Purdue equal parts encouraged and discouraged by win, moves on to Michigan

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Setting up a Friday rubber match​

It doesn't get much better than this.

Purdue won the home match up against Michigan with conviction, stomping the Wolverines 91-64.

At Ann Arbor, Michigan got the win back though the margins were thin, 75-73.

It's clear that it's a game that's still hanging in the minds of Purdue's players.

"I'm excited to play them. I'm real excited. I have a lot of motivation going into that game," Trey Kaufman-Renn said minutes after Purdue's close win against USC in its first Big Ten Tournament game of 2025.



Kaufman-Renn had 22 points against Michigan in the second game, but the more important number for him that game was 5. That's the number of turnovers he had before it was the number of fouls he had. Kaufman-Renn and Caleb Furst spent most of that game in Ann Arbor in foul trouble. Both would end the game on the bench, helpless as they watched true freshman Raleigh Burgess be thrown into tough final minutes in a hostile road environment.

Purdue will get a chance to both redeem the loss and make a declarative statement to the NCAA Tournament committee as multiple Big Ten teams vy for the 3-5 seeds and preferred destinations.

Once again Purdue will be a part of the final game of the night.

Purdue's losing streak started here​

"I feel like it sticks a lot because that loss kinda started the loss streak," CJ Cox said about taking on Michigan again. The loss to Michigan came after a 12 game stretch where Purdue won 11 and moved to the top of the Big Ten conference. The loss to Michigan started a four-game losing streak that sent Purdue spiraling into the end of its regular season.



"We were also up the majority of that game and then kind of fell off towards the end," Cox added. Purdue led Michigan by as much as 12 points, including holding a lead late in the second half, and let the lead slip away. That has been an unwelcomed trend for much of the last half of Purdue's season. Purdue's ups have been followed by even deeper downs in games.

Purdue flipped that script against USC as the Trojans had as much as a ten point lead against the Boilers and led by two possessions for healthy portions of the second half. It wasn't until the final minutes that Purdue was able to take the lead back and hold on to advance to get another shot at Michigan.

Half good, half bad news for Painter. Wins are always nice, and so is closing a close game out, but once again Purdue came out of a must win game without the energy it needed.

"So we really had to fight them and battle them to try to get going," Painter said of his team on Thursday night. "To try to use some different things, whether you're rebounding, getting 50-50 balls, you've got to be able to find your energy. Great players when it's not their night still find their energy and help their team win. It took us a while, but we eventually got there, which is a good sign."

Camden Heide was a big reason for the win and the energy late. Heide fell just one point short of a double-double with 9 points and 11 rebounds. It wasn't for a lack of efficiency. Heide made all three of his three-point attempts against USC. Though, he admitted, he's still struggling playing basketball instead of playing thinking about basketball. Between those three made threes, there were two more threes he and his teammates thought he should have taken.

But Heide was pivotal in Purdue getting over the hump and holding on against USC. He grabbed a game changing offensive rebound in a tied ball game with 28 seconds remaining and then got a steal after a Claude missed floater ended up back in Claude's hands. Heide reached a higher point than Claude just as the ball hit his hands, and Heide was able to dislodge the ball that would eventually end up in Braden Smith's hands.

Leadership and response​

Camden Heide said it was Fletcher Loyer that guided his team at half. It didn't do anyone any good to point fingers. There were plenty to point at in the first half. Purdue had 9 turnovers in the first twenty minutes against USC, and despite shooting the lights out of it, Purdue looked like a team that was missing energy despite all its experience.

"We kind of talked about it," Heide said after the game. "And we can't have energy only when things go well."

Things went well when it mattered most, late against USC, but this Purdue team, with two of the best teams in the country, was hoping to come into the tournament in tournament form. Instead, it was more of the same - Purdue's ups battled with its downs. Inconsistent defense and mental focus on both ends of the floor allowed USC to control for most of the game.



Now Purdue will have to respond on tired legs and sore bodies against a Michigan team that might need to make even more of a statement than Purdue.



Michigan enters the Big Ten Touranment on a three game losing streak after falling to Illinois, Maryland, and Michigan State to end the year.

B10 lesson​

After just two days, the Big Ten Tournament has lived up to the billing. Even if day two didn't have a double-overtime game, the talent, competition, and physicality was clear.

Now, into day three, the top-four seeds in the tournament join the fold.

It's worth noting Matt Painter's words on how good the Big Ten is in preparation for what appears to be a really exciting final three days of the Big Ten Tournament:

Obviously we have a corporation, and we have 18 teams. Anybody can beat anybody, especially on a neutral court. We have a great league. We have a physical league. We have a tough league. The offense, and then you see the game before, Iowa-Illinois, that's the most points ever scored in a Big Ten tournament game. Exciting basketball, good coaches, good players, and anybody can win this. Anybody can win this.

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