Top 20 CBB Clash: #7 Purdue vs. #20 Michigan Preview

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00:00We start in the Big 10. Top 20 tilt in Ann Arbor. Number 20, Michigan. An ever so slight

00:06home favorite, John, against number seven, Purdue. We can see what the odds makers expect for how

00:12close this game is anticipated to be tonight in Ann Arbor. In your estimation, John,

00:19what is the matchup that decides the outcome tonight between the Wolverines and the Boilermakers?

00:24Well, Michigan was non-competitive when the two teams played a couple of weeks ago at

00:28Mackey Arena. That was a 27-point win for the Boilers. But the thing that I'm looking at right

00:34now is Purdue has quietly won 11 of its last 12 games is the ancillary pieces in Purdue's rotation.

00:40We knew coming into the season that there were three constants for Purdue. Brayden Smith, who's

00:46having a first-team All-American type season, Fletcher Lawyer, and Trey Kaufman-Wren, who's

00:51also performing like an All-American. Those three players were starters on last year's team that

00:56went to the national title game and lost to UConn. But then I'm looking in the weeds. I am looking at

01:02the performances over the last two games of C.J. Cox and also Caleb Furst. Those two players over

01:09their last two games combined are combining an average 18 points and 14 rebounds together.

01:15Now, all of a sudden, we have a supporting cast. Now, all of a sudden, we have Purdue resurgent.

01:22And make no mistake about it, the Boilers don't have what they had when they had Zach

01:27Eadie in the middle, the first player since Ralph Sampson at Virginia in the early 1980s

01:32to win back-to-back National Player of the Year honors in consecutive seasons. But with all that

01:37said, Purdue doesn't have what it had, but it still may have enough to get back to a Final Four.