Purdue heads to Welsh-Ryan Arena on Saturday to take on Northwestern. It gets started at 12:00 EST and you can see it on ESPN 2. The Boilermakers are 5-2 against the Wildcats over the last four years. The last time they met (2/12/2012) they won 87-77.

Purdue is currently in 6th place in the conference and Northwestern is in 9th.

In their last outing, despite 30 points and 5 rebounds from A.J. Hammons, the Boilermakers fell to Indiana 97-60 on January 30th. He leads the team with 6.2 rebounds per game and 2.1 blocks per game. For the Wildcats, Jared Swopshire finished with 8 points and 8 rebounds in the 68-46 loss to Michigan on January 30th. He averages 9.6 points per game in addition to a team-best 6.6 rebounds per game.

Northwestern StatSmack

  • AP voters think more highly of Purdue and have put us in the AP Top 25 more often over the past 10 years than Northwestern (76 vs 3).
  • Purdue can actually jump, with more rebounds (40.2 per game vs 32.3 per game) than Northwestern this season.
  • You get an A for effort, but Purdue has emerged victorious against Northwestern the last 4 times they've played.
  • Purdue takes less vacation, with more NCAA Tournament appearances over the last 10 years than Northwestern (7 vs 0).
  • The Purdue blocks leader (A.J. Hammons) has more blocks than the Northwestern blocks leader (Alex Olah).
  • Ronnie Johnson is ranked 8th in the Big Ten in assists.
  • Diaper Dandies love us. Purdue has recruited more McDonald's All-Americans out of high school than Northwestern (5 vs 1).
  • We just win. Purdue has more wins over the last 5 years than Northwestern (140 vs 96).
  • Kids want to come here. Since 1998 Purdue has recruited more Top 50 high school players than Northwestern (3 vs 0).