Purdue has one game left in 2023. A year that saw Purdue enter as the #1 team in the country last season, and will leave this season as #1.
Between those two #1’s, a Big Ten Title, a Big Ten Tournament Title, a whole lot of wins, and one March Madness upset.
But Matt Painter isn’t focused on that. Instead, he hopes to make this the third straight year that he can say his team went unbeaten in its non-conference schedule. Something that with its schedule, is saying something. Even if Eastern Kentucky doesn’t live up to Purdue’s early non-conference billing, the game holds no less meaning to Painter and his team.
“For us,” Matt Painter said after practice on Thursday ahead of Purdue’s Friday game at home against Eastern Kentucky. “This is a big game. You win, and you’re undefeated in non-conference. There’s not a lot of people in the country that can say that. Nobody can say they’ve done it for three years in a row. We’d be the only team that can say that.”
Purdue won’t just be playing Eastern Kentucky. It’ll be going up against the post-Christmas haze, and time away from the court. Purdue’s been back for the last three days, but it’s still a reset to a team that was just starting to play its best ball of the season, knocking off Alabama and #1 Arizona in back to back marquee match-ups.
“When you gotta go back,” Painter said about getting his team back in the right physical and mental mindset. “Switching it back on that first week and on top of that, you’re getting into Big Ten play.”
Looming past the non-conference sweep, is a Big Ten schedule that has Purdue with one loss already. It’ll go into the conference its supposed to win, with just a 1-1 record.
But Purdue remains the heavy favorites in the Big Ten, but it won’t get an easy restart of conference play. It’s first game after Eastern Kentucky will be on the road at Maryland, who stomped Purdue last season.
An Illinois game looms after that, though Illinois is now dealing with its star player likely out for the rest of the season as he faces rape charges.
Purdue is still very much the Big Ten favorite, but Purdue also feels like a team that has to prove it every night.
“We really do have to lock in,” senior Ethan Morton said after practice. “Just because we’ve lost that first Big Ten game coming back of the break the last couple years.”
That starts by beating Eastern Kentucky on Friday.
“They have athletic guards,” Matt Painter said of Eastern Kentucky on Thursday. “Guys that can break you down. Guys that can score the basketball.”
It won’t be an unfamiliar challenge for Purdue, who has seen its share of small schools, with small guards, try to push the pace on them. Eastern Kentucky plays at a top-100 pace and has three scorers in the starting lineup that average well above double-figures.
“We’ve played teams like this in style,” Painter continued. “But you still gotta be able to execute.”
Execute, in a lot of manners, means Purdue continuing to feature the single most dominant force in college basketball, Zach Edey. Eastern Kentucky is the 324th tallest team in the country according to Kenpom. It has no one taller than 6-8 on the roster which is concerning when you consider Eastern Kentucky’s defensive prowess.
Eastern Kentucky is the worst team in college basketball defending the three-point line. EKU will play a lot of zone and give up open looks to three-point shooters, and teams have taken advantage of it, making over 45% of its three-point shots against them.
Purdue is shooting just under 40% from three on the season. It’s the 16th best shooting team from the perimeter on the season.
EKU has been effective shutting teams down inside the arc, holding teams to just 45% from two-point range, but other teams don’t have Zach Edey. Purdue has thrived all season on Edey’s scoring inside, and his ability to pick apart double-teams and finding open shots at the perimeter which are falling this year, whether it’s Fletcher Loyer, Braden Smith, Lance Jones, or the bevy of shooting wings that Painter has coming off the bench.
Eastern Kentucky will have the advantage of a Mackey Arena without students back yet, but that will be the only good fortune it’s likely to see from a crowd that will still be a sell out.
While EKU likes to play fast on the offense end, its defense has really struggled to track players coming back. Part of its defensive woes on defending the three-point line is simply getting to shooters in transition.
Braden Smith has excelled in creating those looks all season. His ability to rebound at his position and push the ball has been deadly against teams without size. He’s threatened a triple-double multiple times this season in similar set ups to this game.
Look for both Smith and Edey to get what they want against Eastern Kentucky, and there’s been a season of proof that when those two have it going for Purdue, there’s not a team in the country that can keep up with Purdue.
