Game 10 Preview: #3 Purdue vs. #1 Arizona at the Indy Classic

It’s not been often that Purdue has taken the floor lately as the lower-ranked team, not that it matters all that much. But that will be the case Saturday in Indianapolis as the No. 3 Boilermakers meet top-ranked Arizona in a sold-out Gainbridge Fieldhouse, as part of the Indy Classic.

DETAILS: Saturday, Dec. 16, 2023 | 4:30 p.m. ET | TV: Peacock (Noah Eagle, Robbie Hummel, Caroline Pineda) | Radio: Purdue Radio Network
PURDUE (9-1, 1-1 B1G): ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS
ARIZONA (8-0): ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS

Team	AP	Coaches	NET	KenPom	KenPom Win%
Purdue	3	4	—	3	54%
Arizona	1	1	—	2	46%

THREE THINGS ABOUT PURDUE

• Purdue hasn’t beaten a No. 1 team since 2000, when Gene Keady’s team stunned top-ranked … Arizona. In Indianapolis, no less. Should Purdue win Saturday, it would not even qualify as an upset. The Boilermakers are No. 3 nationally and a betting favorite.

Purdue is 0-3 vs. No. 1 teams since that game in 2000.

• A win over Arizona would virtually guarantee Purdue its third consecutive unbeaten non-conference season, as only buy games vs. Jacksonville and Eastern Kentucky remain prior to the resumption of Big Ten play,

• Matt Painter is 2-0 vs. Arizona, including his first-ever NCAA Tournament win back in ’07, then the Boilermakers’ rout of the then-second-ranked Wildcats at the Battle 4 Atlantis a decade later.

• Long season ahead still, but Zach Edey is the clear front-runner in his second straight Player-of-the-Year run. He’s averaging 24.8 points, 10.8 rebounds and 2.6 blocks and has clearly been even better this season, his numbers spiking even has his supporting cast has picked up more responsibility around him. He’s shooting 77 percent at the foul line.

• Braden Smith is averaging 8.8 assists the past four games, with 10 total turnovers, six of which occurred in one game. He’s also averaging 6.8 rebounds.

• Purdue is shooting 37 percent from three in four neutral-site games, all wins.

• Boilermaker 4 men Trey Kaufman-Renn, Mason Gillis and Caleb Furst are shooting a combined 45.7 percent from three-point range. Kaufman-Renn has made three of his last four. Gillis is 10-of-19 on the season.

A FEW THINGS ABOUT THIS GAME

• All five Arizona starters average more than a dozen points, led by North Carolina transfer Caleb Love, long a hot-or-cold wild-card sort who’s having his best college season with his new team. Love, who helped UNC reach the Final Four, landed at Arizona after being denied admission to Michigan.

Love scored 18 points vs. Purdue at the Mohegan Sun in 2021 during the Boilermakers’ win over North Carolina.

The Wildcats will present the most balanced and multi-faceted offensive lineup Purdue has seen not just this season, but maybe in a while. Love’s slashing and speed is one thing, but Keshad Johnson is a rugged 4 man who can work the offensive glass and shoot threes; Oumar Ballo is a high-efficiency 7-footer around the basket and on the glass; Kylan Boswell is a 53-percent three-point shooter; and Swede Pelle Larsson is a 6-6, 215-pound true 3 who just roasted Wisconsin for 21 points on 4-of-4 three-point shooting.

Arizona is No. 6 nationally in offensive efficiency, 12th nationally in effective field goal percentage and shooting 39 percent from three. Compounding matters is its offensive rebounding. Arizona has retrieved almost 40 percent of its misses, an even higher percentage than Purdue.

The Wildcats just put 98 points on Wisconsin.

• These are two top-10 defenses — at least statistically — squaring off. Arizona is second in efficiency and Purdue eighth. Arizona opponents have shot only 42 percent on two-point shots, though its disruption numbers aren’t eye-popping, and there’s been some luck in opponents shooting only 62 percent at the line.

• Arizona’s best win of the season came at Duke, a game it trailed with around a minute to before closing strong. Fifteen offensive rebounds loomed large in that Wildcat win.

This will be Arizona’s third Big Ten game. It previously snuck past Michigan State on a neutral floor, walloped Wisconsin in Tucson and now meets Purdue to open a two-game neutral-site series. These two programs will meet again next season in Vegas.

• Third-year coach Tommy Lloyd is now 69-11 at Arizona since replacing the fired Sean Miller. Prior, Lloyd was Mark Few’s right-hand man at Gonzaga and widely credited with turning the Zags into an improbable recruiting power, particularly in the international market. He spent basically his whole coaching career in Spokane before getting the Arizona job.

TURNOVERS	THE INTERIOR	DICTATING TEMPO
It’s still Purdue’s ball and chain, especially in games like this. Arizona may be really disruptive defensively, but this is more often going to be more about the Boilermakers than the opponent.	The offensive glass very realistically could decide this game. Zach Edey vs. Oumar Ballo is gonna be a title fight. But don’t lose track of the forwards for both teams.	Purdue will play fast, but has to pick its spots and make sure the game doesn’t move too fast for its strengths to take hold. Arizona will want to go, go, go. Braden Smith’s decision-making vs. Arizona’s dropping defense is crucial.

GOLDANDBLACK.COM PREDICTION: PURDUE 77, ARIZONA 74

This likely will be a Boilermaker home game and in a battle of pretty great and complete teams, that may be a difference, that and the fact Purdue has the best player. The reality is that neither of these teams is better than the other. They’re both great. Toss-up. Who’s gonna shoot better?