Indiana University Athletics
Purdue Next On Schedule for Indiana
2/20/2016 12:07:00 PM | Men's Basketball
By: Tori Ziege, IUHoosiers.com | Twitter
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – For many the Hoosier faithful, beating Purdue is the bench mark of a good season.
Head coach Tom Crean doesn't necessarily see it that way.
The rivals meet tonight in Assembly Hall for their first ranked match-up in eight years. At first and fifth in the Big Ten standings, No. 21 Indiana and No. 16 Purdue join six other teams still mathematically in the hunt for a conference championship.
And in Indiana's game-by-game mentality, Purdue is simply the next team up.
"We want to get our 22nd win, it's a big game," Crean said. "I don't really look at it like checkmarks. Obviously you want to beat Purdue, they want to beat us, we want to beat Nebraska, we want to beat everybody we play."
In order to beat Purdue, Indiana will have to be able to match the play of 7-foot Boilermaker big men A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas.
Though the onus will largely fall on freshman Thomas Bryant as the starting center and tallest player on Indiana's roster at 6-foot-10, Crean said it will take collective effort from the Hoosier frontcourt to successfully contain Hammons and Hass.
Hammons leads Purdue with an average of 14.6 points a game while Haas comes off the bench, but the two will often see the court at the same time and clog the lane to the rim.
That makes senior forward Max Bielfeldt an appealing option for Indiana's starting lineup. He started in East Lansing opposite Michigan State's power forward Deyonta Davis and took full advantage of the opportunity with his second career double-double (15 points, 10 rebounds) as a Hoosier.
"We're going to need everyone on our frontline tomorrow to play really good minutes," Crean said. "It's good that Juwan is coming off such a strong game. OG could get inside and play. Collin has guarded bigger people before. Thomas and Max are going to have to do a great job for us. It's having numerous starters in my mind, which I think we do."
The Hoosiers and Boilermakers will meet once in the regular season for just the fourth time in nine years. Indiana natives junior forward Collin Hartman and senior guard Kevin Yogi Ferrell, however, have faced off against several of Purdue's players throughout their high school, AAU and collegiate careers.
Ferrell and Boilermaker senior guard Raphael Davis have gone toe-to-toe five times since electing to play for rival schools. True to the spirit of that rivalry, Davis would not say what made Ferrell, the Big Ten's active leading scorer, such a tough man to guard.
"I can't give him the satisfaction of answering that," Davis said.
For the first time since 2008, the state schools enter each with 20-plus wins on their resume.
For Ferrell, the stat is negligible.
"I think Indiana-Purdue, regardless if we're both 0-20, having that game is going to have enough juice for itself," Ferrell said. "Battle of the state obviously. That significance of that game whether we're both winning programs or losing programs, is still going to be very high level."
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – For many the Hoosier faithful, beating Purdue is the bench mark of a good season.
Head coach Tom Crean doesn't necessarily see it that way.
The rivals meet tonight in Assembly Hall for their first ranked match-up in eight years. At first and fifth in the Big Ten standings, No. 21 Indiana and No. 16 Purdue join six other teams still mathematically in the hunt for a conference championship.
And in Indiana's game-by-game mentality, Purdue is simply the next team up.
"We want to get our 22nd win, it's a big game," Crean said. "I don't really look at it like checkmarks. Obviously you want to beat Purdue, they want to beat us, we want to beat Nebraska, we want to beat everybody we play."
In order to beat Purdue, Indiana will have to be able to match the play of 7-foot Boilermaker big men A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas.
Though the onus will largely fall on freshman Thomas Bryant as the starting center and tallest player on Indiana's roster at 6-foot-10, Crean said it will take collective effort from the Hoosier frontcourt to successfully contain Hammons and Hass.
Hammons leads Purdue with an average of 14.6 points a game while Haas comes off the bench, but the two will often see the court at the same time and clog the lane to the rim.
That makes senior forward Max Bielfeldt an appealing option for Indiana's starting lineup. He started in East Lansing opposite Michigan State's power forward Deyonta Davis and took full advantage of the opportunity with his second career double-double (15 points, 10 rebounds) as a Hoosier.
"We're going to need everyone on our frontline tomorrow to play really good minutes," Crean said. "It's good that Juwan is coming off such a strong game. OG could get inside and play. Collin has guarded bigger people before. Thomas and Max are going to have to do a great job for us. It's having numerous starters in my mind, which I think we do."
The Hoosiers and Boilermakers will meet once in the regular season for just the fourth time in nine years. Indiana natives junior forward Collin Hartman and senior guard Kevin Yogi Ferrell, however, have faced off against several of Purdue's players throughout their high school, AAU and collegiate careers.
Ferrell and Boilermaker senior guard Raphael Davis have gone toe-to-toe five times since electing to play for rival schools. True to the spirit of that rivalry, Davis would not say what made Ferrell, the Big Ten's active leading scorer, such a tough man to guard.
"I can't give him the satisfaction of answering that," Davis said.
For the first time since 2008, the state schools enter each with 20-plus wins on their resume.
For Ferrell, the stat is negligible.
"I think Indiana-Purdue, regardless if we're both 0-20, having that game is going to have enough juice for itself," Ferrell said. "Battle of the state obviously. That significance of that game whether we're both winning programs or losing programs, is still going to be very high level."
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