Men's basketball scouting report: No. 1 Arizona vs. No. 3 Purdue, 2:30 p.m. Saturday

No. 1 Arizona (8-0) vs. No. 3 Purdue (9-1)

Gainbridge Fieldhouse; Indianapolis • 2:30 p.m. • Peacock • 1290-AM, 107.5-FM

PROBABLE STARTERS

ARIZONA

G Kylan Boswell (6-2 sophomore)

G Caleb Love (6-4 senior)

F Pelle Larsson (6-6 senior)

F Keshad Johnson (6-7 senior)

C Oumar Ballo (7-0 senior)

PURDUE

G Braden Smith (6-0 sophomore)

G Lance Jones (6-1 senior)

F Trey Kaufman-Renn (6-9 sophomore)

F Fletcher Loyer (6-4 sophomore)

C Zach Edey (7-4 senior)

How they match up

The series: Purdue leads Arizona 7-5 but the teams have played only once since the Boilermakers beat the Wildcats 72-63 in what turned out to be the last game coached by Lute Olson, a first-round NCAA Tournament game at New Orleans during the 2006-07 season. Purdue also beat Arizona 89-64 in the last meeting, the seventh-place game of the 2017-18 Battle 4 Atlantis in Paradise Island, Bahamas, and also beat Arizona in the only previous matchup at Indianapolis, early in the 2000-01 season.

Game agreement: Purdue and Arizona are playing the first of what is expected to be two semi-neutral site games, with a return game in Las Vegas next season.

Purdue overview: After becoming only the second No. 1 seed to lose in the NCAA Tournament’s first round last season, to Fairleigh Dickinson, the Boilermakers are in position so far to get another No. 1 seed. With all starters back – including 2022-23 national player of the year Zach Edey — Purdue is running the third-most efficient offense in Division I and ninth-most efficient defense, having lost only in overtime at Northwestern this season.

Edey makes a significant difference in both of those metrics, drawing fouls and shooting efficiently inside while blocking — and altering — countless opponent shots on the other end. The Boilermakers have three other key post players, with 6-9 Trey Kaufman-Renn, 6-10 Caleb Furst and undersized but versatile Mason Gillis — who is both Purdue’s best percentage 3-point threat (52.6) and a confident driver to the basket off the bench.

Southern Illinois grad transfer Lance Jones joined the Boilermakers’ sophomore core on the perimeter: point guard Braden Smith and wing Fletcher Loyer. Smith averages 7.2 assists per game with a 3-1 assist-turnover ratio, while Fletcher and Jones both take more than four 3-pointers a game.

Purdue has beaten six Top 60 Kenpom teams, beating Gonzaga, Tennessee and Marquette to win the Maui Invitational, but lost on Dec. 1 in overtime at Northwestern, which hit 10 of 20 3s and turned the ball over only three times against Purdue.

He said it: “(With Edey) they are gonna run post plays for him in the half court. They're going to run him in ball screen actions where he's rolling and they're getting him the ball on the move. And with his enormous size, he's tough to handle at the rim. He's a really good finisher at the rim. Then if they shoot their perimeter 3s, he's really hard to handle on the offensive block. He's just bigger and stronger and more physical than anyone else on the court.

“Smith is a prototypical point guard. Deadly shooter. You can't give him any open looks from the perimeter. Really solid in the halfcourt, great handler, good passer. He accounts for a large majority of their ball screens, whether assisting or scoring. He's a huge threat. You add a great point guard with a great big and other good shooters around them, and you have a recipe for one of the best teams in the country. That's exactly what Purdue has.

“Jones is a really good defender, a very good shooter catch and shoot shooter. (Loyer) is a very good catch-and-shoot shooter but he also gets downhill, another guy that can get to the foul line. He uses his body well, he finishes good mid range floaters. So they put pressure on you: Jones, Loyer Smith are all capable of going for 20 points.

"Gillis will play the four some. He's a shooter but he's a strong physical body. He's gonna offensive rebound, but he's a very good perimeter shooter.

Defensively “They don't really turn you over and they don't foul. I think that Purdue has an elite quality, which is they is they get to the free throw line a lot, and then they don't allow people to shoot free throws.

“Edey can make any club have an elite defense and they do a good job of funneling stuff towards him and forcing you to shoot contested 3s or contested mid range. They know what they're doing.” — UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who scouted the Boilermakers.

Key players

PURDUE – Zach Edey

On an early pace to pick up his second straight national player of the year award, Edey is like virtually no one else in college basketball this season. The Toronto native is dominant and efficient on both ends of the floor, difficult to defend as a scorer or screener while his rim-protection on the other ends makes players think twice about driving inside.

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ARIZONA — Oumar Ballo

A returning Pac-12 first-team player and Maui Invitational MVP last season, Ballo has a chance to jump deeper into the national spotlight while playing against Edey. But he’ll have to adjust to actually giving up a few inches in size and, while Arizona has another set of five fouls in Motiejus Krivas, be particularly careful avoiding foul trouble.

SIDELINES

They had next

While helping lead Canada to the bronze medal in the 2021 FIBA U19 World Cup in Latvia, Purdue center Zach Edey was surrounded by Arizona Wildcats.

One of them was his teammate, Bennedict Mathurin, who averaged 16.1 points for Canada in the seven-game event.

Also, in Canada’s first game, Edey had to deal with then-Arizona forward Azuolas Tubelis and current UA center Motiejus Krivas of Lithuania. Tubelis had 32 points and 12 rebounds while Edey had 12 points and 16 rebounds in Canada’s 80-71 win.

UA associate head coach Jack Murphy, who attended the event in part to support Mathurin, Tubelis and Ballo, said he thought it became a “coming out party” for Edey, who averaged 15.1 points and 14.1 rebounds despite having played the game for only five years at that point.

“You could see `Man, this kid's gonna be good,” Murphy said. “He's not stiff. He moves well. Moves differently. I mean, that was an amazing tournament. Chet Holmgren was there, Victor Wenbanyama was there. I remember watching all those guys, and they all made Azuolas look small.

“I just think that Edey's one of those guys where his size can really just swallow you up. And you really have to be smart with how you attack him.”

While Edey didn’t get a chance to play in the U19 event against Oumar Ballo, who was leading Mali in a different group, those two will see each other plenty on Saturday.

Pastner’s preparation

For former Memphis and Georgia Tech coach Josh Pastner, breaking down the Arizona-Purdue matchup for Peacock’s pregame show Saturday was familiar turf. Not only has Pastner pivoted to helping with Big Ten coverage on Peacock, but he also happens to be a former Arizona player and assistant coach.

“I’ve seen both teams a bunch,” Pastner said. “I think they're both really, really good. Obviously, they're both very well coached. … I think (Arizona is) the best team in the country, and I think this is (Lloyd’s) best team. He's obviously had really good teams, but this is his best team in his third year. I think they're really good. I think they're deep. I think their guard play is good.

“Now this will be the toughest challenge to this point. It'll be a semi home game for Purdue based on where it's at.”

Also, the Boilermakers have the reigning national player of the year in Edey.

“He rarely fouls, he’s in great shape, he gets people in foul trouble, and he makes free throws,” Pastner said. “Playing against against Krivas and Ballo, that's going to be a great matchups. But it really comes down to the guard play, and really comes down to Braden Smith and, and Loyer. Those two guys going against Arizona's guards.”

Pastner said Arizona forward Keshad Johnson is an X-factor because of his ability to switch defensively between any player, and that guard Caleb Love, whom Pastner faced in ACC play when Love was at North Carolina, is “playing the best he’s played.”

“He's playing great and he's defending at a high level,” Pastner said of Love. “And I think people don't talk enough about Pelle Larsson. I think Pelle Larsson is excellent.”

Not paradise

Compared with the last time Arizona played a regular-season game in Indianapolis, their three-hour charter flight there on Friday was a piece of cake.

Early in the 2000-01 season, the Wildcats beat Chaminade, Dayton and Illinois to capture the Maui Invitational on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, then took connecting flights from Kahului to Indianapolis, where they played Purdue on that Saturday.

Predictably, even though the Wildcats went on to reach the 2001 national championship game, Arizona lost to Purdue 72-69.

“I don’t know if it was emotionally more than the travel,” said UA player relations director Jason Gardner, who was a point guard on the 00-01 team. “But they were definitely good and we didn’t perform that well.”

Arizona last played in Indianapolis during the second weekend of the 2009 NCAA Tournament. While the Wildcats were drummed there, in a 104-63 loss to Louisville, they had squeaked into the tournament under interim coach Russ Pennell and beat Utah and Cleveland State to reach the Sweet 16 game.

Numbers game

2: Top 15 Kenpom teams that Arizona has already played this season (Duke, Wisconsin)

4: Top 15 teams in Kenpom rankings that Purdue has already played this season (Gonzaga, Tennessee, Marquette, Alabama)

4: Arizona wins in five games against Top 5 ranked teams so far in the Tommy Lloyd era (wins against Michigan and UCLA in 2021-22, two wins against UCLA in 2022-23 and a loss at UCLA in 2022-23).

22: Straight weeks Purdue has been ranked in the Top 5 of the Associated Press Top 25 poll.

— Bruce Pascoe