E'Twaun Moore And Purdue Top Southern Illinois 79-60

So far on the season Purdue has played solid basketball int he friendly confines of Mackey Arena. The next three games will be their biggest test in the post Robbie Hummel Era. The Boilermakers will face Southern Illinois tonight at 8:30 in the Chicago Invitational Challenge. Tomorrow they will face wither Wright State or Richmond (an NCAA Tournament team from a year ago) in the final game, then they must travel to Blacksburg, Virginia to face the Hokies of Virginia Tech. Both of the Chicago Invitational games are being played at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, IL.

Tonight's matchup with the Salukis will be the first time that Purdue coach Matt Painter faces his former team. Painter earned his first Division I head coaching job at Southern Illinois during the 2003-04 season. He lead the Salukis to a 25-5 record and an NCAA Tournament appearance in his lone season in Carbondale before being named as Gene Keady's successor at Purdue. He was named Missouri Valley Coach of the Year for his efforts that season.

Southern Illinois comes in with a big lineup that should challenge the Boilermakers. Hammer & Rails offers an in depth preview of what to expect from the Salukis:

From the numbers above you can see this is not a strong offensive team. Gene Teague and Carlton Fay are the only double figures scorers. Teague is a big 6'9" 290 pound center that will be an interesting matchup for us. He is not as lithe as JaJuan Johnson, but he is bigger physically than Sandi Marcius. It will be interesting to see if we draw him outside with JJ or try to bang him inside with Travis Carroll and Marcius. This could be a game where Marcius is an asset to play him physically down low while JJ punishes them outside.

Fay is a 6'8" forward that can help Teague and make things even more interesting in the paint. I don't want to play the Hummel card, but we could really use his experience and defense against him. It is clear that with two solid post players we need Patrick Bade, Marcius, and Carroll to play more minutes and contribute more. Then again, JJ, handled Oakland's size just fine on his own. I would rather have the Bade-Marcius-Carroll trio play more in this game and gain experience for later.

John Freeman is an experienced and talented senior guard from Indianapolis. He is tied for the team lead in assists with Fay, but they do not have the ratios of assists to made baskets that we do. In fact, they have more turnovers than assists as a team. I think defense has been a concern a bit this early against the better teams we have faced in the last two games. I would like to see us play better on that end of the floor, especially against a team that shoots 48% from the field.

Southern Illinois is probably going to work the ball inside. They shoot the three poorly (27%) and they have a big lineup. Freeman is 6'5", and they have five players total at 6'7" or taller. They aren't afraid to get to the line (75%) and they average 38 rebounds per game. This will be a real test for our newfound post depth.