Purdue’s No. 1 balloon got popped, but that doesn’t help Hawkeyes Monday night

Purdue was the No. 1-ranked men’s basketball team when Iowa’s club arrived in West Lafayette Sunday.

By the time the two teams tip Monday night in Mackey Arena, the Boilermakers will have ceded the top spot in the Associated Press poll to be released today.

Purdue lost 92-88 in overtime at Northwestern Friday night. That is road life in the Big Ten.

The Boilermakers swatted down Gonzaga, No. 7 Tennessee and No. 4 Marquette in succession in Hawaii over Thanksgiving Week. Beating Northwestern in Evanston was a different matter.

“We’ve got to find some guards that can be two-way players, not just offensive players,” Purdue Coach Matt Painter said after Friday’s loss. “If your best guy gets 35 and 14 and you outrebound them by 25, I’d like to think you should win. … We didn’t have enough intestinal fortitude or whatever word you might want to use to get stops.”

Intestinal fortitude often seems easier to locate at home. Of the 26 possible opening Big Ten games Iowa could have been given this season, playing at Purdue would seem to be the toughest task of the bunch.

The “best guy” Painter alluded to is the reigning men’s National Player of the Year, 7-foot-4 Zach Edey. The senior’s 23.1 points, 11.1 rebounds and 2.9 blocked shots per game speak for themselves, but Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery has more to add.

“He’s very difficult one-on-one, I don’t care who that one is,” McCaffery said. “He’s obviously become very used to dealing with pressure and double-teams and guys running at him. He’s actually gotten a lot better at that.

“For us, and for any other team that gets ready to play these guys, you just do the best you can in terms of how you’re going to play that team. Are you going to double? How much are you going double?

“Because a lot of times you pick your poison. You start doubling and they start draining threes on you, so that’s what makes them so hard to beat.”

Despite going 5-for-20 Friday, Purdue is shooting 42.8 percent from deep. Sophomore guard Braden Smith, the Big Ten’s assists leader, has made 50 percent of his threes. Off the bench, freshman guard Myles Colvin is 11-of-20 from that distance.

For Iowa to send the Boilermakers to a second-straight loss, some sort of effective defense will have to be included.

“You do different things,” McCaffery said. “You’re not going to do one thing the whole time. Obviously we’re going to mix in zone, we’re going to mix in pressure, we’ll play the post a certain way, and then obviously if they start draining threes, we’ll change it.”

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