IUPUI @ Purdue preview
Mackey Arena
Last Meeting ( Dec 7, 2015 ) Indiana - Purdue 53, Purdue 80
With five straight wins, No. 21 Purdue seems to have put a rough patch in the Bahamas behind it. The Boilermakers seek a 14th straight home victory when IUPUI visits on Sunday.
In an 80-50 victory Thursday over a previously undefeated Valparaiso team that entered with the third-best effective field-goal percentage (combining 2 and 3-point shooting) in the country, Purdue used a 21-4 run to close the first half and coasted behind 15 points from Vincent Edwards and 14 from Carsen Edwards. It was the fifth straight win for the Boilermakers against teams ranked in the RPI top-100 after surprising defeats to Tennessee and Western Kentucky in the Battle 4 Atlantis. "We had a lot of respect for them," Vincent Edwards told the Journal & Courier. "You can't take anyone lightly with the upsets that are going around in college basketball, and we didn't want to be a part of that." IUPUI, which has been forced to replace three starters that averaged more than 40 points per game from a 14-win team in 2016-17, have dropped three straight, including Wednesday’s 82-81 decision to SIU-Edwardsville.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, Big Ten Network
ABOUT IUPUI (2-5): The Jaguars have the same problem they had a season ago with a defense which allows opponents to shoot 47.8 percent from the field and 41.8 percent beyond the arc. Senior forward Aaron Brennan has improved his scoring average over six points from last season, to 14.9 points on 48.2 percent shooting, and also chips in with nearly five rebounds, two assists, a block and steal per game. Fellow senior Ron Patterson is the only other double-digit scorer at 11.6 points per game, and a majority of his shots come beyond the arc where he connects at 34.1 percent.
ABOUT PURDUE (9-2): Carsen Edwards leads the team in scoring at 16.1 points, followed by 7-2 senior Isaac Haas (15.2) and Dakota Mathias (14.8), who is shooting 51.7 percent beyond the arc and has drilled a 3-pointer in 17 straight contests. Matt Haarms, a 7-3, 250-pound center with long arms to match, leads the nation’s freshmen in blocks with 34 in just 190 minutes of playing time to go with 45 rebounds and 60 points on 53.2 percent shooting from the field. “He can deflect shots going straight up because his arms are so long," Carsen Edwards told The Journal & Courier. "If you try to get all the way to the basket, he's able to cover a distance, depending on how far out you shoot from the lane."
TIP-INS
1. The Boilermakers have won both games all-time against IUPUI, including an 80-53 win two years ago.
2. Purdue coach Matt Painter is one win from notching the 300th of his career.
3. Vincent Edwards (13.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 2.6 assists per game) and Wisconsin’s Ethan Happ are the only two players in the conference averaging at least 13 points, eight rebounds and two assists per game.
PREDICTION: Purdue 88, IUPUI 61