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We follow this conference very close and felt all year long that if the Boilers are at full strength, they might be the best team in the league. Michigan State obviously staked that claim this year, however we’re not so sure Purdue wouldn’t be at the top of the heap if Robbie Hummel and Chris Kramer. They are now back playing with a full deck (the Illini are not) and we feel they will handle Illinois easily today.Speaking of injuries, the Illini were dealt a huge blow a few days ago when defensive stopper and team leader, senior Chester Frazier, was ruled out of the Big Ten tourney with a hand injury. While his stats may not overwhelm anyone (6 PPG, 5 RPG and 5 APG), he is a glue guy that keeps his team together. He is also their best perimeter defender and his experience goes a long way. They didn’t need him yesterday vs. a Michigan team that played terribly after basically clinching an NCAA berth with a win the day before. His injury really thins out the Illini as they were forced to play five players more than 30 minutes each in last night’s win. Purdue is much deeper as they spread their minutes out last night with nine players playing double digit minutes and only one was on the court for 30+. That will have an affect today.These two already met twice this year with the Illini taking both. The Boilers were hoping to get another shot in this tourney at Illinois and they get it today. Don’t read too much into those first two games as one was way back in late December, a game in which Illinois won in overtime and PU made only 15 of their 27 free throws (55%) and shot just 38% from the field. Hummel and Kramer were both injured in that game and played but were nowhere near 100%. The other was @ Illinois and the Boilers were without Hummel. As Kramer stated after yesterday’s win, “It helps to have Rob and everybody back healthy. The other times we played them we weren’t at 100%.Purdue head coach Matt Painter challenged his team after losing their final two regular season games and playing poorly in both. He was upset with their offensive play and less than enamored with their usually very solid defense over the last week. The players responded with a great performance in an easy win over Penn State yesterday. That continues today with a little “extra” motivation and cruise past the Illini.
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