GAMEDAY INFORMATION
[1 / 1] Purdue (8-0, 1-0) vs. [10 / 9] Iowa State (8-0, 0-0)
Saturday, December 6 | 12:00 PM ET
West Lafayette, Indiana | Mackey Arena (14,876)
TV: CBS (Brad Nessler, Bill Raftery
RADIO: Purdue Global Radio Network (Rob Blackman, Bobby Riddell)
THE SCENE SETTER
• No. 1 Purdue hosts its toughest non-conference opponent to date as No. 10 Iowa State visits Mackey Arena for a Saturday showdown on CBS. The Boilermakers and Cyclones have combined for a 16-0 start and are own the best regular-season, non-conference records in the country since the start of the 2021-22 season (combined 99-9 record). The squads are ranked No. 2 (Purdue) and No. 4 (Iowa State) on KenPom.
• Following the contest with Iowa State, Purdue will host Minnesota on Wednesday for its second Big Ten December contest.
THE NOTES TO KNOW
• Purdue leads the all-time series with Iowa State by a 3-2 margin, but this will be the first game played in a home facility since 1987-88 season, a 104-96 Iowa State victory in Mackey Arena. It was the last time that Purdue lost when scoring 90 points -- a span of 13,893 days.
• Purdue is looking for its sixth season starting 9-0 or better since the 1938-39 campaign (first year of NCAA). Three of the previous five occurrences of 8-0 or better have come under Matt Painter (2009-10, 2015-16, 2022-23).
• Purdue is ranked No. 3 in the NCAA NET rankings as of Thursday morning, trailing Michigan and Duke. Purdue is 2-0 in quad-1 games and have played just two quad-4 games so far this season. Iowa State is No. 7 in the NCAA NET rankings.
• Purdue leads the country in assist / turnover ratio (2.17), while ranking fifth in assists per game (20.6), fifth in 3-point percentage (.418), 18th in scoring margin (+21.7), 14th in rebound margin (+11.6), 16th in scoring margin (+21.0), 21st in tunovers per game (9.5) and 23rd in field goal percentage (.510). Iowa State leads the country in scoring margin (+30.9), turnover margin (+9.5) and is second in turnovers forced per game (19.5). It is also first nationally in field goal percentage (.550) and third in 3-point percentage (.433).
• Individually, Braden Smith is second in assists per game (8.9), Trey Kaufman-Renn is eighth in rebounds per game (11.0), Daniel Jacobsen is 19th in blocks per game (2.38) and Fletcher Loyer is 11th in free throw percentage (.964), 21st in 3-point percentage (.491) and 36th in 3-pointers per game (3.25).
• Purdue (23rd - 5th - 29th) is one of four schools nationally to rank in the top 30 in field goal percentage, 3-point percentage and free throw percentage. The other three schools are Colorado State (11th - 1st - 3rd), Miami Ohio (5th - 26th - 23rd) and Yale (4th - 2nd - 7th).
• Purdue is one-of-eight schools to rank in the top 20 in both offensive and defensive efficiency, via KenPom.
• Purdue is 95-23 (.805) during the careers of Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn. The 95 victories are the fourth-most nationally while the 80.5 winning percentage is fifth nationally (Houston, Duke, UConn, Drake).
• The Boilermakers are 48-3 (.941) in non-conference play since the start of the 2021-22 season. Only one other team (Iowa State; 51-6) has fewer than seven losses in non-conference play during that timeframe.
• Purdue has tied a school record for consecutive weeks ranked in the top 25 (64) after being ranked No. 1 for the fourth time in five weeks.
• Since the start of the 2021-22 season, Purdue has been ranked No. 1 in the AP poll 17 times. Auburn and Houston are next with 11 weeks.
• Since the start of the 2021-22 season, Purdue has been ranked in the AP Top 10 in a nation's-best 66 (of 85) polls. Kansas is second at 65.
• Braden Smith, who has 829 career assists, needs 62 assists to move into the top spot on the Big Ten's career assists list (Cassius Winston - 890 assists). Smith passed Mateen Cleaves (816 assists) for second place in Saturday's win over Eastern Illinois.
• Last season's leader in blocked shots, Trey Kaufman-Renn, had 11 blocked shots in 36 games. This year's leader, Daniel Jacobsen, already has 19 blocked shots in eight games. Teams shot 55.6 percent from 2-point range against Purdue a year ago. This year, it's at 48.3 percent.
• Purdue has had two coaches since the 1980-81 season (Gene Keady, Matt Painter). The duo has combined for 991 wins at Purdue.