Date: Tuesday, March 3, 2020
Time: 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT
Venue: Carver-Hawkeye Arena (Iowa City)
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
ABOUT THIS GAME
Purdue and Iowa meet again after the Boilermakers took the front end of the home-and-home in almost surreal fashion, 104-68 on Feb. 5 in Mackey Arena.
The Boilermakers blew the Hawkeyes' doors off that day (box score), with 19 threes and an early offensive rebounding surge.
It will be easier said than done this time around, as Iowa — like most of the Big Ten – has been a decidedly better team at home than away.
Iowa's a lock for the NCAA Tournament; Purdue may need this game to even maintain a puncher's chance for an at-large bid.
PURDUE BOILERMAKERS (15-14, 8-10 B1G)
ABOUT PURDUE
• Purdue's coming off Thursday night's 57-49 win over Indiana, completing a regular-season sweep of the Hoosiers. That win snapped the four-game losing streak that has seemingly put the Boilermakers on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble.
• After largely struggling through Purdue's four-game losing streak, guard Eric Hunter stood out against Indiana, scoring 17 points with a season-high-tying seven rebounds against IU.
• Purdue will want to make Luka Garza work on defense, too, in this game. Trevion Williams and Matt Haarms were a combined 10-of-14 from the floor in the first meeting between these teams, totaling 24 points and virtually canceling out Garza's productivity.
• Evan Boudreaux went for 18 points and eight rebounds in the first game vs. Iowa. He was 7-of-9 from the floor, 4-of-6 from three-point range.
• In the first meeting with Iowa, senior Jahaad Proctor was 6-for-6 from the floor and scored 15 points and Aaron Wheeler was 4-of-5 for nine points.
#18 IOWA HAWKEYES (20-9, 11-7 B1G)
Iowa Particulars: Roster | Schedule | Statistics
ABOUT IOWA
• He may have more competition now for Big Ten Player-of-the-Year than it looked like he might earlier this season, but there's no question Luka Garza has been one of the elite players in college basketball this season.
A lock to win the Big Ten's scoring title — he averages 26.1 in league play, more than five points more than Minnesota's Daniel Oturu — Garza has carried Iowa throughout this season with his scoring, rebounding (9.6 per Big Ten game) and his sheer effort.
Garza is a deadly three-point shooter, too, but is just 4-of-19 the past four games.
• Iowa is 14-1 at home this season, that one loss being a long, long time ago, way back on Nov. 11 against DePaul in the Gavitt Games.
• Joe Weiskamp is the league's ninth-leading scorer, averaging 15.7 points on roughly 35-percent three-point shooting. He's one of the best shooters In the league, but the past five games, he's just 3-of-19 from three-point range.
He was just 3-of-8 for eight points in Mackey Arena, guarded mostly by Nojel Eastern.
The Hawkeyes are 8-0 at home in Big Ten play, and Maryland, Michigan, Rutgers, Ohio State, Illinois and most recently Penn State were all ranked at the time of their losses in Iowa City.
• After missing three games due to an ankle injury, Iowa redshirt freshman CJ Fredrick returned to the floor for Iowa in the win over Penn State and looked just fine, scoring 10 points in 32 minutes.
Fredrick is a 47-percent three-point shooter for the season, 41.1 percent in Big Ten play.
BOTTOM LINE
The results of the first game were almost distorted reality, because that was a best-case-scenario sort of night for the Boilermakers. Expecting much of those dynamics to unfold again would be expecting a lot against the Hawkeyes, who like much of the Big Ten have been a significantly better team at home. History this season tells us Iowa will make more of the shots at home that they missed in Mackey Arena and Purdue will miss more of the shots on the road that they made in Mackey Arena.
GoldandBlack.com Prediction: Iowa 75, Purdue 71
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