A year removed from IU’s Big Ten regular season title, rival Purdue has a chance to lock up a share of this season’s conference crown against the Hoosiers on Tuesday night.
The first matchup between these two teams this season was decided by two possessions, but the Boilermakers walked out of Simon Skojdt Assembly Hall with the win. Six of IU’s last seven games have been decided by six points or less, and the Hoosiers were finally able to execute down the stretch in Saturday’s win against Northwestern to snap a five-game losing streak.
IU Coach Tom Crean said the fact his team was able to get over the hump and win a close game shows the resolve and character the Hoosiers have. However, if IU wants to spoil a championship celebration Tuesday, it will have to bank on the same persistence it had Saturday to win inside a raucous Mackey Arena.
“We’ve been told it gets crazy, it gets loud, and a lot of things are said,” freshman guard Devonte Green said. “Just got to keep your head on straight and don’t let them get to you.”
The Hoosiers’ biggest test Tuesday night will be down low. IU will try to limit Purdue sophomore forward and national player of the year candidate Caleb Swanigan and his 7-foot-2-sidekick junior forward Isaac Haas.
IU relied on both of its 6-foot-10 forwards, sophomore Thomas Bryant and freshman De’Ron Davis,in the first matchup to slow down the Boilermaker duo. Although Swanigan finished with 16 points and 14 rebounds, Haas registered just six points on 2-of-8 shooting.
In the first matchup, Purdue senior forward Vince Edwards popped off for 26 points and eight rebounds. Crean said in addition to the two Boilermaker big men, players always have to know where Edwards is on the floor.
“It’s a team deal to me,” Crean said. “What’s most important is that we really lock in to not only how we guard Swanigan but what we do when the shot goes up. That’s the same with Haas and the same with Edwards.”
One thing that’s reassuring for IU entering this rivalry game is the fact it has posted the top 3-point defense in the league in the past six games. IU has held its opponents to 27-percent shooting from beyond the arc and even kept Purdue, the top 3-point shooting team in the league, to 29 percent in that span.
Crean said Purdue scores the ball so efficiently because its guards do an excellent job of moving without the basketball, which leads to open looks from distance. But, Crean said he is confident in his team’s defense and the way it has gotten better in the past few games.
“I don’t think you guard the 3 the way we’re doing it and guard the perimeter or the post the way we’re doing it if you’re not improving,” Crean said. “The field goal percentage defense to this day even gets skewed because of the turnovers.”
During the course of the year, IU has had 13 games that have been within three points with less than a minute to go.
The turnovers and mistakes IU commits in the course of the game pile up enough to ruin any chance of a victory by the end of it. Although the Hoosiers are facing the top team in the Big Ten on Tuesday, if they can cut down on the common mistakes, they’ll have a chance to take down the Boilermakers.
“They can beat anybody in the country, this team, we’ve already proven that,” Crean said. “So we’ve got to find a way not only to win a close game like we did the other day, but do an even better job of finding that margin during the game where we can eliminate some of the mistakes we make when we have tough segments of the game.”
