Purdue vs Texas Southern - Game Preview

Purdue and Texas Southern has something in common ahead of its matchup on Tuesday night at Mackey Arena.

Both teams were knocked out of the NCAA Tournament last season by Fairleigh Dickinson. Texas Southern is the other 16 seed involved in the 16/16 play-in game that preceded the biggest upset in NCAA Tournament history when Purdue fell as a #1 seed.

Fitting then that Purdue takes on Texas Southern one day after wearing the #1 crown again. After Purdue swept the Maui Invitational winner's bracket with wins over #11 Gonzaga, #7 Tennessee, and #4 Marquette, all but three AP voters had Purdue as its new #1 team going into the fourth week of the season.

Purdue's early season hasn't deviated too far from what had them as a #1 team for seven weeks last season, Zach Edey dominating down low, but Purdue has shown that it has more around the 7'4 Canadian with the emergence of Braden Smith, named to the All-Maui Tournament Team, and the addition of transfer guard Lance Jones.

This is the third straight season that Matt Painter's Boilers have been ranked #1. Purdue is the first program in the Big Ten to have accomplished that.

Purdue will try and avoid a trap game against a Texas Southern team that has made the NCAA Tournament in three straight seasons.

Texas Southern's treacherous non-conference schedules comes to a crescendo when they go into Mackey Arena to play the #1 team in the country. The Tigers are 0-6 going into the game having played the second most difficult schedule in the country according to KenPom. Texas Southern has losses to Creighton, Virginia, and New Mexico. Purdue will be its seventh straight road game to start the season.

Even Purdue, who has played the 9th hardest schedule in the country, hasn't been tested the same way the Tigers have. Purdue has impressive wins on a neutral floor, but the Tigers have gone from one hornet's nest to another ahead of its Southwestern Athletics Conference schedule.

Tigers don't have the offensive firepower to stick with Purdue, but it plays hard, sound defense and hasn't made it easy on teams. Virginia beat them soundly, but only put up 62 points against Texas Southern. Texas Southern has held Arizona St. and Oral Roberts both to under 70 points this season.

While Purdue has yet to play a perfect game this season, it's been game in each of them. One of Matt Painter's biggest takeaways from the Maui Invitational was how hard his team played each day.

"I think the thing you like the most is just the effort," Painter said ahead of practice in preparation for Texas Southern.

Painter's focus for his team over the next few games won't rewrite basketball philosophy books. It's the same stuff he's harped on them over the summer and to start the year, with one wrinkle thrown in. Purdue has to start making its free throws again, a problem that popped up in Maui where the team shot 8 of 15 from the line against Gonzaga and 29 of 48 against Tennessee.


"Gotta make our free throws, gotta be better on the defensive end, and we gotta clean up the turnovers," Painter said about his team's improvements going forward.

Purdue goes into the game with Kenpom's 3rd best offense and 5th best defense.

While Texas Southern will play hard on defense, it's making shots that's been the toughest thing for them this season.

Texas Southern will go into Mackey Arena to take on Purdue's 5th ranked defense, according to KenPom, as the second worst effective field goal percentage team in the country. It's been hard for the Tigers to get the ball in the basket. That trend will likely continue in front of a Mackey crowd that will be welcoming back Purdue after more than a week away from Mackey Arena.

Texas Southern has just one regular contributor shooting above fifty percent from the floor. As a team, the Tigers are 26% from three-point range, 37.6% from two-point range, and under 60% from the free throw line.

Texas Southern has a small back court with PJ Henry standing at 5-10 leading the team in field goal attempts despite playing in just four of its six games to start the season. Henry is shooting 30.4% from the floor.

Henry hasn't had much help on the offensive end. He's the only Tiger averaging double-figures in scoring.

Texas Southern will have two bigs above 6-10 to throw at Edey on the defensive end.

Jahmar Young is 6-11 240 lbs. and is the Tigers third leading scorer, but doesn't stretch the floor.

Grayson Carter is 6-10 240 lbs. and has only appeared in two games this season. In those two games, he did hoist up 6 three-pointers while making just one of them.

While this is an obvious trap game with Purdue's Big Ten slate opening up on Friday at Northwestern and on the heels of a Maui Invitational win, Texas Southern does not offer a real threat to Purdue in Mackey Arena. Tigers have one of the most anemic offenses in the country and no size inside to combat Purdue's brutal efficiency with Zach Edey and company.

That said, Purdue has played worse against worst teams. This will be a good test of Purdue's focus and the ability to get up for any game, granted, a sell out Mackey crowd always helps with that.