#1 Purdue Hosts #9 Illinois in Top-10 Showdown at Mackey Arena
GAMEDAY INFORMATION — GAME 15
[1] Purdue (13-1, 2-1) vs. [9] Illinois (11-2, 2-0)
Friday, January 5, 2024
8:30 p.m. ET | West Lafayette, Ind.
Mackey Arena | 14,876
TELEVISION: FS1 (Brandon Gaudin, Robbie Hummel)
RADIO: Purdue Global Radio Network (Rob Blackman, Bobby Riddell)
THE NOTES TO KNOW
• The No. 1-ranked Purdue Boilermakers open the home portion of its 2024 slate with one of its toughest games to date, as No. 9-ranked Illinois visits Mackey Arena for a Friday night showdown, tipping at 8:30 p.m. ET, on FS1. The two squads are ranked in the top 10 of the AP poll, the NCAA NET rankings and KenPom.com, marking Purdue’s fifth game this season against a team ranked in the top 10 of the NET.
• A win would give Purdue its second straight, 15-game start of 14-1 overall and hand Illinois its first Big Ten setback of the season.
• The contest marks the first top-10 showdown in Mackey Arena, since Jan. 1, 2010, when No. 4 Purdue defeated No. 6 West Virginia, 77-62. It is just the 10th top-10 matchup all-time in Mackey Arena and only the third in the last 30 years.
• Head coach Matt Painter owns an 8-4 record in top-10 matchups, including a 3-0 mark this year (Tennessee, Marquette, Arizona).
• There are quite a few connections between the Illinois and Purdue squads. Fletcher Loyer and Luke Goode were teammates for a year (2020-21) at Homestead High School in Fort Wayne. Goode’s parents and Caleb and Josh Furst’s parents are good friends and actually have car-pooled together to the games between Illinois and Purdue. Lastly, Purdue’s Lance Jones and Illinois’ Marcus Domask were teammates at Southern Illinois from the 2019-20 to 2022-23 seasons, both playing in their fifth years this year.
• Purdue was voted No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll on New Year’s Day for the third straight week and for the fourth time during the 2023-24 season. With its No. 1 ranking this week, Purdue has now been ranked in the top 5 of the AP poll for 25 straight weeks, the longest-active streak in America by 11 weeks (Kansas – 14). It has been ranked in the top 3 in 19 of those 25 weeks.
• Purdue started the year ranked No. 1 (first poll of 2023) and ended the year ranked No. 1 (final poll of 2023). The Boilermakers are the only team in the country to be ranked No. 1 in each of the last three seasons (2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24), and have now been ranked No. 1 in four different calendar years (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024).
• The 25 straight weeks ranked in the top 5 is the fifth-longest streak in Big Ten history, but the second-longest streak in the last 45 years.
• Purdue owns a 42-7 record (.857) since the start of last season, the fifth-most wins nationally in that span. Thirty of the 42 wins have come against teams ranked in the KenPom top-100, including 23 against teams ranked in the top-50. The seven losses during that span are the tied for the second fewest in the country (Houston – 4; Florida Atlantic – 7), and have come by 1, 5, 6, 14, 8, 5 and 4 (OT) points.
• Purdue is 15-3 all-time against Illinois at Mackey Arena when the Boilermakers are ranked. When both teams are ranked, Purdue leads 4-1.
• Illinois ranks 12th in the country in offensive efficiency, meaning Purdue will have faced six of the top-30 offensive teams in its first 15 games of the season (Alabama – 1st; Arizona – 7th; Illinois – 12th; Marquette – 25th; Gonzaga – 26th; Tennessee – 30th).
• A win over Illinois would give Purdue a 43-7 mark over its last 50 games, the best 50-game stretch in school history (tied with 2009-10 and 2010-11 seasons). Both Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer will be making their 50th career start on Friday, coinciding with the run.
• Purdue’s starting lineup of Braden Smith, Lance Jones, Fletcher Loyer, Trey Kaufman-Renn and Zach Edey have started all 14 games. It’s the longest stretch for a starting group to start the season since the 2017-18 season (28 games).
• Zach Edey has moved into second on the school’s career rebounding chart (991) and is now ninth in points (1,857) and 5th in blocks (180). He needs 143 points, nine rebounds and 20 blocks to become the third player in NCAA history (Patrick Ewing, David Robinson) to have scored 2,000 career points with 1,000 rebounds and 200 blocks while shooting at least 60.0 percent from the field.
• Purdue is in search for its 26th Big Ten Championship, already owning the most Big Ten titles in league history. Should Purdue win the Big Ten title in 2024, it will mark its fourth title in the last eight seasons and back-to-back titles for the first time since 1994-95-96.