This afternoon ladies and gentlemen, it's the Illinois Fighting Illini (20-10; 11-8) visiting Mackey Arena to take on the #5-ranked Purdue Boilermakers (25-5; 14-5) in the regular season finale for both teams. This is also the only scheduled meeting for the two schools.
On Thursday, Illinois outlasted Michigan at home in a double overtime thriller, and Purdue won in the last few minutes at Wisconsin to wrap up the regular season conference title. Illinois @ 11-8 is in a six-way tie for second and would be looking to improve its seed position for the upcoming Big Ten Tournament next week and position for the NCAA Tournament the following week.
Purdue will be looking to get a few pieces of its overall game back on track and continue some momentum. The Boilers will be the top seed in the BTT and likely to be on either of the top two lines for the NCAA tournament. A win today would help its case.
Possible Starting Line-ups:
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Illinois - Coleman Hawkins, Dain Dainja, Matthew Mayer, RJ Melendez, and
Terrence Shannon, Jr.
Purdue - Mason Gillis, Zach Edey, Brandon Newman, Fletcher Loyer, and
Braden Smith
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Illinois is a talented team but sometimes unpredictable on which one will show up. They have three transfer players that have been big producers for them, led by Terrence Shannon, Jr. from Texas Tech. Shannon had been slowed recently due to a concussion, and he struggled from the field against Michigan. I expect he'll be poised for a big game today. He can get to the FT line, and although Illinois is not overall a good shooting team from beyond the arc, Shannon can light it up, especially if he gets good looks. The other two transfers, from Baylor - Dain Dainja and Matthew Mayer, can provide problems as well. Look for Dainja to try and pull Zach Edey from the paint.
Illinois also has some length to disrupt Purdue's offense, and Sencire Harris is a 6'4" freshman who can be a big spark on defense off the bench - he was a big reason for Illinois' huge comeback recently against Northwestern. The Illini can block shots and are capable of battling on the glass - the Boilers will have their hands full in the paint.
Look for Purdue to focus on Shannon and Mayer and force more difficult shooting attempts. The Boilers will have to really hold their own on the defensive glass, so Zach Edey, Mason Gillis, and Caleb Furst/Trey Kaufman-Renn will be key there, along with players like Brandon Newman and Braden Smith getting longer misses.
Ultimately for the Boilers - it's many of the same keys - limit the turnovers, get some extra rebounds to maximize possessions. This would also limit Illinois' transition opportunities, as they are fully capable of initiating offense from turnovers and long rebound misses. As this is the only meeting - Illinois will not have faced someone like Zach Edey all season - look for them to do some doubling and some single coverage, but they certainly have multiple front-court players they can use to help out Dainja.
Purdue is also back into somewhat of a slump from outside - they'll need a decent conversion rate today. Now they have been getting the right looks - just have to hit a few more - if they can do that and match the intensity of the Illini, they have a really good chance today.
Can the Boilers close out a regular season championship season with a big win and head into the post-season with some much needed confidence?
We shall see coming up in a little over an hour and a half or so.
Boiler Up, my friends.
