UW eyes better board work against Purdue
MADISON – Greg Gard's players don't need a reminder of how thoroughly they were manhandled by Purdue when the teams met on Jan. 24 in Mackey Arena.
Just in case their memories are blurry, however:
Purdue won the rebounding battle, 42-16.
“Forty-two to 16 has been talked about quite a bit the last couple days,” Gard said.
The Boilermakers had as many offensive rebounds (16) as UW had in total.
Evan Boudreaux, making his first start of the season, grabbed seven offensive rebounds and 13 overall.
The Boilermakers rebounded 48.5% of their misses (16 of 33) and scored 19 second-chance points and 15 points off UW turnovers en route to a 70-51 victory.
“I think we got bullied early on in the game,” guard D'Mitrik Trice said.
Bullied and battered from start to finish.
The Boilermakers (14-12, 7-8 Big Ten) visit the Kohl Center at 6 p.m. Tuesday for rematch with UW (15-10, 8-6).
UW's overall game plan for the rematch is neither complicated nor secretive.
“Make sure we're really physical with them,” said forward Micah Potter, who had 11 points and two rebounds in 14 minutes in the first meeting. “They've got two really good big men. They've even got some bigger guards with Nojel Eastern.
“On the defensive end we've got to make sure we're digging down on the big men and closing out on the shooters.
“But then really just get bodies (on them) and be more physical. They obviously out-toughed us the first game. We've got to make sure we out-tough them.”
Purdue is a more aggressive and more efficient team at home than on the road. The Boilermakers at home are 5-2 in league games and 10-3 overall. They are 2-6 on the road in league games and 3-7 overall.
Purdue enters the game No. 7 in the Big Ten in rebound margin at plus-3.8; UW is minus-0.1.
UW's players learned quickly that playing soft early, particularly at Mackey Arena, can lead to an ugly result.
Sparked by Boudreaux, the Boilermakers
built a 15-7 lead 7 minutes 19 seconds into the game. The Boilermakers scored seven points after offensive rebounds and five off UW turnovers.
“We didn't get stops when we needed to,” Trice said. “So it's definitely going to start on the defensive end.”
Guard Brad Davison led UW in rebounds with four. Nate Reuvers had two in 27 minutes.
Aleem Ford had one in 21 minutes. Tyler Wahl didn't grab a rebound in 19 minutes.
Ford has a combined 19 rebounds in the last two games – nine against Ohio State and 10 at Nebraska. He is averaging 4.0 rebounds per game, up from his mark of 1.9 last season. His numbers in the last four games: 9.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per game.
“I think this is just Aleem hitting his stride,” assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft said. “This is a stretch where he has been really consistent. Not so much the scoring and the shooting percentages but his effort and his intensity and his energy level.”
The Boilermakers lost their first five Big Ten road games, by an average of 12.0 points per game, before breaking through on the road on Feb. 1 against Northwestern, 61-58. They followed that with an impressive 74-62 victory Feb. 8 at Indiana.
That streak ended in ugly fashion on Saturday.
Ohio State hit 4 of its first 5 shots to build a 10-3 lead four minutes into the game, used an 8-0 run to push the lead to 24-12 with 6:55 left in the first half and never trailed en route to a 68-52 victory.
“We can't come out and be flat in the first 5 to 10 minutes,” Boudreaux told the Lafayette Journal & Courier after the loss to the Buckeyes. “We have to come out and act like it's a 60-60 game with 30 seconds left. If we set the tone, it's tough on teams. We haven't been consistent with that.”
With five regular-season games left, the Boilermakers are running out of chances to put themselves in solid position to secure an NCAA Tournament berth.
“I think for everybody in the Big Ten, especially Purdue, who is sitting around that .500 range, they need these wins down the stretch,” Trice said. “I don't know how (difficult) their conference schedule is for the rest of the season but I know they need to win.
“They're definitely going to come in with their hair on fire.”