No. 7 Nebraska men’s basketball has another top-15 matchup on tap Tuesday night when No. 12 Purdue travels to Lincoln for a 6 p.m. CT tip.
FS1 will televise the game with Kevin Kugler and Bill Raftery, while Kent Pavelka and Jeff Smith will call the game on the Huskers Radio Network.
The Huskers (21-2, 10-2 Big Ten) got back to their winning ways Saturday with an 80-68 win at Rutgers while Purdue has won its last two after dropping three in a row to UCLA, Illinois and Indiana.
Despite the three conference losses and a 19-4 overall record, the Boilermakers are still in the thick of the Big Ten race.
“It’s an old, experienced group that’s played together for a long time, and Matt Painter is as good as anybody in this business,” Fred Hoiberg said of the Boilermakers.
It’s been over a year since Nebraska last played Purdue in a 104-68 Boilermaker thrashing in West Lafayette.
“They absolutely handed it to us last year, embarrassed us on their home court,” Hoiberg said. “We’re going to have to be on point. This team plays hard, they are on the floor, they play together and we can’t give them anything easy. They’re so disciplined in their approach on both ends of the floor. They run a lot of different coverages defensively. Early on we’ll see how they’re playing us and adjust accordingly.”
Scouting Purdue
The Boilermakers are third in the county in adjusted offensive efficiency (127.4), according to KenPom.
“They spray it as well as anybody,” Hoiberg said. “They draw two to the ball they are going to make you pay somewhere.”
The one who sprays it as much as anyone in the country would be reigning Big Ten Player of the Year Braden Smith. Smith’s 8.7 assists average is second in the nation behind Michigan State’s Jeremy Fears (9.1).
“You have to do the best job you can,” Hoiberg said about defending Smith. “He’s one of the best three-level scorers in the country. His ability to get the ball in the pocket, he is the best pocket passer I’ve ever seen.”
Not only is Smith one of the best decision makers in the country, but he’s the team’s leading scorer (15.7 points per game) while shooting 49.6% from the field, including 42.7% from 3-point range.
“He’s going to do some wow factor-type plays,” Hoiberg said. “You just can’t get discouraged when he does that. You’ve got to keep playing and keep trying to make things tough.”
It’s not just Smith that can beat you for Purdue. Smith’s backcourt mate, Fletcher Loyer, is averaging 13.4 points while shooting 43% from the field and 40.6% from distance.
“Loyer’s really got it going right now,” Hoiberg said. “He’s 29 and I think 19 in his last two games.”
Senior Trey Kaufman-Renn leads the team in rebounding (8.3 per game) and is the third player on the team averaging double figures in scoring (12.7 per game). Oscar Cluff, who transferred from South Dakota State, is the team’s starting center and is averaging 10.7 points and 7.2 rebounds.
Purdue does have just one of the top offenses in the nation, it boasts one of the better defenses as well.
The Boilermakers’ adjusted defensive efficiency is 26th nationally, and they play defense without fouling. Their opponents’ free-throw rate of 24.2% is good for seventh in the nation.
They also protect the rim at a high rate on the defensive end. Although they don’t block a lot of shots, just an 8.9% rate or 204th nationally, their opponents’ 7.2-foot average distance from the basket on 2-point attempts ranks seventh nationally.
Keys To the Game
Both Nebraska and Purdue have been extremely disciplined in their approach offensively this season. Nebraska is a little better defensively with the 11th-best adjusted defensive efficiency in the nation.
The first two most important keys to the game are forcing turnovers and converting them into points.
Purdue’s offensive turnover percentage is 14.1%, good for 24th in the country. The Huskers rank seventh in the nation in offensive turnover percentage at 13.0%.
When the Huskers do turn the ball over, it tends to be the dead-ball variety as they lead the country in lowest steal rate for their opponents at 6.6%. On defense, Purdue only steals the ball on 8.5 of its possessions, 259th in the country.
“Important in a game like this, you’ve got to take care of the basketball,” Hoiberg said. “We’ve done a good job of that all year. These guys do a great job with their deflections and getting them out in transition. If you give them easy baskets, you can’t beat them.”
The Huskers’ 4.2 turnover margin per game is the nation’s 12th best. Takeaways likely won’t come easy in this game; winning the points off turnovers battle could be the deciding factor in the game.
“You still have to go out and try and do the little things,” Hoiberg said. “Try to have great hand activity. I thought Cale [Jacobsen] did a really good job in our game the other day against Rutgers. I thought he had some deflections that really got us going.”
For Nebraska to win, it will need to reach its goal of 25 deflections per game.
“You have to try and do that against Purdue,” Hoiberg said. “It’s hard, it’s really hard to do because they are so disciplined. They’re such good passers, but you have to do everything you can to contest everything, whether it’s a shot or a pass.”
The third key for Nebraska is not to get crushed on the glass. Purdue’s rebounding margin of plus-7.2 per game is 21st in the nation. The Boilermakers aren’t Illinois or Michigan State or Michigan on the offensive glass, but they do rank 44th in the country in offensive rebounding percentage (35.6%).
If the Huskers can stay within 12 rebounds, which they did against the teams with the a similar size advantage to what Purdue will have in the post, they should be in good shape.
“It’s obviously going to be important. They’ve got length, they crash the boards,” Hoiberg said. “We have to finish our possessions. I thought we were much better in the Rutgers game than we had been in the previous two against Michigan and Illinois.”
