After multiple stumbles to the end the regular season, 18th-ranked Purdue will seek to find the form that earned an early-season No. 1 ranking when the Boilermakers begin Big Ten tournament play against Northwestern on Thursday evening at Chicago.
Purdue (23-8) earned a double bye into the third round despite losing three of its last four games, including two at home. A 97-93 home defeat to Wisconsin on Saturday left the Boilermakers as a No. 7 seed in the conference tournament.
Northwestern (15-18), the No. 15 seed, advanced with a 74-61 victory over 10th-seeded Indiana on Wednesday.
Purdue guard Braden Smith has continued to operate at a high level, recording 20 points and nine assists in the loss to the Badgers. He is averaging team bests of 14.9 points with 8.7 assists a game and is two assists away from moving into third all-time in Division I history.
But Smith was quick to acknowledge that the Boilermakers’ offense still needs a complimentary defense. Wisconsin shot 55.8% from the floor against Purdue and 52.9% from 3-point range.
“Offense, for us, normally isn’t an issue,” Smith said. “We do a good job of getting guys the ball in spots to be successful. … Really, our thing that we have to improve on most is just defensively. I know we’ve talked about it since the start of summer practices, but that’s really what it is. When we’re connected defensively, it makes offense that much easier.”
After a January slide in which he scored in single digits in five of seven games, the Boilermakers’ Fletcher Loyer has averaged 16.2 points over the past 10 games. He is averaging 13.6 points for the season.
Loyer scored 23 points against Wisconsin after going 6 of 9 from 3-point range.
Northwestern’s Nick Martinelli scored 28 points and freshman Jake West matched his career high with 18 in Wednesday’s victory over Indiana. West also scored 18 points against Iowa on Feb. 8.
“I feel like we’ve been playing our best basketball at the end of the season,” West said on the Big Ten Network broadcast. “We’ve been in a lot of games against high-level competition, and we just haven’t pulled through.”
The Wildcats already have two victories in the six-day tournament, knocking off 18th-seeded Penn State 76-66 on Tuesday. Thursday will be Northwestern’s second game against Purdue in nine days after falling 70-66 at home against the Boilermakers on March 4.
Martinelli scored 28 points in the previous matchup with Purdue, which was led by 27 points from C.J. Cox. Martinelli led the Big Ten in scoring during the regular season at an average of 22.8 points per game.
The difference maker for Northwestern on Wednesday was a defense that held Indiana to 25% shooting from the field (5 of 20) after halftime. The Wildcats trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half, then took charge with a 15-3 run to take a 60-47 lead with 9:33 remaining.
“I just thought we were more connected defensively,” Northwestern coach Chris Collins said about the second half. “… I thought we were better with our switches, our physicality was good, and I thought our offensive execution didn’t allow them to get into the open court because we were scoring.”
