Nebrasketball: Purdue Preview

Date: Sunday, December 15th

Time: 3:00pm CST

Location: Lincoln, NE

2018-19 Record: 26-10 (16-4 Big Ten)

2019-20 Record: 6-3 (1-0 Big Ten)

Coach: Matt Painter (15th Season)

Previous Season:

The mighty Boilermakers were co-Big Ten Regular Season Champs with Michigan State. They received the second seed in the conference tournament. There they were beat by Minnesota in the quarterfinals.

They made the NCAA Tournament as the three seed in the South Region. Old Dominion met them in the first round in a Boilermaker win. From there they beat defending NCAA champ Villanova,

Current Season:

While Purdue is currently sitting at 6-3, they are better than their record indicates. Their loss to Texas was close and could have very well been a win if the offense did not find themselves losing the ball from turnovers late in the game.

Marquette was another loss that saw the Boilermakers ahead by 18 points early in the game. Their shooting went dry and Marquette took advantage to pull off the ten point win in Milwaukee. Their last loss was an overtime turnover filled heartbreak to Florida State. In total there were 24 turnovers against the Boilermakers that helped doom them.

All three losses were to fairly decent teams. Texas has bounced in and out of the Top 25. Marquette should threaten a little bit in the Big East and Florida State is currently ranked in the Top 25.

They did have one very nice win over defending champion and #5 ranked Virginia in the Big Ten/AAC Challenge. A big win for the team and conference.

The Boilermakers are a strong defensive team that can force a team to make mistakes and keep the score low. They’re hit or miss on offense and it has hurt them in their losses. Unless there is improvement when they have control of the ball one could see them continue losing games they really shouldn’t as the season moves on.

Jahaad Proctor leads the team with 14.2 points, 3.0 rebounds, and 2.4 assists per game. The 6’3” guard will be an early threat that the Huskers will need to hone in on and try to stop. His is a grad transfer from High Point and is making his presence known. Expect a lot from him against the Huskers.

Like most Purdue teams, this one is large. Leading them is center Matt Haarms. The 7’3” junior is averaging 11.7 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 1.3 assists. He is going to cause problems for the Huskers and I’m not sure what Fred’s plan will be to contain him.

Prediction:

I don’t like the way Nebraska matches up against Purdue. While they struggle on offense, they make up for it on the defensive side of the court. I like the grit and determination the Huskers had in their overtime loss to Indiana on Friday night. However, it will take more than that to defeat the Boilermakers in Lincoln. There is just too much going against the Big Red in this match up.

Purdue University 63 University of Nebraska 58