Purdue vs. Jacksonville St.: Preview, Time, and TV

From: Jacksonville, Alabama

Game Location: Mackey Arena (14,240)

Date: November 23, 2019

Time: 8pm ET

TV: BTN

Radio: Boilermaker Sports Network

Odds: Purdue by 21

NET: 130

KenPom: 217

2018-19 Record: 24-9, 15-3 Ohio Valley Conference

2019-20 Record: 1-2, 0-0 OVC

Record vs. Purdue: First Meeting

Last Purdue win: None

Last Jacksonville State win: None

Blog Representation: Go Jax State

NCAA Tournament History: 1 Appearance, 2017 (Lost in First Round)

Coach: Ray Harper (68-44 in 4th season at Jacksonville State, 518-166 overall)

The Boilers get their last warm up before the back to back semi-finals and championships in the Emerald Coast Classic where they will play two of the three other tournament teams: VCU, Florida St., and Tennessee.

In Purdue’s first round game, they hosted Chicago St. and won 93-49. In Jacksonville St.’s first round game, they lost to VCU 93-65.

Purdue will look to move even further from their two late game let downs against Texas and Marquette by beating up on their third inferior opponent on the year. They have had rest to get their bodies healthy, and will have a few more after as they travel to Destin for Thanksgiving weekend basketball.

Jacksonville St. is likely to find Purdue’s length and athleticism on defense a problem. They are one of the worst teams in the country when it comes to taking care of the basketball. They rank 347th in turnover percentage and have turned the ball over on more than a quarter of their possession. Purdue has been the 58th best team in the country at forcing turnovers.

Jacksonville St. only strength on offense this season has been on the glass, grabbing second chance rebounds, but they will have a tough time of it with Purdue’s big men and guards having significant size and height advantages.

Jacksonville St. did play the spoiler last year in the Ohio Valley Conference (a two-bid league) by beating Belmont twice and Ja Morant and his Murray State teammates. But the 2019 Gamecocks graduated 5 seniors and this years team is young and inexperienced.

For Purdue, this game will be about tuning up for two tough match-up in less than a week. They will need to get off to a better start than their showing in the first round game, where they let Chicago St. hang around most of the first half.

It would nice to see Nojel Eastern get into an offensive rhythm, as well as for big man Trevion Williams start to flash the bully inside game he had through stretches his freshman year.

Jahaad Proctor will need to continue to be Purdue’s best all-around scorer (16 ppg) while expecting a bounce back performance on the offensive end by the 7’3” Matt Haarms who had just 4 points against Chicago St.

For Purdue, this is a take care of business game. There won’t be any answers after this game, you just have to hope there aren’t more questions.