Column: IU earns 2nd straight season sweep vs. Purdue

For the second season in a row, the Hoosiers have swept the regular season series with Purdue.

But unlike last year’s wins, this year’s sweep was defined by dominance.

Statistically and physically, the Hoosiers out-played the Boilermakers throughout Saturday’s 83-55 victory and in their 97-60 victory over Purdue on Jan. 30.

These wins mark the first time IU has ever beaten Purdue by more than 20 points in back-to-back meetings. It was also the first time the Hoosiers (23-3) are 20 games over .500 since Feb. 14, 1993.

Between the two games, IU outscored Purdue 180-115 and owned a number of important statistical categories.

The Hoosiers forced 35 turnovers that led to 45 points and shot 20-of-44 from behind the arc between the two games.

Purdue is a young team that just played in the toughest environment it will see all year.

The Boilermakers had 11 turnovers in the first half Saturday that led to 17 IU points off of turnovers. IU would finish with 25 points off turnovers for the game.

When you put an inexperienced team like Purdue into a tough road environment, it is going to struggle — especially against a team as solid as the Hoosiers.

“There’s no doubt you’re frustrated,” Purdue Coach Matt Painter said. “We just have to do a better job of maintaining that consistent effort. It gets very frustrating for them and it makes it worse.”

The biggest difference from round one in West Lafayette was the Hoosiers’ approach against freshman center A.J. Hammons.

“The one thing we wanted to do was put him in a situation where we could get into his body a little bit better,” senior forward Christian Watford said. “We changed up how we defended him.”

Four different IU players split time guarding the 7-foot freshman, but nobody did a better job guarding the big man than Watford.

The 6-foot-9-inch senior may have given up a few inches to Hammons, but Watford is an experienced defender of every position on the floor, and he has refined his post defense in practice against one of the Big Ten’s best big guys, sophomore forward Cody Zeller.

“He defends me sometimes in practice so he’s used to guarding big guys so I knew he could do it,” Zeller said. “It kept me out of foul trouble. He did a nice job of it. I think he should do that every game now.”

Watford’s defensive versatility is just one example of many that illustrates why the Hoosiers can match-up well against any team.

How many teams could lose a potential All-American player like junior guard Victor Oladipo just to have the next man step up? Junior forward Will Sheehey scored a career-high 22 points while breaking a school record of 9-for-9 shooting from the field.

Not many teams, and certainly not Purdue this year, can do that.

That’s what gives IU the ability to dominate its biggest rival.

The Hoosiers have more horses in the stable than the Boilermakers at this point.

“They are just really young,” IU Coach Tom Crean said about Purdue’s team. “I don’t want to feel too sympathetic, because I think they are going to be really good, but (Painter) is just too good of a coach for them not to be moving forward.”

When people look back on this year’s season series, it will be remembered as a year where IU and Purdue switched ends of the spectrum.

It was not long ago that IU was the young, inexperienced team trying desperately to just compete against the Big Ten’s elite.

Moving forward, Purdue can take a lesson from its defeats against IU like the Hoosiers learned from the losses they suffered to the Boilermakers in Crean’s first few years.

“As much as we competed against them, as much as we hated to lose to them, as much as we battled and prepared, there was a lot to learn by those guys,” Crean said.

The Hoosiers learned well, because, for the last two years, they have been the ones giving Purdue lessons.

­— mdnorman@indiana.edu