Date: Saturday, Feb. 9, 2020

Time: 2 p.m. ET

Venue: Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall (Bloomington, Ind.)

TV: ESPN

Radio: Purdue Radio Network

Purdue Particulars: Roster | Schedule | Statistics

More: Purdue primer and GoldandBlack.com coverage

Indiana Particulars: Roster | Schedule | Statistics

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In a meeting between two teams who've been pretty good at home, not so good on the road — Purdue and Indiana are sort of the face of the Big Ten in that sense — it's IU who holds homecourt in the first of the two meetings between these two teams this season.

The Boilermakers have had success in Bloomington in recent years, but this year's team has been a very different one away from Mackey Arena, with only one Big Ten victory on the road, that coming last time out at last-place Northwestern, and that win requiring an 11-0 run to close the game to get. Purdue, though, is coming off another dominant home win — Wednesday night's 104-68 win over No. 17 Iowa — but translating home success to road success has been a difficulty for Purdue this season.

Indiana's lost its last three, since Maryland closed on a 7-0 run Jan. 26 to steal a win in Bloomington, and the Hoosiers seem to be needing to head off the sort of in-season swoon they've been prone to over the years. The home floor will be comforting, however.

• After landing another Quad 1 win for its NCAA Tournament résumé with the win over Iowa, Purdue gets another opportunity for its first Q1 win on the road in Bloomington.

Of the Boilermakers' final eight regular season games, six of them would qualify as of today as Quad 1 — IU, Wisconsin, Ohio State and Iowa on the road, Penn State and Rutgers at home.

One of the others, Michigan at home, is right on the borderline, as the Wolverines are 34th in the NET rankings right now and would have to be top 30 to be Quad 1.

Additionally, the Quad 1 threshold for for neutral-site games is top 50, and as of today, 10 other Big Ten teams are in the top 50, and Indiana is 51st, meaning the Big Ten Tournament will come with opportunity as well.

In the best-case scenario, Purdue could build a whole season's worth of résumé from here on out.

• Purdue's seniors, Evan Boudreaux and Jahaad Proctor, are playing their best basketball of the season at the right time.

After opening the season missing 12 of his first 13 three-pointers this season, Boudreaux has made 10 of his last 19 over the past seven games, and has averaged 8.1 points and 5.6 rebounds over that span.

Proctor's averaging 14.3 points per game the past three outings and is 8-of-13 from three-point range the past four games. That includes one of the biggest shots of Purdue's season to date, his game-tying triple in the final minute at Northwestern.

• Purdue now leads the Big Ten at an average of 13 offensive rebounds per game and an offensive rebounding percentage of .340. (But Indiana leads the conference in defensive rebounding percentage.) Trevion Williams is tied atop the Big Ten, averaging four offensive rebounds per game.

Indiana Particulars: Roster | Schedule | Statistics

• As is always the case for opponents visiting Assembly Hall, Purdue will have to be careful to not let IU live at the foul line, which has accounted for 22.5 percent of the Hoosiers' scoring this season, a number held down by IU making only 68.5 percent.

Through its first 11 Big Ten games, Indiana has shot a league-leading 21.6 foul shots per game.

Indiana has shot an average of 26.8 free throws in Big Ten home games (including one overtime contest) this season. It's attempted only 17.3 per game through six road contests.

Last time IU played at home, though, it attempted a conference-season-low 10 free throws vs. Maryland.

• IU shoots only 30.2 percent from three-point range in league play, and makes the fewest threes per game of anyone in the conference, at just five per game.

Per KenPom, among high-major programs, only Kentucky relies less on the three-pointer for its scoring, as IU has gotten only 21.5 percent of its points from behind the arc, 345th nationally.

• Freshman Trayce Jackson-Davis averages a team-best 12.4 points in Big Ten play, doing so on just 8.2 field goal attempts per game. He is efficient, though, shooting 54.4 percent and getting to the line to the tune of nearly five attempts per game. For the season, he's drawn about three-and-a-half fouls per game.

• Indiana starts games big, playing a traditional center In Joey Brunk, with power forward-oriented Jackson-Davis and Justin Smith on both flanks. It gives IU a big, but also very athletic, front line, because the two forwards are extremely gifted athletes for their positions.

"It's definitely going to be different, very physical and I think a classic Big Ten dogfight," Boudreaux said. "It's not for the weak-hearted. If we can keep them off the glass, limit them to one shot, and get a couple extra ones ourselves, that'll be a key for the game."

The Hoosiers will shift smaller, though, at times, moving Jackson-Davis to the 5 and Smith over to the 4.

• Guard Devonte Green is often the temperature gauge for Indiana, a hot-and-cold sort who made Indiana unbeatable in a 30-point outing at home vs. Florida State but can be wildly inconsistent, prone to inefficiency and less-than-ideal decision-making at times. In five of IU's last eight games, he's finished with two field goals or fewer.

• Indiana has been playing without forward Race Thompson due to a hip injury. His status is unknown for Saturday.

• IU leads the Big Ten in conference games in committing an average of 13.2 turnovers per contest, slightly more than Michigan State, and the Hoosiers are last in the conference in assist-to-turnover ratio.

Everything about these two teams this year points to a split, to IU winning in Bloomington and Purdue winning in West Lafayette. Both teams, generally, are good at home, not so good on the road, and in a Big Ten where almost everyone's basically the same, the homecourt is big. Indiana has the homecourt and gets the benefit of the doubt solely for that reason, facing a team that hasn't yet shown it can win a game like this.

GoldandBlack.com Prediction: Indiana 68, Purdue 64

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