Happy Holidays, ladies and gentlemen. This evening, it's the Jacksonville Dolphins (8-4) from the Atlantic SUN confernece visiting Mackey Arena to take on the top-ranked Purdue Boilermakers (10-1). Tip-off is scheduled for approximately 6:30 pm (Eastern time) with television coverage on the Big Ten Network.
Projected Starting Line-ups:
Jacksonville - Donovan Rivers, DeeJuan Pruitt, Marcus Niblack, Robert McCray V, and Jarius Cook
Purdue - Zach Edey, Trey Kaufman-Renn, Lance Jones, Fletcher Loyer, and Braden Smith
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The Dolphins picked up a 75-65 win against Louisiana-Monroe, and the Boilers are coming off an impressive 92-84 dispatching of former No. 1 -ranked Arizona last Saturday in Indianapolis.
Jacksonville is led by Robert McCray V, at guard who averages 16.8 points per game. Bryce Workman leads them in rebounds with just over 7 a game, from the bench. The other perimeter player for the Boilers to keep an eye on is Marcus Niblack with 12.8 points per game, and he also leads in steals with 2 per contest. Jacksonville is well down the KenPom ranks and is likely overmatched with this Purdue game, but the Boilers can't afford to take any opponent lightly.
This will be another opportunity for the Purdue team to improve its team chemistry and communication and improve on execution and shooting. I expect Zach Edey will be established early, as Jacksonville really doesn't have enough in the paint to match up, certainly not like Arizona or Alabama did. Look for Cam Heide and Myles Colvin to get more minutes than the previous games. It will be interesting to see how Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer play tonight. They were a dynamic duo in the backcourt against Arizona. Braden Smith has generally been terrific all season, and while Fletcher Loyer has definitely had his moments, consistently good to very good play will go a long way.
The Boilers will be off for the Christmas break after this game....can they keep things rolling tonight? We shall see in a little bit over an hour.
Boiler Up, my friends...
Projected Starting Line-ups:
Jacksonville - Donovan Rivers, DeeJuan Pruitt, Marcus Niblack, Robert McCray V, and Jarius Cook
Purdue - Zach Edey, Trey Kaufman-Renn, Lance Jones, Fletcher Loyer, and Braden Smith
____________________________________
The Dolphins picked up a 75-65 win against Louisiana-Monroe, and the Boilers are coming off an impressive 92-84 dispatching of former No. 1 -ranked Arizona last Saturday in Indianapolis.
Jacksonville is led by Robert McCray V, at guard who averages 16.8 points per game. Bryce Workman leads them in rebounds with just over 7 a game, from the bench. The other perimeter player for the Boilers to keep an eye on is Marcus Niblack with 12.8 points per game, and he also leads in steals with 2 per contest. Jacksonville is well down the KenPom ranks and is likely overmatched with this Purdue game, but the Boilers can't afford to take any opponent lightly.
This will be another opportunity for the Purdue team to improve its team chemistry and communication and improve on execution and shooting. I expect Zach Edey will be established early, as Jacksonville really doesn't have enough in the paint to match up, certainly not like Arizona or Alabama did. Look for Cam Heide and Myles Colvin to get more minutes than the previous games. It will be interesting to see how Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer play tonight. They were a dynamic duo in the backcourt against Arizona. Braden Smith has generally been terrific all season, and while Fletcher Loyer has definitely had his moments, consistently good to very good play will go a long way.
The Boilers will be off for the Christmas break after this game....can they keep things rolling tonight? We shall see in a little bit over an hour.
Boiler Up, my friends...
