Game 25 Preview: #2 Purdue vs. Minnesota
Purdue looks to keep rolling in the Big Ten championship race and when it returns home to face Minnesota in the only matchup between the teams in the 2023-24 Big Ten regular season.
DETAILS: Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024 | 8:30 p.m. ET | TV: BTN (Brandon Gaudin, Robbie Hummel) | Radio: Purdue Radio Network
PURDUE (22-2, 11-2 B1G): ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS
MINNESOTA (15-8, 6-6 B1G): ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS
A FEW THINGS ABOUT PURDUE
• Now up two games in the Big Ten race, Purdue obviously needs to hold serve at home here in its lone meeting of the regular season with Minnesota.
• Quietly, Purdue’s been pretty solid defensively in Big Ten play, holding opponents under 70 points per game and ranking third in the league in efficiency, per KenPom.
A FEW THINGS ABOUT THIS GAME
• Minnesota has been one of the success stories of this strange Big Ten season, with 15 wins to this point and a .500 record in the league. Remember, the Gophers won nine games all of last season and just three against Big Ten teams. An NIT bid could be in the works, which would mark a positive step for the Minnesota program.
• Guard Elijah Hawkins, a transfer from Howard, averages 7.6 assists per game and boasts a top-five assist rate in college basketball. He’s the only Big Ten player posting bigger assist numbers than Purdue’s Braden Smith.
• Leading scorer Dawson Garcia, who Purdue has previously met during his stops at Marquette and North Carolina, left Minnesota’s loss at Iowa with a groin injury and has been deemed iffy for the Purdue game, but assuming he plays, the 6-foot-11 forward is a tricky matchup because of his inside-outside ability. He’s averaging 17.3 points and on pace for all-conference consideration.
• Cam Christie — the younger brother of Los Angeles Laker and former Michigan State player Max Christie — may be Owen Freeman’s biggest competition for Big Ten Freshman-of-the-Year. He’s a 41-percent three-point shooter and a strong pull-up shooter, averaging about 11-and-a-half points. Matt Painter dubbed Christie an NBA prospect.
• Minnesota is a poor foul-shooting team, at just 68 percent.
| TURNOVERS | REBOUNDING | CAM CHRISTIE |
| Both these teams have negative turnover differentials for the season and are very point guard-driven. Their ball security and decision-making obviously are critical. | Edey and Purdue’s 4 men are going to be a tall order for Pharell Payne and the rest of Minnesota’s front line. It’s the offensive rebounds and fouls piling up that really matter, as well. | This would seem like the hot-button guy for Purdue, with or without Garcia, because he is Minnesota’s best shooter and no one’s winning at Purdue without making a bunch of threes. |
GOLDANDBLACK.COM PREDICTION: PURDUE 85, MINNESOTA 70
Garcia’s status looms large, but regardless, Purdue wrought havoc on Minnesota’s frontcourt last season and though the Gophers have some bodies, that matchup edge should continue, among others. Minnesota’s a great story, but Purdue in Mackey Arena is a different animal.
