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    • Purdue basketball beats Yale according to the Gene Keady philosophy
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    Purdue basketball beats Yale according to the Gene Keady philosophy

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    WEST LAFAYETTE − Gene Keady hammered it home relentlessly, telling his Purdue basketball teams not to make mistakes.

    Decades later, Keady’s successor is doing the same.

    On Monday night, that might have given the Boilermakers a hard-fought 92-84 victory over Yale.

    The Situation: Myles Colvin is whistled for an offensive foul after setting a screen that appeared to be a clean play. Colvin briefly states his case before retiring to Purdue’s bench.

    The turnover gives Yale the ball, trailing by six points with 3:20 to go, and the Bulldogs just hit a pair of three-pointers that briefly silenced Mackey Arena.

    This is the momentum swing that Yale needs and that Purdue doesn’t have.

    Except that Matt Painter, a disciple of Keady and former player for Purdue’s all-time winningest coach, reminds his team during a media timeout not to let the current situation affect the next one.

    What happens next is that Purdue’s force Yassine Gharram goes on a journey.

    More: Purdue basketball vs. Yale player ratings: Braden Smith leads the way, bench players step up

    Nine seconds later, Cam Heide is fouled and gets a one-and-bonus from the free throw line. Heide calmly sinks the first, then just as smoothly sinks the second in his season’s coming out party.

    Braden Smith sneaks in behind Yale’s Bez Mbeng on the inbounds pass, swipes it and scores.

    Yale went from having a chance to cut Purdue’s lead to one possession to trailing by 10 in the span of 30 seconds.

    “For him (Smith) to get that steal on that basket was a huge challenge for us,” Painter said. “It brought it to four possessions. There was still a lot going on at the end of the game because they made plays, but that was huge. That was a huge play at that time.

    The Boilermakers (3-0) have been far from flawless in their three games over an eight-day span, and say what you want about that, but they have won each by falling back on principles that have led Purdue teams to success. over the last four and a half decades.

    Bad teams, even average teams and probably some good teams, fall apart when a call like the one that tagged Colvin disrupts things.

    Some hunker down and refuse to let a referee’s decision change the outcome.

    “I think we’re just using our maturity and staying level-headed,” Colvin said. “The older guys like Braden, Fletcher (Loyer) and Trey (Kaufman-Renn) have been in situations where they’ve been in trouble or things haven’t gone their way and they’ve turned it around.

    “It’s using them to watch and stay down to earth and play our game.”

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    Purdue’s Trey Kaufman-Renn, Cam Heide and Myles Colvin on Yale’s win

    Hear what Purdue basketball players said after their 92-84 win over Yale at Mackey Arena.

    Painter has a phrase he often goes back to when playing against tough teams like the Yale Bulldogs.

    They didn’t slip on a banana peel and make the NCAA tournament, Painter likes to say.

    Well, Purdue didn’t stumble into long-term success by accident, either.

    The Boilermakers are making winning plays in games where they are not their best.

    Three games into the season, Purdue isn’t perfect, but its record is.

    However, that won’t determine what happens next.

    Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at [email protected] and follow him on X and Instagram @samueltking.

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