What to Expect: IU basketball hosts Purdue
- Alex Bozich
- 2h ago
IU basketball returns to Bloomington for a primetime matchup against Purdue on Tuesday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. The Boilermakers are No. 8 in KenPom, 17-3 overall and 7-2 in Big Ten play.
Tipoff is scheduled for approximately 9 p.m. ET on Peacock and NBC Sports Network:
The preseason favorite to win the Big Ten, Purdue finds itself behind four teams in the league standings as the halfway point of league play nears.
The Boilermakers have dropped their last two games and are looking up at Nebraska, Michigan, Michigan State and Illinois in the conference standings. Matt Painter and his team need a win on Tuesday to avoid falling further behind in the race for the Big Ten crown.
Indiana, meanwhile, snapped a four-game losing streak with a wire-to-wire win at Rutgers on Friday night. The Hoosiers have had no problem dominating the league’s bottom dwellers but have yet to beat a team projected to make the 2026 NCAA tournament. A win on Tuesday would be monumental in turning around an otherwise underwhelming month of January for first-year coach Darian DeVries.
MEET THE BOILERMAKERS
The Big Ten is familiar with Purdue’s core, as the Boilermakers have featured Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn since the 2022-23 season.
Smith, the Big Ten’s all-time assists leader, is one of the top players in the country for a third straight season. The Westfield native has an assist rate of 45.1, fifth nationally per KenPom, and 46.4 in league play, second in the conference. He averages 9.3 assists per game, first nationally.
He’s also an accomplished scorer who averages 12.9 points over 130 games for the Boilermakers. Smith is shooting 43.6 percent on 3s this season and is a 40 percent 3-point shooter for his career on 527 attempts. His midrange game is also special as Smith knows how to use his dribble to get to his spots and knock down shots.
The 6-foot-5 Loyer, the team’s second leading scorer at 12.7 points per game, must be accounted for at all times from the perimeter. Loyer has connected on 243 3-pointers in 130 career games for Purdue and is a 39.5 percent shooter from distance for his career. There aren’t any backcourts in the country that have won and produced more consistently than Smith and Loyer have at Purdue.
Looking at the rest of the Purdue guard and wing rotation, there’s no shortage of depth or talent.
CJ Cox, a sophomore who was the No. 273 player nationally in the final 247Sports Composite rankings for 2024, has started 43 of his 56 games for the Boilermakers and is another example of Matt Painter and his staff identifying a player who was undervalued by the recruiting services.
The 6-foot-3 Cox has scored in double figures eight times in 20 games, including 18 against Memphis on November 20 and 16 against UCLA and Penn State. Purdue values shooting in recruiting and Cox is another capable Boilermaker from the perimeter. He’s shooting 36.7 percent on 3s this season and is also an efficient 57.1 percent on 2s on 56 attempts.
The three guards and wings who play off the bench are freshman Omer Mayer, redshirt freshman Jack Benter and sophomore Gicarri Harris.
Mayer, who is from Tel Aviv, Israel, averages 5.7 points, 1.5 assists and 1.2 rebounds in 15.1 minutes off the bench. He’s a 35 percent 3-point shooter.
Benter, a Brownstown Central product, can fill it up from deep. The 6-foot-6 wing is 22-for-46 on triples (47.8). Because of Purdue’s other threats on the floor and Smith’s passing, Benter gets no shortage of open looks.
Harris, one of the best perimeter defenders in the Big Ten, isn’t known for his scoring. The 6-foot-3 guard doesn’t turn it over and has the third-best steal percentage in the league.
Up front, Kaufman-Renn remains one of the most polished scorers in the league and is joined in the starting lineup by 6-foot-11 center Oscar Cluff, a transfer from South Dakota State.
Kaufman-Renn’s usage rate has dipped significantly this season, falling from 31.1 percent to 24.1 percent due to the addition of Cluff. He’s third on the team in scoring at 12.8 points per game and leads the Boilermakers in rebounding at 8.6 per game. His defensive rebounding is much improved over last season. Kaufman-Renn had a defensive rebounding percentage of 13.7 in Big Ten play last season and is at 22.5 percent this season, fourth in the league.
Cluff averages 11.8 points, 7.8 rebounds and is shooting an incredible 75.8 percent from the field. Cluff plays 23.8 minutes per game as Purdue has the luxury of backing him up with 7-foot-4 sophomore Daniel Jacobsen. Jacobsen has had three or more blocked shots in five games, is shooting 67.9 percent on 2s and averages 7.5 points and four rebounds in 15.4 minutes per game.
TEMPO-FREE PREVIEW
(All conference rankings in parentheses are updated through Monday’s games.)
Purdue’s offense is once again elite, ranking in the top 12 nationally in adjusted offensive efficiency for the fifth straight season.
The Boilermakers only turn it over on 11.8 percent of their possessions in Big Ten play, first in the conference. Purdue is fourth in the Big Ten in 3-point shooting percentage (36) and second in 2-point shooting percentage (59.4). Purdue has scored less than 1.14 points per possession in only two games all season.
Defensively, Purdue has been good but not great in league games. Big Ten opponents are managing 1.087 points per trip against the Boilermakers. Their 2-point defense isn’t great – 56.3 percent – and the reality is that Indiana will have to make perimeter shots to win this game. Purdue has the second-lowest opponent free-throw rate (FTA/FGA) in the Big Ten and doesn’t give up many offensive rebounds.
WHAT IT COMES DOWN TO
Indiana hasn’t given its home crowd much to get excited about in its last two home games, a collapse against Nebraska and a beatdown at the hands of Iowa.
Tuesday could mark the first great crowd of the season in Bloomington, but it’s up to the team to keep the crowd in the game from the opening tip.
The KenPom projection is Purdue by four with a 37 percent chance of a Hoosier victory. Bart Torvik favors Purdue by only one with a 46 percent chance of an IU win.
If both teams are making shots, this should be an entertaining game, but the Hoosiers are going to need to close out possessions on the defensive glass and stay out of foul trouble to keep the Boilermakers at arm’s length.
IU is going to need an electric Assembly Hall crowd, hot perimeter shooting and an off night from one of Purdue’s big three to have a chance to pull off the upset.
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