No. 18 Purdue takes on Rutgers with eye on league standings

No. 18 Purdue is hoping its recent troubles have come to an end and that it can look ahead toward postseason play.

With a four-game slide in the rearview mirror, the Boilermakers look to win a second straight game when they face Rutgers on Tuesday night in Big Ten play in West Lafayette, Ind.

Purdue (20-9, 12-6 Big Ten) dropped four straight games — three to ranked teams — before ending the slide with Friday’s 76-66 home victory over UCLA.

That leaves the Boilermakers in a three-way tie for third place with Wisconsin and Maryland as they hunt for positioning for the upcoming Big Ten tournament.

“I don’t care who you are as a coach, I don’t care who you are as a player, you have self-doubt,” Purdue coach Matt Painter said.

“When you lose games, now you start to look into it, but you’ve got to stick to what you’re doing.

“If you stick to what you’re doing and you stay connected and you fight, you’re going to grow and you’re going to get out of some things. So, hopefully we can build and just get better.”

Boilermakers star junior point guard Braden Smith became the school’s all-time leader in career assists when he had eight against the Bruins. It raised his total to 696 in 103 games, passing Bruce Parkinson (690 from 1972-77).

“Bruce Parkinson was a great player here and a very successful player,” Painter said. “To hold honors or records or anything that long is pretty cool, because records are made to be broken. But for someone to do it in their junior year (like Smith) is pretty cool.

“He’s got a knack, he works hard, he’s a good player. A lot of times, people want to give you credit, but like, he walked in here passing. He’s got a feel and he’s got a read, comes from a basketball family. Just happy for him.”

Smith leads Purdue in assists (8.7 average), 3-pointers (66) and steals (69) and stands second in scoring at 16 points per game. Trey Kaufman-Renn averages a team-best 19.6 points.

Rutgers (14-15, 7-11) is in a four-way for 11th place and will be trying to bounce back from a painful 84-82 road loss at then-No. 15 Michigan.

The Scarlet Knights appeared destined to be owners of a three-game winning streak when they led 74-62 with 11-plus minutes remaining.

Rutgers later fell behind, but was back in front by a point as the clock wound down before Michigan escaped when Nimari Burnett drilled a long 3-pointer as time expired.

Even though the Scarlet Knights blew the huge lead, coach Steve Pikiell pointed at the officiating, and not solely because the Wolverines attempted 14 more free throws (32 to 18) than Rutgers.

“Just (expletive) devastated for our (expletive) guys,” Pikiell said on the Rutgers postgame radio interview. “Played so hard (expletive) the whole time. Excuse my language.

“A couple of (down the) stretch calls, I thought there were travels (on Michigan). We couldn’t get a stop, but I couldn’t be more proud of these guys. Coming into this place and playing toe-to-toe with them the whole time, and you lose on that play?”

Lathan Sommerville scored a career-high 17 points and Dylan Harper also scored 17 for the Scarlet Knights. Tyson Acuff added 16 points.

Harper averages a team-best 19.3 points while Ace Bailey chips in with 18.2 per game for Rutgers, which has lost the last four meetings with the Boilermakers.

Purdue posted a 68-50 win over host Rutgers on Jan. 9. Smith stood out with 16 points, 14 assists and three steals. Bailey had 17 points and seven rebounds for Rutgers, which established a season low for points.

–Field Level Media