Tale of the Tape: No. 1 Virginia vs. No. 3 Purdue

Virginia will square off against No. 3 seed Purdue at approximately 8:49 p.m. Saturday night in the South Region final for a spot in next week’s Final Four in Minneapolis. The Cavaliers (32-3) will try to get over the hump and into the final weekend for the third time in school history and first time since 1984.

The Boilermakers (26-9) are fresh off a thrilling, high-scoring, instant-classic overtime win over second-seeded Tennessee Thursday in which they built a comfortable first-half lead, saw it evaporate, went blow-for-blow with the Volunteers down the stretch and eventually prevailed in the extra session.

Purdue comes into Saturday’s contest (on TBS) ranked fourth in the country in offensive efficiency, the only team to be ranked in the top five the past two seasons. The Boilermakers are also only one of two teams to be ranked in the top 15 of the final AP poll in each of the past four seasons (North Carolina is the other).

Purdue, making its first appearance in the Elite Eight round in 19 years, is led by a pair of sharp-shooting guards in 6-foot-1 junior Carsen Edwards and 6-6 senior Ryan Cline, who combined for over half of their team’s points in Thursday’s shootout.

Edwards, the top scorer in the Big Ten this season who has scored in double figures in all but one game, played all 45 minutes and put up a game-high 29 points against Tennessee, including five 3-pointers.

Cline, who is shooting 61 percent (11 of 18) from beyond the arc in his last two contests, hit seven triples of his own against the Vols and finished with 27 points. It was the seventh time this season that Cline has hit at least five shots from long distance.

The Purdue offense revolves around the talented Edwards, winner of last year’s Jerry West Award for best shooting guard in the country. He’s also a West Award finalist this year, along with Virginia’s Kyle Guy, and he has taken 678 shots on the season. Next most on the team is Cline’s 345 shot attempts.

Edwards, who set a Big Ten record with his 125 made 3-pointers in 2018-19, is averaging a team-high 23.8 points on the season, and has stepped it up on the big stage. The Atascocita, Texas, native put up 26 points in the first round against Old Dominion and a career-best 42 points against 23rd-ranked Villanova in Round Two, sitting the final 38 seconds of that contest — his only time off of the floor in this tournament.

“He’s pretty unique,” UVA’s Tony Bennett said of Edwards. “He’s so aggressive. I mean, there’s been so many great guards in the ACC and he’s up there with them, how he can score and do things.”

Cavalier freshman Kihei Clark will predominantly be tasked to defend Edwards, and he’s ready for that challenge.

“He’s a great shooter,” admitted Clark, “and he comes off a lot of off-ball screens, so I’m going to have to stay on his hip pocket and make sure I get a hand up and contest.”

Bennett said whoever gets the defensive matchup on Edwards will have to make life as difficult as possible.

“Kihei, or whoever is on [Edwards], when you play players that are special that can shoot from unlimited range, you just do your best as a team to make it hard for him,” said Bennett, “and then individually to make him hit tough, contested shots. That’s always the goal of the defense.

“He can get loose, and he can shoot off the bounce, off the ball screen. He, at all levels, can score and he’s explosive and strong. You’ve got to be so locked in, so alert, because their offense is so good.”

Edwards became the first player since a guy you may have heard of — Stephen Curry — to register 25 points or more in four consecutive NCAA Tournament games, but he’s not letting that go to his head.

“Honestly, I feel like I haven’t really done enough yet to consider my name getting thrown around with Steph Curry…,” Edwards told reporters Friday. “Just a cool statistic I was able to do in the last four games.”

Edwards and Cline have combined to make 234 treys this season, which is good for second in the country for two teammates. Purdue as a team has hit 351 triples on the season, good for 10th in all of Division I

Bennett’s counterpart, Purdue coach Matt Painter was named Big Ten Coach of the Year, his fourth such honor, and at this point in the season, he just wants his team to stick with what got them here.

“You know how dangerous Virginia is to play,” Painter said, when asked about the pressure of trying to advance to his program’s first Final Four since 1980. “And so that alone, I don’t know how any other feelings can get past that feeling right there of, how do we stop Ty Jerome and [De’Andre Hunter] and Kyle Guy and the rest of their group. … That, to me, is like that’s enough of an obstacle.”

Aside from Edwards and Cline, Painter has stuck with 6-6 sophomore guard Nojel Eastern (7.5 ppg, 5.6 rpg), 6-6 senior forward Grady Eifert (5.6 ppg, 5.2 rpg) and 7-3 sophomore center Matt Haarms (9.5 ppg, 5.5 rpg) to round out his starting five for the majority of the season, while getting contributions off the bench from a couple freshmen in 6-9 forward Aaron Wheeler and 6-3 guard Eric Hunter Jr.

Although he didn’t take nearly as many threes as Edwards or Cline, Eifert was actually the team’s best long-range shooter percentage-wise, at 44 percent.

UVA’s bigs will collectively have their hands full with Haarms, as he is a load in the interior and can post up, score, defend and protect the rim. Haarms led the Big Ten in field-goal percentage (64 percent) and blocked shots with 2.03 a game. Painter admitted that it will be of utmost importance to be able to not only get the ball in the paint against the ‘Hoos, but also to move the ball well and be efficient against the Pack Line defense.

“I think it’s going to come down to who’s more efficient, who plays harder, who’s tougher,” said Painter.

Purdue started the season 6-5, with losses to Virginia Tech in the Charleston Classic, at Florida State and Michigan back-to-back, then at Texas, and in the Crossroads Classic against Notre Dame.

From that point on, the Boilermakers have gone 20-4, losing at Michigan State, at Maryland, and twice against Minnesota (once in the Big Ten quarterfinals), all NCAA Tournament qualifiers.

It’s a much closer trip to the KFC Yum! Center for the Purdue faithful, as it’s just about 180 miles (about a three-hour drive) from West Lafayette, IN, to Louisville. The black-clad Boilermaker fans were loud and in full force Thursday night, and Painter expects an even bigger turnout Saturday.