Indiana’s new head coach Darian DeVries will get his first taste of the Indiana-Purdue rivalry this week, as the Hoosiers host the Boilermakers Tuesday night in Assembly Hall.
Purdue comes into the matchup ranked No. 12 in the latest AP Poll, making them the fourth ranked opponent Indiana has seen over the last five games. The Hoosiers are 1-5 over that span, with the lone win coming on the road against an unranked Rutgers squad.
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Seeking the first ranked win of the season, Indiana will need to pull off an upset against a Purdue team that’s currently favored by four points, per KenPom, which also gives the Hoosiers just a 37% of victory. As the last week has shown, though, this is a beatable Purdue team, with weaknesses DeVries should be able to exploit.
Here are 3 things to know about the matchup:
Two-Game Losing Streak
Purdue comes to Assembly Hall amidst a two-game losing streak having been upset on the road by UCLA before suffering close a home loss to an Illinois team that’s now top ten nationally. This is going to be a Boilermakers team even more desperate for a rivalry win than usual.
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Over the last five seasons, Matt Painter has only dropped two games in a row five times. In 2023-24, Purdue never lost two straight. Only once did he go on to lose a third consecutive game, last year when his squad dropped a third straight on the road to then No. 14 Michigan State.
They followed it up with a fourth straight loss in Bloomington to an Indiana team that had also been struggling, so there is precedent for this kind of win within the rivalry. That said, Matt Painter has been exceptionally good at getting his team to rally after consecutive losses over the last five years.
3-Point defense
The major reason for Purdue’s current losing streak has been its 3-point defense. Both UCLA and Illinois shot above 45% from deep, an encouraging sign as both squads have season averages from 3-point range that are roughly equal to Indiana’s.
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UCLA is not much of a 3-point shooting team, so it’s likely that the Boilermakers were sleepwalking through that one defensively. Illinois, on the other hand, is like Indiana in its reliance on the three ball, so their ability to find and make those shots against a Purdue defense that was anticipating it is another good sign for Indiana fans.
Indiana’s tendency to hunt threes will not catch Painter’s group off guard, but if the Hoosiers are hitting their shots, they can take advantage of what’s been a major weakness for Purdue this season. It’s the first time since 2021-22 – when Purdue lost to St. Peter’s in the NCAA Tournament – that the Boilermakers have had a defense outside of the top 100 in opponent 3-point% allowed.
Braden Smith
For the second consecutive season, Braden Smith looks like one of the top college basketball players in the country. He’s averaging 15.2 points per game, plus a whopping 9.3 assists, as the guy that makes everything go for Matt Painter and company.
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The surrounding cast is fairly similar to last season with Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn being the next leading scorers. Another year of experience with those two has allowed Smith to raise his assist average even higher than last season’s, bringing him to nearly a double-double per game.
With Tayton Conerway’s status for the game questionable, a lot of the responsibility for containing Smith will fall on Conor Enright. Even if Enright is at his best, limiting Purdue’s offense will be a team effort, one that Indiana will have to take on without the inside presence its had to protect the rim in past seasons.
