Date: Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2020

Time: 7 p.m. ET

Venue: Mackey Arena (West Lafayette)

TV: BTN

Radio: Purdue Radio Network

Purdue Particulars: Roster | Schedule | Statistics

More: Purdue primer and GoldandBlack.com coverage

Iowa Particulars: Roster | Schedule | Statistics

GoldandBlack.com in-game updates: @GoldandBlackcom | @brianneubert

Purdue returns home following its first Big Ten road win of the season, Saturday night's harrowing 61-58 win at Northwestern, in which the Boilermakers scored the final 11 points and won it on Sasha Stefanovic's three with 3.1 seconds left.

The Hawkeyes are 17th nationally, coming off a chippy home win over league contender Illinois — also closing the game on an 11-0 run — but Iowa's been much like Purdue this season in that its results have been very different away from its home floor.

• There's plenty of games left to be played, but Purdue's NCAA Tournament outlook hangs in the balance with each and every one of them from here on out. This would be a Quad 1 win for a Boilermaker team that needs them badly and can reasonably expect them more so at home than those opportunities that await on the road.

At the moment, Michigan State and VCU are Purdue's only Quad 1 victories.

• Purdue's shooting 39.3 percent from three-point range and 46.5 overall in Mackey Arena, significantly better than the 26.1 and 36.8, respectively, it shoots on the road. In Big Ten play, the Boilermakers shoot 37.5 percent from three at home, 24.6 on the road. They have scored on average 68.8 at home In Big Ten play, 57.5 on the road.

• The past three games, freshman guard Isaiah Thompson is 6-of-12 from three-point range and averaging 9.3 points.

Iowa Particulars: Roster | Schedule | Statistics

• Big man Luka Garza has been one of the great breakout stories of the college basketball season, from out of almost nowhere emerging as the top big man in a league full of great ones and perhaps the frontrunner for national player-of-the-year, averaging 23 points and 10-and-a-half rebounds for the season.

In Big Ten play, he leads the league in scoring at 26.5 points and is second in rebounding at 10.5.

Garza is arguably the best low-post scorer, but also a nearly 39-percent three-point shooter on the season and one of the conference's most energetic, effort-driven players. He's drawn an average of almost six fouls per game this season and averages four offensive rebounds per Big Ten game, second to only Purdue's Trevion Williams.

He's Purdue's biggest post challenge of the season, and that says something.

Garza didn't play in the game at Purdue last season due to a sprained ankle.

• Joe Weiskamp gives Iowa the top 1-2 scoring punch in the Big Ten, as the sophomore's averaging 17.8 points, good for fourth in the league in conference play. He's making 40.6 percent of his threes in Big Ten games, with teammate CJ Fredrick close behind at just under 40 percent. Weiskamp averages 2.4 made threes per game, leading the league.

• Typical Iowa this season. The Hawkeyes lead the conference In scoring at 77.1 points per Big Ten game — a full three points better than second-place Michigan — and rank fourth nationally in offensive efficiency by Ken Pom.

But, it allows 73 per game, because its style of play lends itself toward higher-scoring games, among them a 103-91 loss at Michigan and an 90-83 and 85-80 home wins over Michigan and Rutgers, respectively.

• Iowa's season has unfolded with a strange symmetry to Purdue's. Its lone Big Ten road win came at middling Northwestern and the Hawkeyes also lost at Nebraska, Maryland and Michigan.

Like Purdue — and much of the Big Ten for that matter — Iowa has been good at home, but struggled on the road.

In Iowa's losses this season — all but one of them away from home — the Hawkeyes have allowed 87.7 points and 51.3-percent shooting.

Again, Iowa's the same as Purdue In the sense that its results suggest a different team away from home. Purdue's results reflect a different team at home. The Boilermakers are going to have to play well offensively against a variety of looks — from backcourt trapping to man to zone — but they have for the most part at home this season. This just seems like a game where the homecourt should really matter on both ends of the two-game series.

GoldandBlack.com Prediction: Purdue 72, Iowa 68

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