How Can Purdue Men’s Basketball Take Down Michigan? Staff Roundtable

Today is a big game for the Purdue Boilermakers. The #1 team in the country is coming into Mackey Arena. They want to take control of the Big Ten race and basically put it to bed while also possibly putting together the best Big Ten record since the league moved to 20 conference games. So, rather than wait until Wednesday or Friday I wanted to do a roundtable today. So I sent the staff and question.

Purdue finds themselves two games back in the loss column in the Big Ten standings. #1 ranked Michigan comes into Mackey Arena today to face the Boilermakers. A win here would give Purdue their second win in Mackey over the #1 ranked team (the first being over the Magic Johnson led Michigan State Spartans). What does Purdue need to do to win this game?

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Ledman:

Michigan has an offense that can put up points with ease. During a 7 game stretch earlier this season Michigan scored over 100 points 6 times. Those weren’t cupcake opponents either, that included Auburn and Gonzaga. Now sure, it also included Rutgers but still it counts. There’s no question they can fill it up. So, what can Purdue do? I think they’ve got to slow the game down. They’ve got to take care of the basketball and give Michigan fewer possessions to work with. Braden Smith will need to have possibly the best game of his career and control the offense like only he can. Also, keep Michigan off the glass. The incredible energy we’ve seen on the boards these last two games from this team, but especially Trey Kaufman-Renn, will have to continue.

Ryan:

Let’s start with the obvious: this is going to be the toughest game of the season for Purdue and it’s a good thing it comes in Mackey. Michigan has hunted the transfer portal under Dusty May (76.6% of their scoring comes from transfers) and there is talent everywhere. The bigs are the clear issue as Yaxel Lendeborg and Morez Johnson Jr backed by Aday Mara are maybe the most intimidating front court in college basketball. Purdue will first and…

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Publish date : 2026-02-17 17:23:00

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