Boilers begin crucial stretch with game at Iowa

By Paul Trembacki
Sports Editor

With the Big Ten season halfway over and Purdue still harboring thoughts of a conference title, the Boilers know all remaining games are crucial.

"I’d say every game, if you want to win a Big Ten championship, is pretty important," said junior guard Carson Cunningham.

The Purdue men’s basketball team starts the second half of the conference season with an 8 p.m. game Saturday at ninth-place Iowa. Purdue (14-7, 5-3 Big Ten) is in fourth place in the conference and senior forward Brian Cardinal, who led Purdue with 19 points in a 70-51 win over Northwestern Wednesday, said the team is looking to gather momentum after playing shoddily against the Wildcats.

"I think it was a wake-up call," said Cardinal. "We’ve got to build from the Northwestern game."

Coach Gene Keady said the Boilers will need to shoot better and pass better than they did Wednesday if they want to win in Carver-Hawkeye Arena.

"We’ve got to go up there and take care of the basketball and not turn it over too much," said Keady. "We just have to out-compete them because they have a tough place to play and they have a great crowd."

Iowa (10-10, 3-5) coach Steve Alford, who's in his first season in Iowa City, said he likes the fact that Carver-Hawkeye Arena is sold out for the rest of the season.

"I’ve been impressed with what our crowd has done so far," he said.

Keady will face Alford in the first coaching battle between the two. Keady has coached against Alford before, but it was when Alford played for Indiana from 1983-1987.

In the early ‘80s Keady recruited Alford out of New Castle High School in New Castle, Ind. Keady said he golfs with Alford and has accompanied him on trips.

But Keady said he is more concerned with the Hawkeye players. Keady said Iowa’s top scorers — Dean Oliver, who averages more than 14 points and four assists per game; Jacob Jaacks, who averages 13 points and seven rebounds; and Rob Griffin, who averages nearly 11 points per game — are all dangerous.

"Iowa has good balance," said Keady. "We’ve got to make sure we guard their best shooters because they’re gonna get the ball to the shooters like Indiana does."

Cunningham said shutting down Iowa’s top players will be a must.

"They’ve got a lot of guys that can get hot," said Cunningham. "Especially at their place, they’ve got like seven or eight guys capable of going off. We’ve just got to get the blocks down on defense and try to catch fire on offense."

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