March 7, 2026; West Lafayette, Indiana, USA; Purdue Boilermakers guard Braden Smith (3) dribbles the ball around Wisconsin Badgers guard John Blackwell (25) during the second half at Mackey Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jacob Musselman-Imagn Image After several setbacks toward the end of the regular season, 18th-ranked Purdue will try to find the form that earned it an early-season No. 1 ranking when the Boilermakers begin Big Ten tournament play against Northwestern in Chicago on Thursday evening.
Purdue (23-8) earned a double-bye in the third round despite losing three of its last four games, including two at home. Saturday’s 97-93 loss at home to Wisconsin left the Boilermakers a No. 7 seed in the conference tournament.
No. 15 seed Northwestern (15-18) advanced with a 74-61 win over No. 10 seed Indiana on Wednesday.
Purdue guard Braden Smith continued to perform at a high level, recording 20 points and nine assists in the loss to the Badgers. He is averaging a team-high 14.9 points with 8.7 assists per game and is two assists away from moving into third place in Division I history.
But Smith was quick to acknowledge that the Boilermakers’ offense still needs complementary defense. Wisconsin shot 55.8% from the floor and 52.9% from 3-point range against Purdue.
“Offense is generally not an issue for us,” Smith said. “We do a good job of getting the ball to people for success. … Really, the only thing we need to improve the most is defensively. We’ve been talking about it since summer practices started, but that’s really it. When we get connected defensively, it makes it a lot easier for the offense.”
The Boilermakers’ Fletcher Loyer has averaged 16.2 points over the past 10 games after a January slide in which he scored in single digits in five of seven games. He is averaging 13.6 points on the season.
Royer scored 23 points against Wisconsin after shooting 6 of 9 from 3-point range.
Northwestern’s Nick Martinelli scored 28 points and freshman Jake West tied his career high with 18 points in Wednesday’s win over Indiana. West also scored 18 points against Iowa on February 8.
“I think we played our best basketball toward the end of the season,” West said on the Big Ten Network broadcast. “We have played a lot of games against high-level competition, but we have not been able to overcome them yet.”
The Wildcats already have two wins in six days of tournament, defeating No. 18 seed Penn State 76-66 on Tuesday. Thursday will be Northwestern’s second game against Purdue in nine days, following a 70-66 home loss to the Boilermakers on March 4.
Martinelli scored 28 points in the previous matchup against Purdue, where CJ Cox led with 27 points. Martinelli led the Big Ten in scoring during the regular season, averaging 22.8 points per game.
What made the difference for Northwestern on Wednesday was its defense, which held Indiana to 25 percent shooting (5 of 20) from the field after halftime. The Wildcats trailed by as many as 10 points in the first half before going on a 15-3 run to take a 60-47 lead with 9:33 left.
“I thought we were more connected defensively” in the second half, Northwestern coach Chris Collins said. “… I thought our switches were better, we were physical, we were scoring, so I thought we didn’t allow our offensive execution to get into the open court.”
–Field level media
