Ben Johnson entered Sunday's Big Ten opener with his Gophers basketball team shorthanded in the absolutely worst possible position, going up against Zach Edey, fifth-ranked Purdue's physically imposing 7-4, 290-pound center.
Starting 7-foot center Treyton Thompson didn't make the trip to West Lafayette, Ind., because of an illness, so that meant even fewer fouls to use against the early favorite for national player of the year.
After making it tough early on the Boilermakers, the Gophers eventually became another Purdue opponent that was dominated inside by Edey, who had 31 points and 22 rebounds in the U's 89-70 loss at Mackey Arena.
Edey, who leads the Big Ten in scoring and rebounding, drew 11 fouls and became the first Division I player in 25 years to outrebound (22-21) and outshoot an opponent on free-throw attempts (10-8) in a game, according to statsperform.com.
"He just puts so much foul trouble on your defense," Johnson said in the postgame radio show. "You can't scheme what he does. It's impossible. You look who he does it against, whether it's Duke, Gonzaga or us tonight his numbers speak for themselves."
The Gophers (4-4), who plays host to Michigan on Thursday, suffered their third consecutive loss and haven't won their opening Big Ten game since 2017-18.
The Boilermakers (8-0) used a 15-0 run to pull away behind Edey's 16 points and 12 rebounds in the opening half. They outrebounded the Gophers 25-10 and held them to 2-for-13 shooting from three-point range in the first half.
Jamison Battle scored a team-high 21 points on 5-for-10 shooting from three-point range. Ta'Lon Cooper finished with 15 points and eight assists, but it was how overmatched the Gophers were in the paint that made the biggest difference.
