Game Day Essentials: Game #11 vs #4 Purdue

Purdue Info

Head Coach: Matt Painter

Location: West Lafayette, IN
Conference: B1G
Nickname: Boilermakers

Mascot: Boilermaker Special, Purdue Pete

Rotation Depth: 9

Last Game: Beat Hofstra

KenPom: 5
Line: Purdue by 9.5

Shirt not to wear: Recently won blackshirt, bumblebee shirt

A couple of Famous Alumni: Glenn Robinson, Robbie Hummel

Other:  

• Purdue at #4 is the 3rd men's top 5 team to visit the PBA
• Matt Rhule will be introduced at halftime

KenPom Analysis:  Purdue is a methodical offensive team which means that Nebraska can hunt for offensive rebounds without as much fear of being hurt in transition.  Purdue isn't a team likely to exploit Nebraska's turnover issues.

Player to watch: Fletcher Loyer

Foster Loyer's little brother has been a day 1 starter for the Boilermakers and is leading the team in 3pt attempts while hitting 37% of them.

Player to watch: F Caleb Furst

Typically Painter has two giant posts who split time. This season he has a guy like 6'10" Furst  who can play alongside Edey at the 4 or operating as a center given his ability to shoot from outside.

Player to watch: C Zach Edey

Edey is in the running for national player of the year as he has been racking up double-doubles in the first halves of games.  He's also constantly a threat to foul out your starting and backup centers.

KenPom most used lineup

Others to watch

• This is your standard Matt Painter team: It's 4 guys who can shoot 3s that work around a giant post player. 

Probable starters for Nebraska
5    Sam Griesel    G    6-7
25  Emmanuel Bandoumel    G    6-4

0   C.J. Wilcher    G    6-5

4   Juwan Gary  F  6-6

13  Derrick Walker    F    6-9

Bench

15   Blaise Keita C   6-11

30  Keisei Tominaga    G    6-2

32  Wilhelm Breidenbach    F    6-10

10  Jamarques Lawrence - G  6-3

12  Denim Dawson - F  6-6

33  Oleg Kojenets    F    7-0
12   Sam Hoiberg    G    6-0

31  Cale Jacobsen  G  6-4

35  Henry Burt  F  6-6

24  Jeffrey Grace III  G  6-3

Injured

3   Quaran McPherson   G   6-3 - Out for the Year

Hoiberg/Wilcher Presser

The Skinny: 

This looks to be a relatively slow game as both offenses are methodically looking for easy shots.  That is one negative for this year's Nebraska team as they're unlikely to run Edey off the floor. However, this Husker team and their ability to grab offensive rebounds and defend without fouling sets them up to have a good chance at pulling the massive upset today.  Do they have enough juice to double Edey while trying to defend Purdue's outside shooters? We can hope and cheer.

Prediction: Purdue 67 - Nebraska 62