Three Things to Watch as No. 7 Purdue Hosts Indiana in Rivalry Rematch
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WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — The second edition of the Purdue-Indiana rivalry matchup takes place at Mackey Arena on Friday night. After dropping the first contest in Bloomington, the Boilermakers are looking to get revenge.
Friday will mark the final time Purdue's senior class will get the opportunity to play in the rivalry, with plenty at stake. Not only are the Boilers playing for seeding in the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments, the senior trio of Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, and Trey Kaufman-Renn are just 3-4 against the Hoosiers. They need a win on their home floor to finish .500 against IU.
Purdue dropped the first meeting between the two teams at Assembly Hall 72-67. How can the Boilermakers bounce back? These are three keys to keep an eye on Friday night.
The battle on the glass
Purdue technically won the rebounding battle against Indiana in the first matchup, but it certainly wasn't as lopsided as it should have been. The Boilermakers outrebounded the Hoosiers 33-28 in the game, but coach Matt Painter voiced his frustration over the effort after the game.
"You can't come in and out of competing for loose balls and rebounds. You can't do that," Painter said after the game. "We outrebounded them by five, we should have outrebounded them by 15."
Nobody had a particularly strong performance on the glass for Purdue that night. Oscar Cluff and Jack Benter each had six boards and Daniel Jacobsen and Braden Smith both had five. Indiana's Tucker DeVries finished with 10 rebounds and Lamar Wilkerson had seven.
Over the last three games, Trey Kaufman-Renn has been a brute on the glass, averaging 14.3 rebounds per contest. The Boilers need that kind of effort again on Friday.
Defending on Lamar Wilkerson
Wilkerson is one of the premier scorers in college basketball, entering Friday night's game averaging 21.2 points per game. He's had two 40-point performances this season and has scored at least 21 points in each of his last five games,
The senior had 19 points against Purdue at Assembly Hall, but needed 18 shots to reach that total. That's a number Painter and his staff can live with. The goal with a microwave player like Wilkerson is for his point total and shot attempts to match. Purdue got exactly that in the first meeting.
Just because the Boilers did a solid job on Wilkerson defensively the first time doesn't automatically mean it will happen again at Mackey Arena. Not only has IU's top scorer been racking up points the last five games, he's shooting 50% from the floor.
Purdue is going to have to make life uncomfortable for Wilkerson from start to finish, not allowing him to get into a rhythm at any point in the game.
Purdue's three-point shooting
Over the last four games, the Boilermakers haven't shot the three-ball at a particularly high clip. They connected at a 28% clip in wins over Oregon and Nebraska, then shot just 31% against Michigan on Tuesday. Purdue did have more success against Iowa, making 40% of their attempts.
In total, Purdue is 38-of-120 from behind the three-point line, a modest 31% from long range. The Boilers shot 35% in their first meeting against Indiana. It has to be part of their offensive weaponry again on Friday night.
Getting players like Fletcher Loyer, CJ Cox and Gicarri Harris into a rhythm early would be beneficial. If Braden Smith gets going early, it could really open things up for Purdue's offense, as well.
Purdue is going to have an advantage on the interior, especially considering how well Kaufman-Renn has played recently. But it also has to be able to knock down its open looks from the perimeter.
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Dustin Schutte is the publisher of Purdue Boilermakers on SI and has spent more than a decade working in sports journalism. His career began in 2013, when he covered Big Ten football. He remained in that role for eight years before working at On SI to cover the Boilermakers. Dustin graduated from Manchester University in Indiana in 2010, where he played for the men's tennis team.
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