With four seconds remaining in a three-point game, Malik Smith stepped to the free-throw line and clunked consecutive shots.
Later, Gophers men's basketball coach Richard Pitino called the misses "shocking."
Perhaps because the Gophers had been so good at the fundamentals all day, and a pair of missed free throws — especially from a player who had made four in a row only seconds before — were lost in the overwhelming improvement they showed on Sunday at Williams Arena.
Despite mistakes down the stretch that made for a tight 82-79 victory over Purdue after what felt like a runaway, the Gophers — looking like a different team than the one that bumbled and fumbled their way to a loss three days earlier — were able to stand by their strong early work.
"I think we've shown that we can be a really good team if we execute the right way," Pitino said. "For about 35 minutes of the game, we played phenomenal."
After falling short in their Big Ten opener against Michigan, the Gophers (12-3, 1-1) rediscovered an all-around sharpness. They got big performances from Andre Hollins (17 points, five assists) and Austin Hollins (18 points, nine rebounds); held the Boilermakers to 39.7 shooting from the field; nullified the impact of Purdue 7-foot center A.J. Hammons (seven points, one rebound) with strong play from Elliott Eliason (eight points, seven rebounds, six blocks); and shot 52.2 percent from the field and made 11 three-pointers.
But the biggest difference in a game that trudged along for 2 hours, 20 minutes with 39 fouls called, was the Gophers' success from the foul line, and Purdue's ugly performance there.
"We always shoot free throws after practice," said Smith, who with an 85 percent success rate is the best free-throw shooter on the team. "That's something Coach puts a huge emphasis on, and that's something we take a lot of pride in."
