Two Ways Iowa Can Avenge Last Loss to Purdue

Back on January 14, the Iowa Hawkeyes nearly shocked the world with an upset over a Purdue team that was ranked No. 5.

Now, the Boilermakers have fallen to No. 13. That's not to take anything away from them as a team, though, especially since they rebounded from their losing streak with a Top 10 road win at Nebraska.

One month later, Iowa has a chance to avenge their 79-72 loss at the Mackey Arena. Purdue had their chance to host Iowa, now it's Iowa's turn to pull out a home win.

Even though they enter this one as the underdogs, that shouldn't take anything away from what Iowa is capable of. They're still searching for their first win of the Ben McCollum era and these two things can guide them there.

1. Win The Rebound/Turnover Battle

Final Score: Purdue 79, Iowa 72
— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) January 15, 2026

There weren't a ton of rebounds last month, and Iowa did their best to keep the differential as close as possible. Purdue ended up grabbing three more boards, outrebounding the Hawkeyes, 26-23.

Iowa didn't have a single player with more than five rebounds while Purdue received nine from Daniel Jacobsen off the bench. Knowing he grabbed nine boards in just 18 minutes, that proved to be a key difference as none of their starters had any higher than four.

Turnover wise, Iowa let Purdue get the best of them. The Hawkeyes turned the ball over four more times, 13-9, but that turned into eight extra points off turnovers. Knowing they lost by only seven points, one could directly correlate the turnover differential as the difference in this one. There's no doubt there were other things as well, but that number stands out big time.

2. Don't Take Foot Off The Gas

𝙎𝙊𝙇𝘿 𝙊𝙐𝙏 𝘾𝙃𝘼 ⚠️ pic.twitter.com/XcgsJndgWE
— Iowa Men’s Basketball (@IowaHoops) February 3, 2026

Iowa stormed into Indiana and jumped out to a 34-31 lead at halftime. It's not like they had Purdue on the ropes that early into the game, but the Hawkeyes led for 56% which is quite a big percentage to have on the No. 5 ranked team.

With home court advantage this time around, Iowa needs to get off to another hot start and never look back. They let the Boilermakers climb their way back into that one, and there's no doubt their crowd of nearly 15,000 made a big difference.

Now, it's Iowa's turn. The last thing this team wants to do is let their home sell out go to waste. McCollum has been waiting for this moment for months, and now it's time for his boys to prove they belong.

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