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Iowa Basketball: Previewing Purdue Boilermakers
Mandatory Credit: Sandra Dukes-USA TODAY Sports
Iowa and Purdue tipoff at 8:00 p.m. on Big Ten Network in Iowa City
Purdue fell to 17th in the AP Poll this week after a loss to Minnesota and close win over Ohio State. Although, the Boilermakers will enter Iowa City to take on Iowa basketball fresh off an 11-point win over ranked Wisconsin on Sunday.
This season, Purdue is 2-2 against ranked teams and have won nine of their past 10 games. They have done it with a balanced attack.
Purdue scores the 29th most points per game in the nation at 82.9 per game, while allowing just 65.4 points per game. In fact, only two teams have topped 80 points against the Boilermakers and Purdue has only failed to score 70 points three times this season.
Purdue is the epitome of team basketball. Ball movement and controlling the glass is key for Purdue’s success.
The Boilermakers are second in the nation in assists and 16th in rebounds this season. Dakota Mathias leads the team with 4.1 assists per game, however six players average at least 1.5 assists per game, which shows that it’s more than just one player creating offense for others.
On the glass, three players grab at least five per game. It’s extremely hard to get second chances against the Boilermakers with them sporting a frontcourt that features a 7-2 center in Isaac Haas and 6-9 rebounding machine in Caleb Swanigan. It’s resulted in Purdue allowing one of the least amount of shots this season.
Here’s a look at Iowa and Purdue’s first meeting, as well as two key players on Purdue.
Mandatory Credit: Sandra Dukes-USA TODAY Sports
Hawkeyes 67, Purdue 89
These teams met to start their conference schedule on December 28. The Hawkeyes came into the game on a five-game winning streak, however Purdue was too much for the young Hawkeyes.
Purdue took Peter Jok out of the game early and jumped out to a quick 25-6 lead. The hostile environment was a new experience for a young Iowa team, and they couldn’t handle Purdue’s defensive pressure, either.
Carsen Edwards got off to a hot start and finished with 19 points, five assists and four rebounds. He scored Purdue’s first eight points after struggling in non-conference play.
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Iowa trailed 49-25 at halftime, and it did not get much better in the second half. The Hawkeyes outscored Purdue by two but still fell 89-67 in a game they were out of from the opening tip.
As previously mentioned, Purdue did a good job containing Jok from the start. Jok finished with a mere 13 points on 4-of-15 shooting from the field and 1-of-7 shooting from three. He only played 22 minutes because of the blowout, but he looked uncharacteristically overmatched on both ends.
Surprisingly, in Tyler Cook‘s first game back, he and Cordell Pemsl did not look terrible on offense against Purdue’s daunting frontcourt. They combined to record 22 points and six rebounds on 10-of-18 shooting. That said, their defense struggled against one of the best frontcourts in the nation.
Caleb Swanigan and Isaac Haas are great tests for Pemsl and Cook. In their first matchup, Swanigan and Haas steamrolled them for 27 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks on 11-of-21 shooting in just 35 combined minutes. Look for Fran McCaffery to play more zone to try to keep the ball out of their hands and give Iowa a chance to trap them down low.
Despite losing by more than 20 points, Iowa didn’t play terribly. Sure, Peter Jok struggled and they allowed Purdue to shoot 50.7 percent from the field and 41.4 percent from three, but a lot of that should be credited towards Purdue’s hot start which took Iowa out of the game early.
With the starters and bench playing heavy minutes against Purdue, a better start by Iowa could lead to them being more competitive this time around. Besides, Jok will be out for revenge and likely won’t go 1-of-7 from deep, again.
Mandatory Credit: Sandra Dukes-USA TODAY Sports
Players To Watch
Caleb Swanigan: 18.3 PPG, 12.9 RPG, 55.4 FG%, 43.8 3P%
Caleb Swanigan leads the nation at 12.9 rebounds per game. His four 20/20 games are more than the rest of the nation, and he comes into Iowa City with eight straight double-doubles and nine straight games with double-digit rebounds. In fact, Swanigan has failed to grab at least 10 boards in just two games this season.
Iowa did a good job containing Swanigan in their first matchup. He only shot 4-of-12 from the field and was held to 11 points and 10 rebounds in 29 minutes. That kind of production will give Iowa a chance to pull the upset. The Hawkeyes have seemingly no chance if Swanigan dominates down low and has another 28 point, 22 rebound performance like he had against Minnesota a couple of weeks ago.
Iowa contained Swanigan in their first game, however he’s averaging an insane 21 points and 16.2 rebounds per game over the past six games. He’s looking to get revenge against a team that contained him last time out, and that’s not a place Iowa wants to be in with a freshmen frontcourt.
Carsen Edwards: 10.4 PPG, 2.9 RPG, 37.6 FG%, 30.3 3P%
Carsen Edwards has been up-and-down this season, although he scored his Big Ten-high 19 points against Iowa. He connected on 7-of-13 shots and his eight quick points to start the game is what deflated the Hawkeyes early.
Iowa has seen the good Carsen Edwards, and they need to figure out how to make him a non-factor. Edwards shot 21.4 percent, 45.5 percent and 33.3 percent in Purdue’s three games since beating Iowa. It shows his inconsistency on offense. Iowa needs to force him to shoot threes, as he shoots just 24.1 percent in the two games he’s attempted nine threes in this season.
Edwards is significantly better when he’s able to get to the basket, although that has not been an easy feat in his freshman campaign thus far. He’ll come into the game with confidence after torching Iowa last time, therefore deflating his confidence like he did to Iowa last game will be beneficial for Iowa.
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