In case anyone needs a reminder, Purdue guard Braden Smith will be happy to provide one.
“I can still score,” Smith said, “even though I pass a lot.”
Smith’s next mission, choose your own adventure: pass or shoot? — will come when No. 5 Purdue (15-1, 5-0 Big Ten) plays Iowa (12-4, 2-3) Wednesday night in West Lafayette, Indiana.
The Boilermakers will aim for their eighth consecutive victory. They are coming off a 93-85 home victory over Penn State on Saturday in a game that preserved their undefeated Big Ten record.
Smith will look to stay hot after scoring 26 points against the Nittany Lions. He has led Purdue in each of his last two games, averaging 24.5 points during that span.
For the season, Smith is averaging 14.1 points and a team-high 9.8 assists per game. He also averages 3.7 rebounds and 1.9 steals.
Smith credited his teammates for his success.
“I have a team around me that supports me and has confidence in me to go out and play and score basketball or pass the ball to them,” he said.
The Boilermakers will need to be sharp against an Iowa team desperate to win.
The Hawkeyes have lost two straight conference games to Minnesota and Illinois. They lost by three points in Minneapolis on Jan. 6 before returning home to Iowa City, Iowa, and losing 75-69 to then-No. 16 Fight Illini on Sunday.
The back-to-back losses mark the first adversity of first-year Iowa coach Ben McCollum’s tenure.
“When we first took over, we were like, ‘How can they get to a certain point so quickly?'” McCollum said. “People probably still think I’m crazy, but I see it. It’s coming.
“We’re getting there. You see the crowds coming. You see us winning games. Obviously we lost two that we probably shouldn’t have. But it’s building and we’re going to keep fighting for it.”
Bennett Stirtz leads Iowa averaging 17.6 points per game on 48.2 percent shooting from the field and 39.4 percent from 3-point range. He averages 5.1 assists, 2.4 rebounds and 1.6 steals to go along with his scoring total.
Tavion Banks ranks second in Iowa with 9.7 points per game on 55.1 percent shooting from the field. Alvaro Folgueiras rounds out the top three with 9.0 points per game on 53.2% shooting.
McCollum said Iowa needs a balanced offense as defenses target Stirtz.
“We don’t have a lot of weight on the back of our ball screens at the moment, so they’re able to load like crazy,” McCollum said. “So it’s really hard for (Stirtz) to get a quality shot.”
As for Purdue, three players besides Smith average double figures in scoring.
Fletcher Loyer is at 14.0 points per game and Trey Kaufman-Renn is averaging a double-double with 13.3 points and 10.0 rebounds per game.
Oscar Cluff is no slouch for the Boilermakers with 11.9 points and 8.6 rebounds per game.
“My theory is that no one wants to beat their body for 40 minutes,” Cluff said. “So coming into the game strong and doing that early on, obviously over time your body gets sore. People don’t want to protect you anymore. That’s the theory.”
–Field level media
