Purdue Basketball Preview: Game 24 – Southern Cal

On By Littum

Now tied to first in the Big Ten Race, seventh ranked Purdue returns to MacKey Arena for his first conference meeting with USC.

Details: Friday 7. February 2025 | 7pm A | TV: FS1 (Cory Provus, Nick Bahe) | Radio: Purdue Radio Network
Purdue (18-5, 10-2 B1G): Watch List | Schedule | Statistics
USC (13-9, 5-6 B1G): Watch List | Schedule | Statistics

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3-cplgros

A few things about Purdue

• Purdue won three in a row nine of 10, since the Big Ten plays resumed, and now lands a first place with Michigan State at the top of the conference with eight more common seasonal matches to play. Boilermakers are looking for their third title of the season.

• This is Boilermakers’ first home match against a member of BIG Ten’s new Western fraction. Purdue faces the Trojans for the first time since 1988. It is also USC’s first performance in the Mackey Arena.

• Trey Kaufman-Renn and Braden Smith are Big Ten’s Nos. 6 and 8 scores in conference games, an average of 18.9 and 18.2 points respectively.

• Fletcher Loys‘s three-point percentage of 44.8 is fourth-best in the Big Ten.

• Wings Camden Heide and Myles Colvin is a combined 13-of-59 from three in the Big Ten game, an area where Purdue hopes for an upcoming breakout.

• Purdue is now seventh nationally in offensive efficiency per year. Kenpom, # 1 in the Big Ten. Boilermakers is number two in the league in defensive efficiency, even after allowing 81 points on Iowa.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG6T15vdosu

About this game

• In Eric Mussan’s first season at the USC, the Trojans have played better and better as the season has emerged, scoring victories in Illinois and Nebraska and then deals with Michigan State his first conference loss, much to Purdue’s advantage.

• SC’s Midwest tour also included a game on Northwestern Tuesday, a loss of 77-75 in Wildcats’ first game without Brooks Barnhizer. Northwestern led this game with 15 with 10 minutes left.

USC leading goal scorer Desmond Claude Did not play in that game because of a bone mark in his legs that got a little in the Trojans’ victory over Michigan State. Claude played in the MacKey Arena last season for Xavier. His status of Friday night remains unclear.

Claude is Big Ten’s fifth leading goal scorer of 19.3 points.

• USC assistant coach Quincy Pondexter was a prominent for the Washington -team Purdue -Beat in the NCAA tournament in Portland in 2009 in Portland. Then he played eight years in the NBA.

• Through 11 games, the USC’s scoring violation and scoring defense stand on an identical 76.1 point, good for seventh and 10th respectively. In the league.

• SC Averages only 19 Three-point trials per Match in the Big Ten game and has made about 36 percent of them.

Three keys to Purdue

Be ready for something Dribble d Physicalness and Poise
Musselman will do different things, perhaps from possession to possession. He is probably one of the more unpredictable and manic coaches in America. Purdue is likely to see man, zone and press, for example. The USC will try to attack the dribbling in a number of positions, a style of offense Purdue has tended to do well against systematically. Doesn’t mean it’s easy. USC’s athletics and shiftability and penchant for pressure could adapt to elements that Purdue sometimes struggled with the early IB season. But it was a long time ago.

Not to know if Claude will play or not – there is very little media coverage around the USC and Mussan would probably not tell any hostile Big Ten — road environment. (The game at Illinois was a pointed dinner; it’s different.)