3 and Coen Carr’s in the equation, you’re up against it, because he’s not human.
“You throw that ball to him on the break like that and he’s there, you’re done. There’s nothing you can do.”
COEN CARR SHOWTIME WINDMILL 🤯
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) February 27, 2026
(via @peacock)
pic.twitter.com/edjmAdI4ol
The conventional wisdom this season had been Purdue could have an off shooting night as long as it took care of the ball, or a sloppier night as long as it shot the lights out. Well, it made 12 of 25 from 3-point range, with five players making at least two apiece.
Again, against a top-10 defense which had held opponents to a paltry 30.8% clip behind the arc before Thursday.
Purdue did a lot of things very well and still could not win on its home court. The phenomenon becomes more puzzling when you consider all of the victories away from Mackey – holding on at Alabama, crushing Texas Tech in the Bahamas, avoiding a complete collapse and surviving at Nebraska.
Which set of results says more about what this Boilermakers team can accomplish in March? That will not remain an academic question much longer.
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This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue basketball loss to Michigan State different from home losses