Thursday evening the Boilermakers will be back in Mackey Arena for the first time since December 4th when they defeated Iowa by a score of 87-68. Purdue went on to travel to Canada to defeat Alabama, and to Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis to beat then #1 Arizona 92-84. The Boilermakers are now 3-0 since the overtime loss in Evanston against Northwestern.

Jacksonville enters the contest with an 8-4 record following a comeback win Monday afternoon over UL Monroe. In Mondays game they were led in scoring by Marcus Niblack who had 29 points, 7 steals, and 7 assists. With a few seconds remaining in Jacksonville’s victory over UL Monroe, a Dolphin player decided to put the ball in the basket while up by eight points and it seemed all hell started to break loose as players started getting in each others faces, and even the coaches had some words to spit back and forth.

The team’s leading scorer, Robert McCray V, averages 16.9 ppg and 3.3 apg.

So far on the season Jacksonville has losses to Xavier (79-56), Pitt (107-56), UCF (94-52), and SC State (86-85).

They have two wins over Georgia Southern and wins over Fairleigh Dickinson, Robert Morris, Campbell and two non division one programs. I don’t believe Jacksonville will provide any issues for Purdue, as the Boilermakers have not shown the struggles against breaking the press this season. I assume we’ll see Jacksonville throw every zone defense possible at Purdue, as the Dolphins lack the size to compare with the lineup Purdue likes to run. The tallest player on the lineup that has played in at least five games for Jacksonville is 6’11 Tito Deng who has played in just 6 of the teams 11 games and two of his 6 games he played just one minute.

Score Prediction – Purdue wins 94-62

Game start – 6:30 PM EST @ Mackey Arena

Where to watch – Big ten

Radio coverage – Varsity Network