THE GAME
Purdue returns home after playing its last three games outside West Lafayette, hosting Incarnate Word. The Boilermakers are coming off one of their better performances of the season in Saturday's rout of Butler at the Crossroads Classic.
THE PARTICULARS
Date: Monday, Dec. 20, 2021
Time: 7 p.m. ET
TV: BTN
Radio: Purdue Radio Network (96.5 WAZY locally)
ABOUT #3 PURDUE (10-1, 1-1 B1G)
• Purdue's finished its stretch of five consecutive high-major games and now returns home with a chance to finish unbeaten in non-conference play, with games against Incarnate Word and Nicholls State prior to the resumption of Big Ten games.
• The Boilermakers are again No. 1 nationally in offensive efficiency, per KenPom. (Incarnate Word is last in defensive efficiency.)
• Coming off a 6-for-6 game against Butler, Jaden Ivey is now shooting 46.2 percent from three-point range, nearly double his percentage from all of last season. That would be good for the individual Big Ten lead, but since Ivey doesn't average 2.5 or more made threes per game — an NCAA standard — he doesn't qualify for the conference leaderboard.
PURDUE LINEUPS
STARTERS
C — 50 Trevion Williams (6-10, 255, Sr.)
13.8 PPG • 61.2% FG • 9.0 REB
F — 3 Caleb Furst (6-10, 230, Fr.)
6.5 PPG • 5.6 RPG • 61.9% FG • 41.7% 3-PT
G —23 Jaden Ivey (6-4, 195, So.)
16.9 PPG • 52.8% FG • 46.2% 3-PT • 5.4 REB • 3.3 AST • 1.5 STL
G — 55 Sasha Stefanovic (6-5, 205, Sr.)
11.5 PPG • 43.9% 3-PT • 3.9 AST
G —11 Isaiah Thompson (6-1, 160, Jr.)
5.7 PPG • 50% FG • 53.3% 3-PT
ROTATION
C — 15 Zach Edey (7-4, 295, So.)
14.5 PPG • 70.5% FG • 76.6 FT% • 7.4 REB • 1.5 BLK
G — 2 Eric Hunter (6-4, 175, Sr.)
3.4 PPG • 1.6 AST
F — 0 Mason Gillis (6-6, 230, So.)
5.6 PPG • 3.0 REB • 55.6% FG • 44.4% 3-PT
G — 25 Ethan Morton (6-6, 215, So.)
2.6 PPG • 2.0 AST • 50% 3-PT
G — 5 Brandon Newman (6-5, 200, So.)
7.1 PPG • 32.7% 3-PT • 88.9% FT
Freshmen Trey Kaufman-Renn and Brian Waddell will redshirt this season. Waddell will miss most of the season after tearing his ACL and Kaufman-Renn is now sidelined up to six weeks after undergoing foot surgery.
ABOUT INCARNATE WORD (2-9)
• Incarnate Word is coached by former Purdue player Carson Cunningham, who last coached in Mackey Arena when he was with Carroll College, which visited West Lafayette for an exhibition game a few years ago.
• Former Boilermaker Ryne Smith was an assistant coach for the Cardinals but left earlier this season to become former Purdue assistant coach Greg Gary's director of basketball operations at Mercer.
• Incarnate Word was supposed to play at Purdue last season, but there was a pandemic. Perhaps you heard.
• The Cardinals are the worst defensive team in college basketball this season, ranking 357th nationally in defensive efficiency and effective field goal percentage defense, according to KenPom.
They are 336th nationally in offensive efficiency.
INCARNATE WORD LINEUPS
STARTERS
G - 3 Drew Lutz (6-1, 175, Jr.)
13.2 PPG • 4.1 AST
G - 1 RJ Glasper (6-0, 180, Sr.)
13.3 PPG 34.6% 3-PT
F - 11 Johnny Hughes (6-8, 210, Sr.)
13.2 PPG • 7.6 RPG
G - 5 Brandon Swaby (6-3, 195, Jr.)
2.9 PPG • 3.7 RPG
C - 24 Benjamin Griscti (6-11, 220, Fr.)
10.2 PPG • 2.8 RPG • 1.5 AST
IN-GAME AND POST-GAME COVERAGE
Stay dialed in to GoldandBlack.com during the game for our pre-game First Thoughts analysis. During the game, follow along with our game thread and follow @brianneubert on Twitter for additional insight.
Following the game, we'll have post-game press conference video, game coverage, analysis, our Wrap Video and Final Thoughts, plus a Gold and Black Radio podcast within a few hours of the end of the game.
Stay tuned.
PREDICTION: PURDUE 97, INCARNATE WORD 55
This is a good opportunity for Purdue to try to build on success from the Butler game by just coming out sharp in what should amount to some light cardio from a competitive perspective. Other than that, this game is definitely part of the season-ticket package.
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