Game Preview - Indiana at #5 Purdue

Thanks to a bonkers second half in Champaign, Illinois, #5 Purdue will get the chance for a dream scenario in West Lafayette on Saturday night.

Purdue will get a chance to wrap up at least a share for the Big Ten Title with a win over their in-state rival Indiana Hoosiers. It would be Purdue's conference best 25th Big Ten Title. Purdue would need just one more win or one more Northwestern loss then to wrap up the Title all to themselves.

But just as important, Saturday will allow the Boilers to redeem an early season loss to Indiana at Assembly Hall. Indiana is the only team to beat Purdue that has another game scheduled with them after. The loss also kick started Purdue's worst stretch of the season. Going into Bloomington, Purdue was 22-1. The loss to IU was the first of three losses in a four game span.

Purdue is now #5 in the country and 24-4 on the season with a 13-4 record in Big Ten play.

IU is coming off road struggles of their own, losing two out of their last three, with losses to Northwestern on the road and a 15 point loss at Michigan State. They have a record of 19-9 overall with a 10-7 Big Ten record.

But it's Indiana at Purdue. What happened before doesn't really matter when the best rivalry in college sports prepares to take the court.

Indiana won the first matchup 79-74 at home.

Purdue looked overwhelmed early, turning the ball over in the first half, and igniting IU's transition offense. It allowed the Hoosiers to go into the half with a 15 point lead, one that Purdue could never completely erase itself of despite out playing IU in the second half.

"We actually got back into their lead pretty quickly," Matt Painter said on Friday ahead of Saturday's rematch. "We just never could get it to where we got the lead."

Purdue's second half key to success was a pretty normal one for them, get the ball to Zach Edey. Edey was unstoppable, scoring 33 points and making 15 of his 19 attempts in the game to go along with his 18 rebounds. 10 of those were offensive rebounds.

Fletcher Loyer was the only other Boiler to score in double-figures despite going just 1 of 6 from three. Purdue was just 6 of 18 as a team from three with four of the six made threes coming off the bench.

For Indiana, Trey Galloway was the first Hoosier to draw blood, getting into the middle of the floor and hitting some tough floaters. Between that, it was Trayce Jackson-Davis scoring 25 points on 9 of 19 shooting. Jackson-Davis was most dangerous in transition, turning turnovers into points.

True freshman Jalen Hood-Schifino showed off his ability to make shots, particularly pull-ups from the mid range, scoring 16 points including the bucket to give IU it's final bit of separation at the end.

No two games are ever the same, as Painter would tell us on Friday, but if the game is similar to their first match up, Purdue will need to limit their turnovers and make free throws to change the outcome. Purdue turned the ball over 16 times and went an uncharacteristic 10 of 17 from the free throw line.

"Anytime we have to live in defensive transition and that's a high volume of possessions, we've been in trouble. It just hasn't happened a lot. But when it's happened we've been able to recover in some halves... and kind of hold on," but the early mistakes were too much for Purdue to overcome in a hostile arena.

Purdue will look to get off to a better start than their first go against IU as well as their last game, where they started the game off with two turnovers against Ohio State before rolling the Buckeyes.

Matt Painter was asked about if Mason Gillis would stay in the starting lineup. Caleb Furst took over the starting lineup for Gillis early in the season when Gillis suffered a back injury. With Caleb Furst getting sick about a week ago, Gillis moved back into the starting lineup.

As for if Painter has made a decision he's willing to share with us, "We'll see. We'll see there. Both of those guys have been really good for us. Mason has been a little bit better offensively and Caleb's been a little better defensively."

It wasn't too long ago that Mason Gillis lit Mackey Arena on fire, making 9 threes to set the record for most made threes by a Boilermaker. But Caleb Furst drew the assignment of defending Trayce Jackson-Davis in Purdue's first game against IU. His size and athleticism gives him a unique ability to defend Jackson-Davis in the post and off the dribble.

Regardless of who starts, Painter has a ton of confidence in that position and both players excelling on both sides of the ball.

Caleb Furst had 6 points, 4 rebounds, and 2 assists in 24 minutes in the first matchup. Mason Gillis played 15 minutes and scored 5 points and grabbed 4 defensive rebounds. Both forwards knocked down a three-pointer.

In the first matchup, Edey had the better numbers and Trayce Jackson-Davis got the win.

How will the second match up between arguably the two best players in the country go down? Kenpom currently has Edey the highest ranked player in the country ahead of Trayce Jackson-Davis. The lead is quite substantial.

While Jackson-Davis drew the Edey assignment, he was no deterrent at all for Edey. Edey grabbed 10 offensive rebounds and was 15 of 19 from the field.

For Purdue, Painter chose to defend Jackson-Davis with his four most the game. Jackson-Davis did most his damage in transition and off long rebounds for IU. He was good, with 25 points, but it took him 19 attempts to get there. A number that Purdue would likely live with again if the big man doesn't get a bunch of scoring around him.

But for both teams, the one on one match up isn't a defining approach to defensive gameplans.

"That's a team deal," Painter said about who he would defend Jackson-Davis with. "When you have a player as great as Trayce Jackson-Davis, that's your whole team approach. Being able to stop him but not at the expense of other people just getting open looks."

Purdue's defense in the half court was encouraging, only giving up 10 three-point attempts to IU, but IU got to the line 18 times and IU's bench got some timely production from Malik Reneau and Kaleb Banks.

But rightfully, the cameras will be locked on two of college basketballs best players. A unique experience to see players with this much experience competing.

"You don't see the dominant guys stay in college as long as they have," Matt Painter said of the match-up between Edey and Jackson-Davis.