A lot has happened in college basketball since the 1956-57 season, but one thing that hasn’t occurred since then is Nebraska winning a game at Purdue.
The Cornhuskers will get another crack at ending that lengthy drought when they face the No. 20 Boilermakers on Sunday afternoon in West Lafayette, Ind., in a Big Ten contest.
Nebraska (12-3, 2-2) was on a six-game winning streak before dropping an overtime decision at Iowa on Tuesday.
The biggest key to Nebraska’s success this season has been on the defensive end. The Cornhuskers are allowing an average of just 66.7 points a game and have held three of their last six opponents to their lowest point totals this season.
Offensively, Nebraska features one of the league’s top scorers in Brice Williams, who is second in the Big Ten in scoring at 19.4 points per game.
Juwan Gary (11.7 ppg.) and Connor Essegian (11.3 ) also average in double figures for the Cornhuskers.
“It’s going to be incredibly important to stay mentally tough this entire game,” Nebraska coach Fred Hoiberg said. “This is the loudest arena we are going to play in all year, and it’s going to be start to finish.
“There are no lulls in Mackey (Arena). It’s one of the true great environments in college basketball. It’s important in those early games to get off to a good start. If you allow them to jump out and get confident, they are really hard to shut off. They’re clicking on all cylinders right now. They’re playing as good as anybody in the country at this time on both ends of the floor.”
Purdue (12-4, 4-1) is very much in the hunt to win its third straight regular-season league title. The Boilermakers have won four straight games overall and are on a 25-game home winning streak. Purdue is coming off a 68-50 victory at Rutgers on Thursday.
Like Nebraska, the Boilermakers also have been stout defensively, allowing just 68.6 points per game.
Purdue coach Matt Painter said he is pleased with the strides his team has made defensively during the winning streak.
“We’re still trying to do the same thing and get them to score over us,” Painter said. “When we have struggled and when we have lost is when people get offensive rebounds against us and people score in transition against us. Now, we put them to the free-throw line because we’re behind plays a lot. (Thursday) we did a better job of that.”
Leading the way for the Boilermakers offensively is arguably the Big Ten’s best point guard, Braden Smith, who is averaging 15.4 points and 8.9 assists per game.
Trey Kaufman-Renn leads Purdue in scoring at 17.7 points per game, while Fletcher Loyer is shooting 45.5 percent from 3-point range and averaging 13.9 points per contest.
Purdue enters Sunday’s game a half-game behind Michigan and Michigan State for first place in the league.
This will be the only regular-season meeting between Purdue and Nebraska.
–Field Level Media
