As a general approach it may have a good chance to succeed.
Know your opponent. Who on UVA can get their own good look from 3 in a matter of a few seconds? They have to run off screens to even find a three.
UVA would have gotten a desperation attempt.
Now if the roles were reversed and there was a Carsen Edwards with the ball you foul.
As for UK, UH or any game where the throw in is with 5.4 or so then after the ball is inbounded, foul after a second or so.
The key to the whole thing was the intentional FT miss. Maybe Painter thot/hoped they would make both FTs and play the foul game which would have been a certain losing strategy.
Give credit to Bennett for knowing what to attempt even though it was desperate.
See, I don’t think making both free throws was a certain losing strategy. I believe there were actually 5.9 seconds left. Make both, cut it to 1. Foul immediately, 5 seconds left. Purdue makes both, you still have 5 seconds to advance the ball for a three. We’ve seen this work a million times. If Purdue misses one, you don’t even need a three, and you still have 5 seconds to get a good shot with almost 100% certainty that you will have possession.
By missing the second free throw, there was a big risk that Purdue would rebound the ball, and you could go down 4 with less than 5 seconds left. Almost an impossible situation. It worked because UVA had near perfect execution, but it was the riskier play, imo. They were very fortunate to force overtime, regardless of strategy.