Minnesota Basketball: Three Keys winning at Purdue

Where

West Lafayette

When

7:30 PM

How

BTN

Who

Purdue

Two teams, coming off of bad home losses are looking to get things back on track as we hit the back half of the Big Ten schedule. Purdue was blitzed by Michigan last weekend, losing at home by 17. Minnesota was favored at home but couldn’t manage to get to 50 points in a loss to Maryland.

Each team has had a week to stew over their respective loss and get things fixed. Can the Gophers go on the road and play well enough to beat Purdue? Here’s what it will take.

KEYS TO A GOPHER WIN

Reverse the ball! - Don’t spend 20 seconds dribbling on one side of the court, I know that passing has been emphasized, but pass it to the other side of the court and make the defense move. That is when penetration lanes open up, then we get to the free throw line and what is when we get inside-out passes to open three point shooters.

BOX OUT - Other than the loss at Iowa, we have been really bad at defensive rebounding. Currently we rank 285th in defensive rebounding %. Purdue isn’t elite at offensive rebounding, but they are pretty good. Their second chances cannot be part of the story, or we will struggle to win.

Paging Liam Robbins - Trevion Williams is the starting big man for Purdue and he’s their leading scorer. Liam Robbins needs to show up and keep Williams from dominating. Block a couple shots without fouling, rebound (see key #2) and be a focal point of the offense. He is huge tomorrow.

PREDICTION

I really feel like this is a perfect bounce-back game for the Gophers. A week off to button things up, some bad tape to watch and show what really needs to be fixed.

On the other hand it is on the road and this could be viewed as a bounce-back game for Purdue as well.

Minnesota - 79
Purdue - 77