It is the penultimate home game of the season and Purdue is hot. With a week of rest and a great run of Big Ten play we have improbably clawed back into the NCAA Tournament discussion. It has been a long, arduous two months of hard work.
And it can be flushed away in two hours tonight.
That is really what is at stake here. Purdue has very little to gain by beating Rutgers aside from taking a big step towards clinching a double bye in the Big Ten Tournament. A loss, however, pretty much flushes away the last two months of hard work to get to where we are, because a third loss to a sub-100 team at home would be absolutely devastating.
Opponent: |
Rutgers Scarlet Knights |
From: |
Piscataway, NJ |
Date: |
2/26/2015 |
Venue: |
Mackey Arena (14,240) |
TV: |
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Radio Stream: |
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Satellite Radio: |
SIRI 136, XM |
Odds: |
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Tickets: |
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Tipoff: |
9pm |
KenPom Ranking: |
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RPI: |
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Blog Representation: |
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2014-15 Record: |
10-18, 2-13 |
All-time series |
Purdue leads 4-1 |
Last Purdue win: |
2/12/2015 at Rutgers 61-51 |
Last Rutgers Win: |
12/4/1975 at Madison Square Garden 81-73 |
2013-14 Record: |
11-21, 5-13 American |
Last NCAA appearance: |
1991 (reached 1976 Final Four) |
Coach: |
Eddie Jordan (22-39 in 2nd year at Rutgers) |
Not much has changed since the last time we met two weeks ago. Rutgers is still a terrible offensive team with only Kadeem Jack and Myles Jack playing anywhere close to a Big Ten level. They are on an 11 game losing streak, having not won since January 11 when they stunned Wisconsin. They are winless on the road in Big Ten play with their closest loss coming at Indiana by 8, and the Hoosiers just drilled them by 30. They are not playing good basketball by any stretch of the imagination and look like a team playing out the string. Their season will mercifully be put out of its misery on March 11 in Chicago.
Honestly, this would be a devastating loss if it occurred because they have lost their last two games by a total of 64 points to Indiana and Iowa, who haven't exactly set the league on fire. Greg Lewis led them in scoring with 13 points against IU on Sunday, but they shot 37% from the field, which is nearly their average. This team is 341st nationally in scoring out of 351 Division I teams and 335th in field goal percentage.
This is going to be a short preview because I am going to quote Herb Brooks. As Team USA was losing in the second intermission to Finland after the Miracle on Ice he came into the locker room and famously said, "If you lose this, you'll take it to your fuckin' grave."
Rutgers is a dead team walking. There is no valid excuse to lose this game with the way we have been playing. None. We're at home and the only thing that concerns me is the Gardner-Webb and North Florida losses prove we're more than capable of gacking up a game we should win at home. That was months ago, however, and hopefully is gone forever.