#7 Purdue 21-5 (11-4) vs. Indiana 17-9 (and 8-7)<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no such thing as must win games in February, but if there was, this would be it for Purdue.
After a four game win streak pulled Purdue back into the top-ten, it played host to #1 Michigan on Tuesday night. Michigan had its way with Purdue and handed Purdue its fourth loss in conference, all but guaranteeing that Purdue wouldn\u2019t be in contention for the Big Ten.<\/p>\n
Maybe more jarring for Purdue is the loss was Purdue\u2019s third in Mackey Arena this season after also losing against top-ten teams Iowa State and Illinois in the usually magical confines of Mackey.<\/p>\n
Between the marquee losses, Purdue also added another surprising loss to its schedule when it played Indiana for the first time in Assembly Hall.
Despite Indiana being a rebuilding team under first year head coach Darian DeVries, the Hoosiers took a double-digit lead into the first half and Purdue\u2019s frantic comeback fell short. The 72-67 loss was part of a three-game losing streak that pushed Purdue out of the top-ten after being ranked #1 earlier this season.
There\u2019s nothing Purdue will be able to do in the regular season to prove itself worthy of the early season odds that named them a national title favorite, but Purdue\u2019s season is far from a free fall. It is still in line for a #2 or #3 seed, and as Painter said after the Michigan game, the NCAA Tournament is still ahead of them and is the ultimate goal.
But if Purdue loses at home to its rival that doesn\u2019t have near the talent or experience as Purdue, real panic will come for West Lafayette.
This is a statement for Purdue.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s no shame losing to the #1 team in the country, even at home. But there will be if Purdue can\u2019t take care of business against its in-state rival at home.<\/p>\n
Nick Dorn and Lamar Wilkerson<\/p>\n
Dorn and Wilkerson went for 19 and 18 points respectfully in the first matchup between these teams. Purdue will look to make both days a little tougher. Wilkerson had to take 18 shots to get there, but Dorn went off from three, knocking down 4 of 9.
After Michigans season best shooting performance against Purdue on Tuesday, the Boilers will want to secure its perimeter defense by not needing to help on the ball as much as it did against Michigans much bigger and more athletic everything.<\/p>\n
Purdue did a good job at limiting Tucker DeVries scoring. Devries had just 9 points but was effective on the glass and his ability to draw attention leaves the court open for the rest of his teammates.<\/p>\n
Indiana will have four days rest after returning from its west coast trip where it needed overtime to beat Washington and lost by twenty to Oregon on Sunday.<\/p>\n
IU will be a desperate team. The win against Purdue is one of its best resume pieces, but it could really use a road victory against a top team if it has any chance to burst through the bubbles. It will play its next three games at home so you can guarantee they\u2019re viewing this as a chance to make a strong end of season push for the committee.<\/p>\n
Can big game Fletch get back?<\/p>\n
Fletcher Loyer shot the ball fine against Michigan, knocking down 2 of 5 from three. It\u2019s hard to complain about 40% from three, but for most of Loyer\u2019s career, the best of Loyer showed up against the best competition.
That hasn\u2019t been the case this season. Fletcher Loyer is shooting just 26% from three against teams that KenPom designates as A tier teams.
Purdue\u2019s offense thrives when it\u2019s making threes and that starts with Loyer, who is Purdue\u2019s best perimeter threat. Loyer had two transition airballs against Michigan at pivotal times where it felt like a make could have swung the entire momentum of the game. Instead, both didn\u2019t find rim or backboard.
Part of this is just Loyer suffering from the weight of his own built standards. Loyer has been one of the best shooters in the country for his entire career. He\u2019s always bounced back from shooting slumps.
For Purdue, it. needs that bounce to start on Friday against Indiana.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"#7 Purdue 21-5 (11-4) vs. Indiana 17-9 (and 8-7) There\u2019s no such thing as must win games in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":480593,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,108687,99],"class_list":["post-480592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-football","tag-football","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-football","tag-ncaafootball","tag-purdue-mens-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=480592"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/480592\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=480592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=480592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=480592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}