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Game 7 Preview: #1 Purdue vs Texas Southern

On3 imageby: Brian Neubert11/29/23brianneubert
Purdue's Lance Jones
Purdue's Lance Jones (Chad Krockover)

In its first game ranked No. 1 (again) and final game before its two-game Big Ten swing, Purdue — fresh off winning the loaded Maui Invitational — hosts Texas Southern, a buy game, but one with a bit of a storyline behind it for the Boilermakers to buy into.

Texas Southern has played in the past three NCAA Tournaments, and was actually the team Fairleigh Dickinson beat in Dayton to get to play top-seeded Purdue. You know how that went.

Purdue’s lost to double-digit seeds each of the past three NCAA Tournaments, an issue it has not avoided discussing.

“This is who we’ve struggled with,” Coach Matt Painter said.

DETAILS: Tuesday, Nov. 23, 2023 | 8:30 p.m. ET | TV: BTN (Matt Schumacker, Robbie Hummel, Denny Blount) | Radio: Purdue Radio Network
PURDUE (6-0): ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS
TEXAS SOUTHERN (0-6): ROSTER | SCHEDULE | STATS

TeamAPCoachesNETKenPomKenPom Win%
Purdue11—299%
Texas Southern———2441%

THREE THINGS ABOUT PURDUE

• Purdue hasn’t lost a game in November since the COVID year, a 2020 loss to Clemson in Florida as part of what was supposed to be the Cancun Challenge. The win streak stands at 20. A win tonight would complete Purdue’s third consecutive unbeaten November.

• Coming off a four-game run of games vs. Xavier, Gonzaga, Tennessee and Marquette, the Boilermakers are now top five nationally in efficiency on both offense (third) and defense (fifth), according to KenPom. There are teams that are top 10 in both but no one else is top five in both.

• This is Purdue’s last game before Friday’s trip to Northwestern for the opening of Big Ten play. Purdue’s next four games after TSU: Northwestern, Iowa, Alabama, Arizona. That’s two Big Ten games, then two more non-conference games against ranked opponents, including a possible 1-vs.-2 matchup with the Wildcats in Indy.

A FEW THINGS ABOUT THIS GAME

• Texas Southern is winless in six games, but they’ve all been road games, most of them against high-major or similar competition. Among them: Virginia, Creighton and Arizona State.

The 0-6 start is nothing new. Two seasons ago, Southern lost seven of its first eight before finishing 19-13; last season, it lost seven of eight, finishing with just 14 wins, but won the SWAC tournament to earn an AQ berth to the NCAA Tournament, where it got blown out by Fairleigh.

• TSU does have size to throw at Zach Edey in 6-foot-11, 240-pound Memphis transfer Jahmar Young, not to be confused with Maryland guard Jahmir Young.

• Forward Shaquir O’Neal is Shaq’s son. Head coach Johnny Jones was on Dale Brown’s staff at LSU during the NBA Hall of Famer’s college career.

KILL, KILL, KILLTURNOVERSLONG REBOUNDS
Competitively, of course. Purdue’s head should be on a swivel against all these small schools who may be emboldened by FDU, Saint Peter’s and North Texas to come at the Boilermakers’ heads. Plus, Purdue is No. 1 again and heavy lies the crown.Maybe not in a game like this, but Purdue has been playing with fire turning the ball over too much. Games like this are an opportunity to compete with oneself to play as clean a game as possible.Chances are TSU is going to shoot its share of threes. Samford and Morehead State did the same to open the season and wound corralling a lot of their many misses.

GOLDANDBLACK.COM PREDICTION: PURDUE 87, TEXAS SOUTHERN 52

It is what it is. You schedule soft-landing games after events like Maui to sort of ease back into things and insulate yourself from the letdown factor and such. This game will go as expected.

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