Purdue Basketball Preview: Game 18 — @ Washington

SEATTLE — Purdue makes its first trip to the Pacific Northwest fringe of the Big Ten footprint this week s it visits Washington and Oregon looking to extend a five-game conference winning streak.

First up: Washington, led by Coach Danny Sprinkle and star Great Osobor, familiar faces after Purdue ousted them and Utah State from the NCAA Tournament last March.

DETAILS: Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025 | 9:30 p.m. ET | TV: BTN: (Guy Haberman, Don MacLean) | Radio: Purdue Radio Network
PURDUE (13-4, 5-1 B1G): ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS
WASHINGTON (10-7, 1-5 B1G): ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS

Team	AP	Coaches	NET	KenPom	KenPom Win%
Purdue	17	15	14	12	79%
Washington	—	_	96	93	21%

A FEW THINGS ABOUT PURDUE

• Purdue has won its last five games, including four Big Ten games by an average of 23 points, since conference play resumed.

• Once again, Purdue has a top-10 KenPom offense, now sitting at No. 8 nationally in efficiency. Meanwhile, it hasn’t allowed 70 or more points since Auburn on Dec. 21.

• Fletcher Loyer is shooting 56 percent from the floor during Purdue’s past four wins.

• Braden Smith has recorded seven double-digit assist games this season already and ranks third nationally at an average of 9.2 per game.

• Only once this season has leading scorer Trey Kaufman-Renn made less than half his shot attempts in a game (3-of-9 vs. Texas A&M). He’s shooting 61 percent for the season and is 13-of-17 the past two games. Not bad for a player whose shots often come well away from the rim.

ABOUT THIS GAME

• Great Osobor, the Zion Williamson-shaped point forward Purdue did such a strong job defensively on in the NCAA Tournament last year — averages 14.3 points, 8.6 rebounds and 3.4 assists and 2.1 steals. The 6-foot-8, 250-pounder isn’t much of a three-point shooter but can handle the ball, post up and drive out of face-ups to score or pass.

A reported $2-million man on the NIL market last spring, the England native followed Sprinkle from Utah State, where he was just 4-of-11 from the floor for 14 points in Purdue’s 106-67 NCAA win in Gainbridge Fieldhouse. He previously played for Sprinkle at Montana State.

• Guard Tyler Harris is a 45-percent three-point shooter on high volume and averages 12 points per game.

• U-Dub is one of the worst foul-shooting teams in America at just 67 percent and shoots just 33 percent from three, part of a fairly inefficient offense that averages a league-worst 66.7 points in Big Ten play. Its field goal percentage of 40.3 in those games is also 18th out of 18.

• Starting big man Wilhelm Breidenbach is a transfer from Nebraska.

• Sprinkle was one of the stories of college basketball last season after taking a team comprised of almost all newcomers and winning the Mountain West and scoring an NCAA win over TCU in his first and only season at Utah State.

It’s not gone so smoothly with the Huskies, a team with eight transfers and five freshmen.

• Announced attendance: Washington is averaging only 5,886 per game at Alaska Airlines Arena this season. When it hosted Big Ten contender Illinois, though, it announced a crowd of 8,156.

• An unforgiving stretch of games continues for the Huskies; after losing to Illinois, Michigan State and Michigan, Washington gets Purdue and Oregon next. That might be the five best teams in the league.

THREE KEYS FOR PURDUE

HELP D	REBOUND	TURNOVERS
Purdue has already played against the Big Ten’s top five scorers and more or less shut all of them down. Osobor will merit the sort of team-wide approach Purdue has done great with lately.	The supreme effort Purdue has been giving to overcome its lack of natural advantages on the glass otherwise needs to be an every-game thing.	There are no real concerns here beyond the constantly present ones, but Washington has to know its best hope here is to create turnovers. Purdue has to be ready for anything.

GOLDANDBLACK.COM PREDICTION: PURDUE 79, WASHINGTON 66

Purdue’s on a roll right now and there’s not much reason to see that slowing down against a team that likely won’t qualify for the Big Ten Tournament.