Texas At Purdue: Preview, Odds, & How to Watch

After a tune-up game Wednesday night Purdue is wasting no time in getting into the meat of the non-conference schedule. Purdue has the Texas Longhorns coming to town tomorrow night followed by the first road trip of the season to Marquette next Wednesday. There is no question that this team will be battled tested by the time it comes to defend our Big Ten title, and the first test of the season is Saturday night at home.

Texas Longhorns

• From: Austin, Texas
• Game Location: Mackey Arena (14,240)
• Date: November 9, 2019
• Time: 7pm ET
• TV: Fox Sports 1
• Radio: Boilermaker Sports Network
• Odds: Purdue by 7
• RPI: 38
• KenPom: 32
• 2018-19 Record: 21-16, 8-10 Big 12 (NIT Champions)
• 2019-20 Record: 1-0, 0-0
• Series with Purdue: Texas leads 3-1
• Last Purdue win: 58-54 in Boston, MA (NCAA Tournament) on 3/12/1999
• Last Texas win: 72-68 at Texas on 12/9/2018
• Blog Representation: Burnt Orange Nation
• NCAA Tournament History: 34 appearances, 4 Final Fours, last in 2003.
• Coach: Shaka Smart (72-66 in 5^th season at Texas, 235-122 overall)

Last season’s game in Texas was terribly frustrating. Carsen Edwards went nuts for 40 points in his home state, but didn’t have a lot of help because the rest of Purdue had just 28. Matt Haarms added 10, but it was very much the Carsen Edwards Show because Purdue couldn’t get much else going. Down 70-68 with 20 seconds left Aaron Wheeler was forced into a turnover and that was that.

It was a frustrating loss in an early season of them, but the teams went in opposite directions in January and February. Texas stumbled into the NIT barely over .500, but won it. Purdue, as we know, nearly took down The Champs.

Texas opened its season Tuesday night with a relatively easy 69-45 win over Northern Colorado. The biggest news was the feel good story of Andrew Jones. The sophomore guard missed most of the last two seasons while undergoing treatment for leukemia, but came back to score a career high 20 points.

Jones’ return is a great story. He averaged 11.4 points per game as a true freshman in 2016-17 and showed his versatility Tuesday. He finished the game 4 of 5 from three and was 8 of 13 from the floor. He also added two assists and three rebounds. This was all off of the bench, too.

Fellow guard Courtney Ramey, a 6’3” sophomore also had a big game in the opener. He was 8 of 17 from the floor for 16 points and he also had 10 rebounds and four assists. He only had three points in the game against us last year.

Matt Coleman III, a 6’2” guard, was the player that did much of the damage to us last season. He had 10 points and 6 rebounds in the opener on Tuesday and against Purdue he had 22 points on 7 of 11 shooting.

Texas struggled to shoot from three overall outside of Jones on Tuesday. He was 4 of 5, but as a team they were only 7 of 27. Purdue should have an advantage in the post. Jericho Sims is their main big and he had just four points and 7 rebounds in 15 minutes on Tuesday. Will Baker, a freshman, saw 10 minutes and did not score. Royce Hamm Jr. was decent off the bench with six points, but Matt Haarms and Trevion Williams should have an advantage.

Overall this is a good game. Texas is a very talented team that is well coached. They are going to be more guard-oriented and have good size. They are a fringe top 25 team and their expectations are to make the NCAA Tournament, so it is a good early season challenge. If they can win in Mackey on a Saturday night they can win anywhere.