No. 3 Seed Purdue Ready for Tennessee in Sweet 16 Showdown
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The No. 3-seed Purdue men’s basketball team aims for its first Elite Eight appearance since 2000 when it takes on No. 2 seed Tennessee on Thursday.
The contest will be televised on TBS with Brian Anderson, Chris Webber and Allie LaForce calling the action courtside beginning at 7:30 p.m. ET. On the radio waves, the contest will be available on the Purdue Radio Network with Larry Clisby and Rob Blackman on the call, beginning with the Purdue Basketball pregame show at 6:30 p.m. Wes Scott will produce the radio broadcast. Due to contractual obligations, Purdue’s radio broadcast will not be available on TuneIn.com or SIRIUS / XM Satellite Radio. The Westwood One national radio broadcast will be available on those entities.
Live stats will be provided on PurdueSports.com, and Twitter updates will be available on Purdue’s official account (@BoilerBall).
THE TALKING POINTS
1) Purdue is making its third straight Sweet 16 appearance, one of four schools to be in their third straight Sweet 16 (Gonzaga, Kentucky, Michigan).
2) Purdue is looking for its first Elite Eight appearance since 2000. Purdue has made Elite Eights in 1969, 1980, 1994 and 2000.
3) This marks the second time in school history that Purdue has made three straight Sweet 16 appearances (1998-2000).
4) Purdue is one of seven teams with 25 wins in each of the last four seasons (Nova, Kansas, UNC, Gonzaga, Kentucky, Duke).
5) Purdue’s seniors (Ryan Cline and Grady Eifert) own a 108-33 career record, setting a school record for most wins by a senior class.
6) Purdue is located 184 miles from Lousville, marking its closest regional round (or later) game since the 1980 Final Four in Indianapolis.
7) Tennessee is located 246 miles from Louisville, meaning the two fanbases SHOULD have a large turnout for the Sweet 16 contest.
8) This will mark Purdue’s third game in the KFC Yum! Center since the 2014-15 season (2015 NCAA Tournament; 2016 ACC / Big Ten Challenge).
10) Purdue is one of six teams to win its first two tournament games by at least 13 points (Michigan, North Carolina, Texas Tech, Houston, Oregon).
11) In NCAA Tournament play, opponents are averaging 54.5 points per game, while shooting 30.4 percent from the field and 27.0 percent from deep.
12) Through Jan. 31, Purdue was ranked 70th in defensive efficiency according to KenPom. Purdue now ranks 26th in defensive efficiency.
13) Purdue and North Carolina are the only teams to rank in the top 15 of the Associated Press’ final top 25 poll in each of the last four years.
14) Matt Painter’s 12 NCAA Tournament appearances are most nationally for a coach under the age of 55. He is 48 years old.
15) Carsen Edwards leads all players still in the NCAA Tournament in career points scored in tourney play with 153. Charles Matthews is 2nd (122).
16) Matt Haarms became the first player to lead the Big Ten in field goal percentage and blocks since Ohio State’s Greg Oden in 2007.
17) Ryan Cline became the third player in school history with 100 trifectas in a season (Carsen Edwards, Troy Lewis).
