The Three Pointer | Purdue (18-5; 10-2) vs. USC (13-9; 5-6)

The Trojans make the trip to Mackey Arena for their first conference with the Boilers

The Purdue Boilermakers, who recently elevated themselves into first place in the B1G with a road victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes, return home to Mackey Arena to take on the USC Trojans. This will mark the first time the two programs will face each other since 1988 and the first as members of the B1G. This will be the first trip for USC to Mackey Arena and their first to West Lafayette since 1939.

USC enters this game with a 13-9 overall record a sit in ninth place in the conference with a 5-6 record. Coming off their best win of the season against the Michigan State Spartans, the Trojans lost their first game of a two game swing to the Midwest with a loss to the Brooks Barnhizer-less Northwestern Wildcats 77-75.

USC was without their star guard Desmond Claude who suffered a bone bruise in his leg in the game against the Spartans. His status remains unclear as of Friday afternoon but the 5th leading scorer in the B1G at 16.2 points per game would be a huge boost. Be watchful of Penn transfer Clark Slajchert who scored 24 points, a season high, after scoring just 20 points total all season. Slajchert averaged 18 points last season and can be a huge boost for a Trojans program looking for more production from their bench.

The Boilers will enter the game on a three game winning streak and winners of nine of the last ten games since the calendar turned to 2025. Notably, Purdue now holds 13 Q1 & Q2 victories and their five losses on the season are from Q1. Accounting for just conference games, the Boilers have the most efficient offense led by likely All B1G players Braden Smith and Trey Kaufman-Renn. The dynamic duo account for 45% of the Boilers overall scoring on the season at 35.1 points per game.

Smith has been particularly impressive in the last several games and his name has crept into the conversation of National Player of the Year alongside Cooper Flagg and Johni Broome. In his last three games, Smith has averaged 26.3 points, 7 assists, 4.7 rebounds, and 4 steals, a particularly eye popping stat line as the season nears its’ end.

Let’s get into ‘The Three Point

1 | Dominate the Rebounding Margin

USC is a solid team on both sides of the ball but not a particularly elite one. However, they have struggled rebounding the ball in conference play ranking 14th in total rebounds at 28.8 per game. Yes, USC is an athletic squad with length but they don’t have overwhelming length and ability on the interior (more on that later) to give opposing teams difficulties in that regard.

Purdue, on the other hand, has struggled this year rebounding the ball as well ranking 12th in the conference at 29.1 total rebounds per game. Some of that can be attributed to the efficient offensive style they run that limits offensive rebounding opportunities and the uptick in steals and turnovers they generate per game. However, they have struggled recently with giving up multiple offensive rebounds multiple times over the last several games.

This is a game where Purdue needs to find their legs in the rebounding game to shore up the weaker parts of what they have built this season. So far Coach Painter has done a fantastic job doing just that with other aspects throughout the season, such as lineup changes, defensive communication, and offensive flow and initiation. If CMP can fix the rebounding this team has struggled with on the last few weeks of the season, the Boilers can potentially run away with the league title as they are favored in five of their last eight games according to Kenpom. Those three they aren’t? Away games against Michigan State, Illinois, and Michigan where they are all single possession games. Win one of those and hold serve at home and the Boilers will have a three-pete again.

2 | Let TKR Dominate on the Interior

I’m going to start this by saying how much of a disservice it was to TKR to leave him off both the Kareem and Malone Awards for the best centers and power forwards every year in college basketball. How they can leave off a player who is averaging 18 points, 6.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and is shooting 60.1% from the field is a travesty. So this may be a game where TKR has a bit of a bee in his bonnet and is looking to prove those lists wrong.

USC doesn’t have great interior length with Josh Cohen being their tallest player at 6’10 and they don’t have a great defensive interior presence either with no players averaging better than .6 blocks per game. Needless to say, this is a game where TKR should be able to get what he wants which is what has played out in most of the previous games. The issue will be, can he keep himself on the floor?

In their most recent game against Iowa, TKR was clearly dominating with 12 early points before grabbing two early fouls that sent him to the bench. Had he not picked up those fouls, he may have very well been looking at 20 or more points in the first half and a potential 40 point performance. Could we see that against USC? Possibly as it has shown so far this year the only player that has consistently shown he could stop TKR was himself (and Bittle from Oregon).

3 | Contain Dribble Drives and Attacks into the Paint

With USC this season, they are looking to use their athleticism to get into the paint. They do that by attacking off the dribble to get into the paint. That is something Purdue struggled with at time early in the season but seemed to suddenly turn the corner in that regard once the calendar hit 2025.

Purdue’s defensive strength lies in their guards and wings to apply pressure, force mistakes, and turn opponents over by jumping into passing lanes. Smith and Cox have formed one of the better defensive guard duos in the conference but the emergence of Gicarri Harris, Myles Colvin, and Cam Heide on the defensive end has been what has pushed Purdue into a top 30 defensive team in the country. Purdue can simply continue to roll out perimeter defenders throughout the game that doesn’t give their opponents respite.

Imagine having to see Braden Smith’s attack style of defense for ten minutes straight and suddenly you are matched up with a big bodied guard like Gicarri Harris or the length of Myles Colvin? It’s a tough proposition to deal with throughout an entire game and it’s why Purdue has been able to jump to first in the B1G this season with 8.5 steals per game and lead the conference in forced turnovers per game at 18.5. It has allowed them to be +5.3 this season in turnover differential, a superbly high number that gives Purdue that many more possessions per game than their opponents.

USC is going to try and attack the paint and spray passes to the perimeter for open shots and challenge Purdue’s weak interior defense. Caleb Furst has been a revelation for the Boilers to give them just enough of a presence at times but he isn’t Daniel Jacobsen in his ability to block shots. The Boilers will need to continue their high levels of communication on defense and most importantly sprint back into the defensive end to precent quick buckets in transition, something CMP has harped on in previous games.

And 1 | Get the Bench Going

I mentioned earlier that one piece of the puzzle to this Purdue team that they can improve on is rebounding but a bigger piece is bench production. It’s been a glaring weakness for this Purdue team at times with no bench players averaging more than 5 points per game (Myles Colvin). Gicarri Harris has seemingly turned the corner in the last several games from behind the arc going 4-7 but Myles Colvin and Cam Heide have struggled to put it lightly.

The ultra athletic pair of wings have struggled to just 3-22 (13.6%) from behind the arc since the game on January 15th against Washington. In fact, Heide has hit just 4 threes all conference season so far and stands at just 4-24 (16.6%) in the B1G this season. Heide and Colvin are necessary to the Boilers’ success moving forward this season as their scoring from behind the arc is a key ingredient in alleviating the pressure Fletcher Loyer feels to score.

Players to Watch:

Desmond Claude | Guard | 6’6 201 | Junior | 16.2 pts, 3.8 reb, 4.2 ast, 32.4% 3pt

The best player on the Trojan’s roster suffered a bone bruise in USC’s victory over Michigan State where he had 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. Claude is familiar with Mackey Arena as he was part of the Xavier squad that came to Mackey last season where he scored 15 points and had 6 assists. If Claude is able to go, this is likely a matchup for CJ Cox initially with Colvin and Heide applying pressure against a player who has a penchant for turning it over in bunches with eights games of 4 or more turnovers so far this season.

Saint Thomas | Forward | 6’7 225 | Senior | 10.6 pts, 6.3 reb, 4.3 ast, 1.3 stl, 32.4% 3pt

Saint Thomas has struggled the last two games but had a stretch where he 16.8 points over a four game stretch along with 6.5 rebounds and 5 assists. Those flashes have come at times this season but also some frustrating stretches as well like the five game stretch of 4.8 points earlier in the season. Thomas will likely line up alongside Josh Cohen which means it’ll be on TKR, Heide, and Burgess to defend him throughout the game.

Clark Slajchert | Guard | 6’1 171 | Graduate | 3.8 pts, .6 reb, .9 ast, 35.0% 3pt (7/20)

Many of you are wondering why Slajchert (pronounced Slack-ert) found himself onto this list given he is averaging just 3.8 points on the season and has played a total of 135 minutes. Well, the transfer guard was a flat out scorer at Penn last season averaging 18 points per game but just hasn’t had the opportunities to showcase that at USC. That is, until Claude wasn’t able to play against Northwestern and he got 30 minutes on the floor and went 9-11 from the field for 24 points.

If Claude isn’t able to go, Slajchert is going to get the opportunities to score and he has enough history behind to be a threat to keep USC in the game on the road. However, if Claude can play, the duo might present some big problems for opponents moving forward. The issue for USC is that Slajchert isn’t a great defensive player and Purdue would likely look to get matchups against Smith as much as possible. Smith and Loyer likely pulls this responsibility.

Prediction:

A lot of the determination about this game has to go into if Desmond Claude plays or not. He is really USC’s only point guard they have and the Trojans struggled against the Northwestern Wildcats without him on the floor. Without Claude on the floor to be able to use his positional length to impact players like Smith, Cox, and Loyer, Purdue could really leverage their strengths to their maximum potential. Notably, getting TKR into positions to score.

TKR holds a distinct advantage again in this game and expectation should be for a big game if he can stay out of foul trouble. It has been glaringly obvious over the last several games that when TKR is off the floor for extended time due to fouls, Purdue’s offense has struggled to maintain or get itself corrected. Simply put, he has to be able to stay away from the early fouls that get him sent to the bench. If he does that, TKR could be looking at a 22 points, 8 rebound, 4 assists kind of night.

More so than TKR, without a true presence on the wing from a top flight guard. This appears, on the surface, like a matchup that heavily favors Smith. I would probably even say that with Claude on the floor but without him, Smith can easily control this game. I’ll continue to say that Purdue remains on triple-double watch because that is the level he is at now on a nightly basis.

The bench grabs 21 points between them and Purdue improves itself to 11-2 in the B1G with a massive game on the road at Michigan coming up. Here is to hoping Purdue isn’t overlooking the Trojans with their eyes set on the Wolverines.

Boilers: 82
USC: 70