Ahead of Saturday night’s home contest against Indiana, Purdue basketball coach Matt Painter admits he shouldn’t have to say a whole lot to get his team motivated.
“This win would be the best win on their resume. You have to be cognizant of that and understand that. We are playing for something too. If our guys need something else to get motivated about playing your rival besides beating your rival straight up, sweeping for the year and getting one step closer to putting yourself in position for a Big Ten championship, I think we’ve got some issues. Our guys have worked really hard,” Painter said.
Purdue senior Ethan Morton admits he knows what is at stake Saturday when the Hoosiers and Boilermakers tip off.
“Every time we play them, it’s a big deal. Would be great to finish with a win against them, especially here. Hard to put into words. It’s the best rivalry in basketball. We are excited about the challenge,” Morton said.
Purdue basketball enters having won seven straight games and will bring a 21-2 overall, 10-2 Big Ten mark in. Indiana, on the other hand, is 14-9, 6-6. Despite the records, Purdue’s coach and players know just how dangerous the Hoosiers can be and how Indiana will enter Mackey Arena looking to throw a wrench in the plans the Boilermakers have of capturing a Big Ten championship.
Last month, Purdue upended Indiana, 87-66, at Assembly Hall. In that game, the Boilermakers raced out to a big halftime advantage, withstood an Indiana comeback and put the game away in the second half.
“Felt like we got good shots. I’m always encouraged when we get good, quality shots. We got some pretty good shots, they just didn’t go down, but their defense was part of that. We didn’t have a good start to the second half. They made some shots but I thought we showed some resiliency,” Painter said.
Painter said even with the loss of Xavier Johnson, Indiana is a “very talented team.”
“They took a hit when Xavier Johnson went down. Anytime you lose someone with that kind of experience… you can’t have enough experience. We’ve got to do a good job of guarding the arc, keeping the ball out of the paint and not letting them use their size and athleticism to beat us on the glass,” Painter said.
The veteran coach said Purdue basketball has to defend against Indiana’s duo of Malik Reneau and Kel’el Ware.
“Malik can score and shoot the basketball. He’s going to get on the glass. Tough covering him. We wanted to make it difficult on him. Ware can step out and make threes. They can change the game a lot. Both are really good players. Important for us to box out more than anything. Tough challenge,” Painter said.
With that said, Painter also stressed the importance of making sure someone else from Indiana doesn’t hurt the Boilermakers.
“Pick your poison. Obviously, talk about their front line and how good they are, but you can’t let Trey Galloway get away from you. You can’t let the ball get into the paint on postups and drives because guys like Anthony Leal come into play now. We have to do a good job of keeping the ball in front of us. Hopefully we come out and play well,” Painter said.
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