Rider At Purdue Basketball: Preview, TV, Odds, Time & More

It would take one hell of a game, but hopefully before the basketball team takes off for Orlando starting guard Terone Johnson will become the 47th player in Purdue history to pass 1,000 career points. He needs 38 points to reach that goal, but more importantly, Purdue could use a win Sunday night over a possible NCAA Tournament team.

The broncs come in to tonight's game at 0-1 after a season opening 92-78 loss to Lehigh. I say that Rider is a possible NCAA Tournament team because they were a 19-game winner that played in the postseason last year, reaching the second round of the mid-major only CIT Tournament. They are picked fourth in the MAAC, but they could possibly steal their conference's auto-bid with an experienced roster. Of Purdue's first five opponents they are the most likely one to win their conference tournament and steal an auto-bid.

Here is what the preview linked above ahd to say:

The final month of the regular season was mostly positive for the Broncs in 2012-13, but after defeating Hartford (63-54) in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament, the team bowed to East Carolina in a lopsided 75-54 final, which was a disappointing ending to a solid campaign. In his first season with Rider, head coach Kevin Baggett took a team that was projected to finish near the bottom of the standings to a second-place finish, and now he hopes to create another minor miracle for the Broncs. Seniors Daniel Stewart and Anthony Myles will be the ones holding the squad together on the court, as both have been named to the preseason All-MAAC Second Team. Myles, despite shooting only 37.5 percent from the floor, was second on the unit with 12.4 ppg, while Stewart produced another 10.6 ppg and was the top rebounder for the group with better than seven boards per outing. Unfortunately, after that pairing the team experiences a huge drop-off in scoring, with Jonathon Thompson (13.1 ppg) no longer with the program. In addition to finding new scorers, the Broncs have to become more unselfish as they try to improve upon a disappointing 10.1 assists per game. which was 322nd in the country.

So they don't share the basketball and, judging from the Lehigh game, they don't rebound, either. Of course, Lehigh shot a sizzling 58% from the field and gave up 14 of 23 from long range.rider finished with only 19 rebounds, but it is hard to rebound when the other team does not miss.

Daniel Stewart led them with 24 points and Anthony Myles had 12. Freshman Jimmie Taylor had 11 in his first collegiate game, while Junior Fortunat and Tommy Pereira had 10 each off the bench.

Purdue could be in line for another very good offensive day. Lehigh is good, but giving up 92 points to a Patriot League team doesn't bode well facing a Big Ten team that has looked pretty good offensively through two games. Purdue should once again have a major size advantage with Fortunat the only regular over 6'7". A.J. Hammons and Jay Simpson punished CCSU with their size and will have free reign to do so again.

Among those I have been most pleased with so far are Simpson and Errick Peck. Simpson has shown solid footwork and a soft shooting touch working around the basket. it would be interesting to see if he gets in a lineup with Hammons at any time this year. He may not need to because Peck has simply been outstanding so far.

I think Peck has to be the team's MVP thus far. He has been in double-figures in scoring in each game and does the dirty work by leading Purdue at seven rebounds per game. He also hit the shot of the season so far, nailing an unexpected three-pointer with less than a minute left as Purdue trailed Northern Kentucky by four. The new guy saved Purdue's ass with that one.

With Peck, Simpson, and Hammons I think Purdue has too much size here. Ronnie and Terone are playing solid and the offense is working more smoothly than it ever did at any point last season. Purdue just needs to get back to rebounding and their trademark defensive intensity. Purdue 95, Rider 70