Purdue Basketball Preview

Where: Value City Arena at the Schottenstein Center, Columbus, OH

When: Saturday, February 8 at 6 pm ET on the Big Ten Network

Previous Meeting: Ohio State and Purdue last met on the hardwood this season on December 31 in West Lafayette. The Buckeyes won 78-69, in a closely contested B1G opener. Both LaQuinton Ross and Shannon Scott both had tremendous games to lead Ohio State to victory. Ross scored 25 points and pulled in 12 rebounds, while Scott scored 18 points. A 10-2 run late in the game by these two is what sealed the game for the Buckeyes. Aaron Craft had a typical “Craft game”, scoring seven points and pulling in eights rebounds. Craft also had a tremendous 10 assists along with four steals.

Purdue’s A.J. Hammons had a pretty good game, recording a double-double with 18 points and 16 rebounds, along with four assists and five blocks. Boilermaker sophomore Ronnie Johnson scored 16 points and Terone Johnson had 13 points. While Hammons still had a good game, the Buckeyes mostly kept him check as he shot 6 of 16 from the field. The Boilermakers as a team only shot just above 41% from the field and 21% from behind the arc. The Buckeyes veteran experience certainly played a factor in keeping a young Purdue team in check.

What To Watch Out For: Purdue is coming off a triple overtime 77-74 victory over Minnesota after previously losing four straight games. A.J. Hammons, the most dangerous player on the Boilermakers, led with 20 points and pulled in 14 rebounds (team leader). Hammons is only sophomore, which explains why his scoring has been erratic all season and only averages 10.9 points per game. When he’s on his game Purdue has a much better chance of winning. Hammons had a good, but not great game when facing the Buckeyes last time. I look for Purdue to give him a lot of looks and let him try to lead the Boilermakers in this game. Much like Hammons, the entire Boilermakers’ team is inconsistent. If Hammons can score consistently and if the rest of the team can shoot decent, then Purdue has a pretty good shot at winning this game. But that’s a big if.

Ohio State has won two straight road games after losing five of their previous six games. While the victories weren’t pretty, it has rebuilt some much-needed momentum for the team. Aaron Craft, the Buckeye Superman, was instrumental in both wins as he scored all seven of his points in the final four minutes in the win over Wisconsin and led in scoring with 17 points against Iowa. LaQuinton Ross, the team’s leading scorer, scored 13 points in each of the wins. For a team that has struggled with scoring all season, Ross and Craft have been huge for the Bucks. The defense has been solid for most of the season (9th in the nation in points allowed), including the previous matchup against the Boilermakers. The Buckeyes need to repeat their previous defensive performance against Purdue this season if they want to win this game. Purdue is a dangerous shooting team if left unchecked. Ohio State also needs to continue to improve on offense if they hope to be a dangerous team come March.

Prediction: The Buckeyes will continue to build on their momentum and have a repeat defensive performance against Purdue from their first matchup. Craft will do Craft things and Ross will lead the way in scoring. A boost from the home crowd will help too. Ohio State 74 Purdue 62

Comments

  1. Coach Matta has the Buckeyes rolling. I think this should be a relatively uneventful affair. I’d really like to see Loving get more involved. He looked out of sorts against Iowa.

    • Yes I wanna say the Buckeyes roll easily, but nothing has been a guarantee in the B1G this season. Yes I wanna see Loving get some more action too. Let’s hope the Buckeyes take control early and let some of the bench players get some playing time.

Trackbacks

  1. […] Speaking of the men’s basketball team don’t forget to watch them go for three in a row versus Purdue tonight and read Josh Schott’s preview on the game. […]

  2. […] points, the other four Boilermakers’ starters combined for only 13 points. As I noted in my preview, Hammons had to have a big game and his fellow starters needed to provide consistent shooting to […]

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