As Zach Edey and Braden Smith often lead the charge for the Purdue Boilermakers, one of the team's key differencemakers is junior guard Fletcher Loyer.
Loyer is the sharp-shooting two-guard that complements Smith in Purdue's backcourt, that has been quite good over the last two years despite being much-maligned when the team's struggles crop up.
Purdue is on a Virginia-esque quest to exorcize the demons that linger from last year's crushing 16-over-1 upset at the hands of Fairleigh Dickinson in the round of 64. Loyer was one of the few Boilermakers who played up to his standard in that game, knocking down three of eight from beyond the arc on his way to a 13-point performance.
It didn't matter, and now the whole team is enjoined in that mission to cut down the nets like 2019 Virginia did the year after their own 16-seed defeat.
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NCAA Tournament Player Profile: Purdue G Fletcher Loyer
Height: 6'4"
Weight: 180
Season Stats: 10.6 points, 2.1 rebounds, 2.0 assists per game while shooting 44.1% on three-pointers
Loyer's ability to hit threes at a very high rate is an outstanding complement to Purdue's post-centric offense built around Zach Edey.
With Edey's touch around the rim and ability to generate free throw attempts for himself, it's good for him to have a reliable shooting option to kick the ball out to if a double team makes its way to him.
Loyer is that option, and it's a great fit with the outstanding passing ability that point guard Braden Smith brings to the table.
The Boilermakers have not been very tested yet in this NCAA Tournament run, handling the 16-seed this time around in Grambling State, and blowing the doors off of 8-seed Utah State in the second round. They handled Gonzaga, and survived their lone close test against Tennessee in the Elite 8.
Those two games were rematches from the Maui Invitational, part of the season where Loyer showed his ability to elevate his game in big spots. After Maui, he dropped 27 to lead the Boilermakers to a win over then number one Arizona.
NC State will present a tough test for Purdue's backcourt, as the Wolfpack will be able to throw talented guard/wing defenders like Casey Morsell and Jaden Taylor at Loyer and Purdue's other perimeter players.
It won't be anything they haven't seen before this year, but it might be tougher than what they have seen so far in this NCAA Tournament.
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