Big on big: Gonzaga throwing changeup against Zach Edey, Purdue with bigger starting lineup in Sweet 16

DETROIT – Gonzaga has experienced lots of growth since its last run-in with Zach Edey and Purdue four months ago at the Maui Invitational.

Four inches and 38 pounds, to be exact.

That’s the height/weight discrepancy between freshman wing Dusty Stromer and junior forward Ben Gregg, the players who traded spots in Gonzaga’s starting lineup in mid-January.

The change Gonzaga made midway through January is the most discernible difference between the team that faced Purdue in a first-round Maui Invitational matchup four days before Thanksgiving and the squad that will take the floor against the Boilermakers two days before Easter on Friday in the Sweet 16.

“It’s a different look, for sure,” Edey said Friday at Little Caesars Arena. “They kind of just play only two guards and play them the whole game, kind of cycle in those bigs, present some challenges on the glass. But we think we can present some challenges right back at them.”

Gonzaga’s “three-big” alignment has presented issues for just about every team the Bulldogs encountered since debuting the unit during a Jan. 18 game against Pepperdine.

Its efficacy will face another huge test against the 7-foot-4 Edey, the runaway favorite to repeat as the national player of the year, and a Boilermakers team that possesses size across the board.

Purdue deploys a starting five that also includes 6-9 Trey Kaufman-Renn. The Boilermakers can bring 6-10 Caleb Fust, 6-7 Camden Heide and 6-7 Ethan Morton off the bench.

“I think rebounds are a huge part of this game and they’re going to be physical, they’ve got big guys including Edey and even their bench,” Gonzaga forward Anton Watson said. “They’ve got a lot of tall guys, so rebounds are going to be huge for us, defense and I feel like since Ben got in the lineup it’s gotten a lot better.”

Gonzaga’s conceded the rebounding battle on seven occasions this season, including four times with the bigger lineup. After compiling a 12-5 record with the original starting unit, the Bulldogs have gone 16-2 since – losing twice to a Saint Mary’s team that ranked 23rd nationally in team rebounding and knows the Bulldogs better than anybody else in the country.

Purdue’s becoming intimately familiar with Gonzaga, too, after last year’s meeting in the Phil Knight Legacy in Portland, and November’s matchup in Honolulu.

But the Boilermakers are anticipating a different challenge from the Bulldogs in round two this season.

“Obviously, it does what you think it would, it gives you much more rebounding, just bigger guys in iso situations,” Kaufman-Renn said of Gonzaga’s new lineup. “It’s just harder to guard because they’re much bigger.”

The Zags are better equipped to keep up with Purdue on the glass after losing that battle 46-31 last season in Portland. Gregg hauled down six rebounds off the bench to help Gonzaga match the Boilermakers in the rebounding column – both teams had 38 boards – in November.

Most teams have to sacrifice floor-spacing when they swap out a guard for a forward, but Gregg’s been one of GU’s most efficient perimeter shooters, making 38% of his 3-point attempts this season while going 4 for 6 in the NCAA Tournament.

“With Gregg, Watson and Ike all starting, obviously Watson and Ike not as much, but Gregg can really spread the floor for them real well,” Furst said. “So I think it’s about knowing our matchups defensively, scheming in ways that puts us in the most opportunistic ways and offensively taking advantage of those mismatches with having to have some of those bigger guys against our guards.”

The area Gonzaga hopes its bigger lineup will help the most? Containing Edey, who averages 24.5 points and 12.1 rebounds, and posted a 25-point, 14-rebound double-double against the Bulldogs in November.

“I think just being able to switch different people onto him, not having to switch a guard onto him,” Gregg said. “We have more of a chance to get another big guy on him, which is very helpful. It’s going to be a lot different. Just going to get a lot of guys going to guard him stuff like that, give him different looks.”