Purdue Basketball Preview: Game 28 — @ Indiana

Loser of three straight, Purdue heads to Indiana on Sunday with real stakes as it looks to sweep IU and win what’ll probably be its final encounter with Mike Woodson.

DETAILS: Sunday, Feb. 23, 2025 | 1:30 p.m. ET | TV: CBS: (Andrew Catalon, Steve Lappas) | Radio: Purdue Radio Network
PURDUE (19-8, 11-5 B1G): ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS
INDIANA (15-11, 6-9 B1G): ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS

Team	AP	Coaches	NET	KenPom	KenPom Win%
Purdue	13	14	15	13	64%
Indiana	—	—	58	56	36%

A FEW THINGS ABOUT PURDUE

• Riding its first three-game losing streak since 2020, the Boilermakers are at risk of falling out of the Big Ten race altogether if they haven’t already, being three games behind league-leading Michigan in the loss column. With a game still remaining vs. UCLA, Purdue is 2-3 this season against the league’s top six teams.

• The Boilermakers are looking to complete a two-game regular season sweep of Indiana after edging the Hoosiers 81-76 on Feb. 1, a game IU led with 30 seconds to play.

• Braden Smith needs eight assists to become Purdue’s all-time career leader. He averages 8.8 in Big Ten play this season. He’d probably relish the moment a bit extra if it happens in Bloomington.

• Trey Kaufman-Renn is the Big Ten’s leading scorer, averaging 20.4 points, an eyelash ahead of Minnesota’s Dawson Garcia. Kaufman-Renn’s second-half foul trouble factored into Purdue nearly suffering a shocking upset, dashed by his game-winner.

• Purdue has averaged only 13.3 free throw attempts per game during the losing streak and drawn only 13.3 fouls per game; meanwhile, it’s been called for an average of 21.3 fouls per game and opponents have shot 23.7 free throws per game.

In the prior 13 conference games, Purdue averaged just under 20 free throw attempts per game; in those same 13 games, it was called for 15.6 fouls per game and opponents averaged 17 foul shots.

All four of Purdue’s foul-outs this Big Ten season have occurred in the past 120 minutes of basketball.

• Camden Heide is shooting just 22 percent from three-point range in Big Ten play but has made three of his past six attempts and Matt Painter has publicly urged him to take his open shots after he passed up a few at Michigan State.

• The past two games, opponents are 35-of-50 — 70 percent — shooting during second halves against Purdue. In the first meeting, Indiana was 14-of-24 after halftime.

ABOUT THIS GAME

• On Feb. 7, Indiana formalized what had become fairly obvious, that Mike Woodson wouldn’t coach beyond this season. Woodson himself hasn’t addressed his departure at season’s end, but IU announced he’d step down after this disappointing year.

• At 6-9 in the Big Ten, Indiana isn’t completely in the clear yet to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament, but does still harbor long-shot NCAA Tournament hopes despite Woodson’s lame-duck status. Indiana has lost eight of 10, but helped itself by managing a win at Michigan State, not long after the Spartans returned from the West Coast.

(Coincidence or not, Michigan, Michigan State, Wisconsin and Illinois all lost their second games after returning from the West and Purdue its first.)

• Indiana remains the least efficient offensive team in the Big Ten by shooting percentages. Despite using size-rich lineups, the Hoosiers are last in the league in effective field percentage and next to last in three-point shooting. They do offset some of that inefficiency by being very good on the offensive glass, though.

• Malik Reneau is averaging 16.3 points the past three games. He clearly wasn’t right when IU first met Purdue, playing only eight minutes in that game after returning from a knee injury.

THREE KEYS FOR PURDUE

TURNOVERS	TEAM DEFENSE	FOULS
Braden Smith is coming off a six-turnover game at Michigan State and meeting an IU team he also committed six against in Game 1. Whether it’s Smith or anyone else, Purdue just can’t have too many turnovers, especially live-ball turnovers. That was the difference in the loss in East Lansing	The Boilermakers really slipped here and it started with having no answers from Trey Galloway and Oumar Ballo on Feb. 1. IU also dId a good job attacking Purdue’s post doubles and generating back-side opportunities for Mackenzie Mbako (25 points). Defensive rebounding is part of this.	This three-game run has been a real oddity. Yes, Purdue hasn’t been as sharp as it was in January and yes, its defense has been figured, but every one of these whistle-related superlatives is out of the line with everything that happened the first nearly three months of the season. Rebounding is a must vs. IU and those sorts of fouls are killing Purdue right now.

GOLDANDBLACK.COM PREDICTION: PURDUE 76, INDIANA 72

Indiana has endured a rough season in the context of preseason expectations around its well-paid roster, but it has shown glimpses lately, starting with very nearly beating Purdue in West Lafayette. This shouldn’t be taken lightly, despite IU having lost eight of 10. But Purdue is bound for some uncommon trending to normalize and the frame of reference from the prior meeting could work to its advantage more than Indiana’s. It’s not often that Purdue has had to be the desperate team, but it should be now. Watch those foul dynamics, though. With IU’s size and rebounding potency, that’s the Hoosiers’ path.