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Gold and Black Radio: Purdue-Iowa talk and more

by:Derek Schultz•02/04/25
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Gold and Black Radio

Purdue-Iowa preview and much more with host Derek Schultz and GoldandBlack.com’s Brian Neubert.

Note: we are still working on converting our audio only/Itunes and hope to have that up and running later today.

More about Purdue-Iowa matchup

ABOUT THIS GAME

• This game comes a day after Iowa announced that center and leading scorer Owen Freeman is lost for the season due to a hand injury, a devastating blow to a team whose season had already gone sideways.

• The Hawkeyes have lost four of their last five to drop to 4-6 in the Big Ten, with things maybe going from bad to worse without Freeman.

• As has held Iowa’s program back for years now, its only defense is potent offense. Iowa is allowing a league-worst (by a wide margin) 84.9 points per game in Big Ten play, way worse on the road. It gave up an unbelievable 116 at Wisconsin — Wisconsin — and 99 and 94, respectively, at USC and UCLA.

Opponents’ effective field goal percentage of 53.7 is one of the worst in the country, and things figure to get worse without Freeman’s size at the basket. Big Ten teams have shot 52 percent overall against the Hawkeyes. Opponents shoot 57 percent from two-point range, in part because …

• … Iowa is one of the least effective rebounding teams out there, as its opponents have rebounded roughly a third of their misses, in part because of Iowa’s transition-minded approach to offense. Putbacks bloat those two-point numbers considerably.

Iowa is 18 out of 18 in the Big Ten in both offensive and defensive rebounding percentage.

Losing Freeman obviously amplifies this problem to its furthest degree.

• But, again, as is the norm at Iowa, they’re pretty good offensively, a team that’ll play fast, that won’t turn the ball over much and will spread the floor with a bunch of shooters. The Hawkeyes shoot a sparkling 39 percent as a team from three-point range, but have been strangely bad at the foul line, though Freeman was central to that issue.

Without Freeman, Purdue ought to be ready to see Iowa put five perimeter guys on the floor at the same time. Sparsely used bigs Ladji Dembele and Riley Mulvey are next up in the post otherwise.

• Iowa freshman Trey Buchanan, the son of Pacers G.M. Chad Buchanan, is Braden Smith‘s former teammate at Westfield High School. He’s redshirting.

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