LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Purdue bounced into Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and bounced Indiana by a dozen solid points 19 days ago. Bob Knight and more than 50 of his former IU players attended.
For two hours it was Purdue, not Indiana, that performed with Knight's unyielding approach on defense, limiting the Hoosiers to less than one point per possession and no hope in the second half.
Purdue made the bus ride to West Lafayette with a solid chance to finish in the upper half of the Big Ten and surge into another NCAA Tournament. The Boilermakers were an Elite Eight team that finished one second, one bounce and one miracle shot short of the Final Four last season.
Indiana was hit with the toxic social media bile that washes over teams that lose four straight games.
The rematch will be played at 7 p.m. Thursday in Mackey Arena. Now, Purdue is the sagging program that has lost four straight.
Bye, bye March. The Boilermakers are listed five spots out of the NCAA Tournament field at BracketMatrix.com.
Indiana has won three of four, including a pair against Top 25 teams. Archie Miller's team has moved ahead of 11 at-large programs on the BracketMatrix board.
An Old Oaken Bucket is not awarded to the winner of the IU-Purdue basketball game but the Hoosiers have more substantial things at stake on a night when they are listed as a 7-point underdog.
Here are three:
1. Interrupting Purdue's Dominance
The Boilermakers have won six straight and nine of 10 in this series. The Hoosiers have lost four straight to Purdue in Mackey, failing to win since Victor Oladipo and Cody Zeller played for Tom Crean.
Half the losses have been Shred the Box Score games -- Purdue by 10. That's not a rivalry. That prime fodder for Dan Dakich's radio show.
Crean finished 5-10 against the Boilermakers. Miller has failed to beat Matt Painter in his first four cracks.
Miller scored another in-state recruiting victory Tuesday night when Khristian Lander, a junior point guard from Evansville Reitz, orally committed to Indiana.
Like Trey Galloway, Anthony Leal, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Romeo Langford and others, Lander continued the trend of the top in-state players (from all parts of the state) picking Indiana over Purdue. The Boilermakers failed to earn any traction with Lander, who might reclassify and join the Hoosiers next season.
Recruiting victories get you on Twitter. Big Ten victories get you in the NCAA Tournament.
Painter has made it work with blue-collar three-stars that other Big Ten teams overlook.
In less than three full seasons at Indiana, Miller has beaten all but two Big Ten programs. One is Michigan.
The other is Purdue.
2. Major NCAA Tournament Cred
At 18-9, Indiana likely needs to win two of its final four regular-season games to exhale about making the NCAA Tournament.
After visiting Mackey Thursday, IU is at Illinois Sunday before returning to Assembly Hall for Minnesota (Wednesday) and Wisconsin (March 7).
Purdue is the game that Ken Pomeroy's analytics formula suggests that IU is least likely to win, placing Indiana's win probability at 32 percent.
A victory would also be Indiana's seventh against what the NCAA considers a Quad I opponent. Currently, only 14 teams have seven Quad I wins.
By beating Purdue, the Hoosiers could climb to the No. 8 seed line.
Other than that, nothing to see here.
3. Put Purdue in Scramble Mode
Purdue has a major climb to return to the NCAA Tournament discussion.
But with games against Iowa and Rutgers, both on Joe Lunardi's NCAA Tournament bracket at ESPN, Painter's team has a path back into the Selection Sunday discussion.
That path will narrow if Purdue loses a home game to Indiana and slips to 14-15 overall and assures itself of a losing record in the Big Ten.
Copyright 2020 WDRB Media. All rights reserved.
