Purdue’s overreliance on Carsen Edwards could hurt Boilers in NCAA Tournament

The Purdue Boilermakers have lost three in a row after losing to Wisconsin on Thursday night and Carsen Edwards needs some help from his teammates.

Matt Painter’s Purdue team is a really solid one. They have two 7-footers in Isaac Haas and Matt Haarms that would give any frontcourt in the country trouble. Yet they’ve lost three games in a row to some really good teams. Wisconsin, Ohio State and Michigan State are no pushovers and might be a couple of the better teams in the country.

Three of Purdue’s five losses this season are to teams with above average guard play. Miles Bridges of Michigan State is more of a wing player but handles the ball as much as any guard and he gave Purdue fits to the tune of 20 points on 9-of-14 shooting. Purdue’s biggest flaw is they’re extremely reliant on Carsen Edwards, and it’s not helping them.

Isaac Haas is going to get his points, and teams are willing to accept that. Obviously, they’re not going to let him have a field day, but they’re not going to divert all their attention to him. If you want to beat the Boilermakers you can beat them with good guards. Carsen Edwards is a good guard, 17 points a night isn’t anything to scoff at, but at only three assists per game implies that he’s dominating the ball too much and not producing enough offensive flow.

He’s only listed at 6-foot-1, and we all know those measurements are inflated. Edwards is lucky if he’s actually six feet tall, and that obviously puts him at a disadvantage on both ends of the floor. He’s led the team in shot attempts in two of the last three games, which isn’t the best idea.

Edwards has help outside of Haas. Dakota Mathias is an excellent outside shooter and hits almost 50 percent from 3. Mathias has only taken eight 3-pointers in the last three games, and that includes the zero he took on Thursday night against Wisconsin. Purdue needs to find ways to get him more shots, similar to the way the Kansas Jayhawks find shots for Svi Mykhailiuk.

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Forward Vincent Edwards hasn’t been getting the ball enough either. When you have someone who draws enough attention like Haas it should make life easier for someone like him. In the last three games he has 11, eight and 10 points respectively.

Purdue needs to stay away from making Edwards be the end-all, be-all for their offense. They have the roster to make a significant run in March, but the way they operate isn’t going to help them when they face teams in the Big Dance with good guard play. If Purdue wants to be a title threat they need to become a more well-rounded team and play to everyone’s strengths.