WEST LAFAYETTE − Nate Oats won’t make the same mistake next season.
The Alabama coach got introduced to the latest diamond in the rough Matt Painter lured to West Lafayette.
Nine points in 52 seconds and 11 overall from combo guard CJ Cox helped the Purdue basketball beat the second-ranked Crimson Tide Friday night.
Afterwards, Oats admitted Cox wasn’t a focal point on the scouting report. It may have caught Oats and Alabama off guard, but it did not surprise anyone in the Boilermakers’ locker room.
“He’s a confident person in general,” Trey Kaufman-Renn said of Cox last Thursday. “Whether it be in open gyms or when we started practicing, you could tell right away he was ready.”
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Coming off the bench has eased Cox into college basketball. He believes he brings an energy and enthusiasm into the game. And, yeah, offensive aggressiveness most don’t expect from a lightly recruited freshman.
But despite not being in the starting five, Painter relies on Cox as such, and has a pretty basic philosophy when Cox enters.
Let it rip.
“We work with him on reads and talking about things and running the team, but we also are smart enough to tell him play the game to shoot because that’s his strength,” Painter said. “Now, he’s better at shooting than making reads. But once they take away his shot, now it simplifies things for him and makes it a lot easier.
“When you think of it in reverse, you mess with your own instincts. When you think shot first, you keep your instincts clear.”
With Braden Smith taking a brief breather last Friday, Cox swung the game into Purdue’s favor with his shot-first mentality.
He sank three straight 3s on consecutive offensive possessions, causing an earsplitting roar from sold out Mackey Arena that Cox said was the loudest eruption he’s experienced.
Painter discovered Cox by accident while at an AAU tournament in Las Vegas. Painter was there to watch Travis Perry, now a freshman at Kentucky. Painter altered course after his first glimpse of Cox, not only was fascinated by his shot making ability, but also by how he treated teammates and, likewise, how teammates responded to Cox.
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After some background research, Painter offered − and landed − the 6-foot-2 combo guard as Cox’s only major offer. Aside from Purdue, Cox’s options were mostly Ivy League schools.
“I wasn’t really expecting them,” Cox said. “I played well in the tournament in Vegas, which allowed for Purdue to see what I was able to do.”
When Cox committed in October 2023, the Boilermakers were coming off a Big Ten championship season and about to embark on another. Competing against the caliber of teams on Purdue’s schedule helped draw Cox to the Boilermakers.
Last Thursday, prior to the Alabama game, Cox expressed eagerness to match up with Alabama and Marquette in a span of five days.
“Being able to play against these high ranked teams early can show how good of a team we are and also prepare us for later in the season, once we play against good teams in the Big Ten,” he said.
What fans saw last week was a snippet of what Cox does.
He’s always played that way. In his mind, why should it be any different just because the level of play?
“A lot of people are nervous, even when they’re not freshmen,” Kaufman-Renn said. “There’s a lot of people who get nervous, especially in atmospheres like Mackey. Having a guy to come in and immediately be kind of a go-to guy, somebody we can rely on to get the shot up, a good shot up, is something I’ve been happy to play with.”
Cox wasn’t much of a focus on Alabama’s scouting report.
But Tuesday in Milwaukee for Purdue’s first regular season road game, Cox will surely be circled on Marquette’s.
Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on X and Instagram @samueltking.
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