By Jason Tomcsi
Sports Editor

The Boilermakers will be playing on the road for the second consecutive game this Saturday when they travel to Madison, Wis. to take on the Badgers.

Purdue 9-10 (1-4) dropped another conference match up to Michigan State on Wednesday night 56-65.

The loss against the Spartans sends the Boilers off to their worst start in conference play since the 1965-1966 season. That record is the worst in school history at a 1-5 start, but Purdue could share that record if they lose again on Saturday.

"It's one of those years where the predictors were finally right," said Purdue coach Gene Keady. "It took them 22 years to predict we may be in last and it looks like it's finally going to happen."

This is the first time the Boilers have had this kind of record after 19 games since the1988-89 season. That was the only year that a Keady team has had a sub .500 record in his long tenure here at Purdue. That team finished 15-16.

The Badgers are coming off a win against Minnesota on Wednesday night. The win leaves them in a three way tie with Minnesota and Illinois for second place in the conference. The Indiana Hoosiers and the Ohio State Buckeyes are tied for first at 4-0.

Wisconsin is led in scoring by junior guard Kirk Penny. Penny averages 14.8 points a game. Also scoring well for the Badgers is freshman guard Devin Harris who adds 12.7 points.

The team's weak spot has been on defense all year. The Boilermakers are still last in scoring defense in the Big Ten. Despite the last place ranking on defense and the team's ranking toward the bottom of other categories, there are some Purdue players that sit atop many individual categories.

Guard Willie Deane is tied for first in the Big Ten in scoring with Iowa's Luke Recker averaging 18.3 points a game.

Senior John Allison is second in blocks averaging 2.3 per game. Allison added three more blocks to his total during the game against Michigan State.

Also Austin Parkinson is leading the league in assist-turnover ration with 2.69 and is second in assists averaging 5.29 every outing.

Although his team is not playing well, Keady hopes that a last place finish does not happen.

"I hope it doesn't; I don't want it to," said Keady. "We're going to go home and fight like heck to get our kids to play better defense."