Purdue Basketball Preview: Game 19 — @ Oregon

EUGENE, Ore. — No. 17 Purdue’s two-game Pacific Northwest concludes with its first marquee game of this Big Ten season, as it visits Oregon at Matthew Knight Arena Saturday afternoon.

DETAILS: Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025 | 3 p.m. ET | TV: NBC (Terry Gannon, Stephen Bardo, Kira Dixon) | Radio: Purdue Radio Network
PURDUE (14-4, 6-1 B1G): ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS
OREGON (15-2, 4-2 B1G): ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS

Team	AP	Coaches	NET	KenPom	KenPom Win%
Purdue	17	15	14	10	49%
Oregon	13	14	21	25	51%

A FEW THINGS ABOUT PURDUE

• Riding a five-game winning streak and six-game overall surge, Purdue has moved back into familiar territory, now up to 14 in the NET rankings, top-10 on KenPom and, at 5-1, right in the thick of Big Ten race, where only Michigan State remains unbeaten.

• Though they haven’t faced one another in years, Matt Painter and Dana Altman go way back to their days as Missouri Valley rivals at Southern Illinois and Creighton, respectively.

• The final score at Washington was laundered at the end but Purdue has won these past five Big Ten games by an average of 20.4 points.

• Purdue has allowed an average of just 60.3 points during its six-game winning streak. Notable there is the amount of low-stakes garbage-time minutes that often warp such numbers. The Boilermakers have been highly effective at eliminating opponents’ best players, though Great Osobor of Washington used a highly uncharacteristic 5-of-5 three-point shooting game to get big numbers.

In Big Ten games, Purdue is now third in defensive efficiency, per KenPom, and No. 1 in defensive turnover percentage, absolutely unheard of in recent years. Opponents have coughed it up on 21 percent of their possessions.

• Purdue is tops in the Big Ten in effective field goal percentage, as its frontcourt of Trey Kaufman-Renn and Caleb Furst are shooting 61 and 73 percent, respectively, and all five of Purdue’s top scorers are at 49 percent or better. The Boilermakers are shooting 38.3 percent from three in Big Ten games, paced by Fletcher Loyer‘s 47.1-percent shooting.

• Braden Smith‘s Big Ten Player of the Year flier thus far: 16.1 points, 9.3 assists, 4.4 rebounds and two-plus steals, as he’s been a terror defensively, also. Read this for more on that part of it. Offensively, Smith is shooting 51 percent from the floor and 41 percent from three.

• It’s kind of a shame Furst is starting now, because if not, he’d be your front-runner for Sixth Man of the Year in the Big Ten, as he averages 6.7 points on 73-percent shooting and four-plus rebounds. while providing a transformative element defensively.

• Purdue spent its day off in Seattle due to travel concern, but arrived in Eugene Thursday morning in time for an afternoon practice at Matthew Knight Arena.

ABOUT THIS GAME

• Leading scorer Nate Bittle is a 7-foot center who averages a team-best 13.7 points, and 7.8 rebounds, with 30 blocked shots. Purdue has done an exceptional job defensively in the post lately, but will be giving up size here. Another wrinkle: Bittle has stepped out and made 15 threes this season. He’s shooting only 30 percent, but is capable.

• Jackson Shelstad is one of the top guards in the Big Ten, averaging 12.5 points and shooting 37 percent from three.

• Keeshawn Barthelemy, formerly of Colorado, is a 45-percent three-point shooter off the bench. He averages nearly seven three-point attempts per 40 minutes.

• Oregon does have plenty of size, per usual, including Brandon Angel, a 6-9 forward who was Stanford’s best player before opting to finish his career in Eugene, and sophomore Kwame Evans Jr., a former elite recruit from Baltimore by way of Montverde in Florida. He came a long way to be here.

• In Big Ten play, Oregon is ninth in the league in offensive efficiency and 13th defensively, per KenPom. That 109-point Illinois game splattered red paint all over its metrics.

• Oregon has been good in winning close games, coming off a four-point home win over Maryland, a two-point win at Ohio State and a single-point squeaker at Penn State.

• Now in a league where protecting your homecourt tends to be a must if you want to win the league, Oregon has already dropped home games to UCLA and Illinois, the latter by an eye-popping score of 109-77.

THREE KEYS FOR PURDUE

KEEP IT UP	TURNOVERS	BE READY FOR ANYTHING
It’s that simple. Purdue has been incredible on defense lately. Keeping it up, every last detail, every last shred of effort. This has really been an eye-opening development.	Oregon always has athletes and they’ll be happy to run if you give them the chance. Purdue’s defensive emergence and its ability to take care of the ball have aligned, which is no coincidence whatsoever.	Oregon is mostly a man-to-man team but this isn’t the zone-averse Big Ten anymore. Washington went zone late and had some success. The Ducks will try it, too. Purdue has to make threes against it.

GOLDANDBLACK.COM PREDICTION: PURDUE 74, OREGON 69

Purdue hasn’t played a great Big Ten team yet, admittedly, but look at the results, the numbers and the trends, or just watch the games. Oregon is good, but that 109-77 loss loss to Illinois suggests a team that is highly vulnerable on its home floor, not as good defensively as its metrics and those are non-negotiables for contenders in the Ducks’ new league. The travel and short prep is worth taking into account, but this is a veteran Purdue team that seems fresh and healthy. Maybe the first half at Washington was its rust-removal. The Boilermakers have to shoot well enough.