Texas coach Sean Miller may be questioning himself for a few months with how UT’s season ended: A Trey Kaufman-Renn tip-in with 0.7 seconds left off Braden Smith’s missed layup.
Purdue basketball is headed to the Elite Eight after a 79-77 victory over the Longhorns. Two CBS analysts thought the Boilermakers were due for an upset, because of the man leading the team in burnt orange. And so the reaction was quickly questioning Miller’s decision not to have the 7-foot Matas Vokietaitis on the floor for that final play.
Vokietaitis had previously blocked a Braden Smith layup with 2:10 to play, and did so with four fouls. So, why not have him in during a tied game? That is what Miller will be questioning.
But, during the pregame show, it was Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith who were on the Longhorns to spark an 11-vs-2 seed upset.
Celebrate Purdue’s B1G title with this page print!
“You know I love Sean Miller, so I’m going with the upset in Game 1,” Barkley said.
“I might have to agree with Chuck,” Smith said. “… I think that there is things that you can prohibit Purdue from doing that they have success in: Guarding the point guard situation, obviously, Braden Smith is going to be critical and key, but they have an opportunity to do it.”
Instead it was the Boilermakers who bullied the Longhorns enough. Camden Heide fouled out, Vokietaitis had several fouls suffered on post-ups by Kaufman-Renn and Oscar Cluff — a duo who combined for 31 points and 14 rebounds while shooting 12 for 17. And, Purdue had edges of 38-30 in the paint and 22-12 on second-chance opportunities.
Survive and advance.
Nathan Baird and Sam King have the best Purdue sports coverage, and sign up for IndyStar’s Boilermakers newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue basketball proves CBS analysts who picked against them wrong; UT coach Sean Miller questioned
Reporting by Aaron Ferguson, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
