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PREVIEW: No. 15 Marquette attempts to hand No. 6 Purdue its first non-conference loss since 2020

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The last time No. 15 Marquette men’s basketball (4-0) beat No. 6 Purdue (4-0) was in 2019 at Fiserv Forum.

Five years later, both teams are back in that very same building, looking for one team to break the others’ undefeated record.

Last year, they faced off at the Maui Invitational where Marquette came up short 75-78 in the championship game. Two years ago, MU fell to the Boilermakers 70-75 when two squads faced off in West Lafayette, IN in a game that was part of the Gavitt Tipoff Games.

The Golden Eagles will be looking for some revenge Tuesday night, and are coming into the game fresh off a significant road win against Maryland on Friday night. Kam Jones put up 28 points in order to push them past their offensive issues earlier in the game to come out with a 78-74 win. 

Here’s what we know about the matchup against Purdue:

The energy boils over

The Boilermakers have not lost a regular season non-conference game since December 2020. They’ve won 39 straight regular season non-conference games, which ties them for the fourth-longest streak in NCAA history.

Friday, Purdue was able to get by No. 2 Alabama in a 87-78 win at Mackey Arena. Junior forward Trey Kaufman-Renn scored a career-high 26 points and pulled down eight rebounds as well. First-year guard C.J. Cox drilled three consecutive 3-point shots midway through the second half which gave Purdue the gusto to beat the Crimson Tide.

Kaufman-Renn, who is filling in for injured 7-foot-4 big man Daniel Jacobsen, spent a lot of time as the Boilermakers’ big Friday against Alabama. Kaufman-Renn may only be listed at 6-foot-9, be he plays much bigger than that.

Similarly to how they shut down former All-Big Ten honorable mention big man Julian Reese Friday, the Golden Eagles are going to have to keep the ball out of Kaufman-Renn’s hands and force Purdue to beat them beyond the arc if they want to have a chance at walking out of Fiserv Forum 5-0.

Young talent

While seniors Kam Jones and Stevie Mitchell play have played a big role in the Golden Eagle offense, Shaka Smart has added some younger players into the mix this year as well.

First-year forward Royce Parham tallied a career-high 10 points against Maryland and has shown he can get the energy flowing in Milwaukee after getting the crowd going with a dunk against Central Michigan.

Parham has arguably been the Golden Eagles best player off the bench so far this season. The first-year forward had timely bucket after timely bucket against Maryland, and was impactful on the defensive end as well.

Following Parham as another one of Marquette’s key offensive players is redshirt first-year forward Caedin Hamilton, who has shot 44% from the field thus far. Hamilton played a key role Friday night in holding down the fort after junior forward Ben Gold got into foul trouble in the second half. He finished with four rebounds and two assists in 12 minutes.

Highly touted first-year forward Damarius Owens — who missed the first three games of the season due to a toe injury — made his season debut against Maryland, playing four minutes while earning two points and a steal.

As Owens continues to get healthy and adapt to the speed of Division I basketball, it will be interesting to see how much he is incorporated into the rotation Tuesday night against the Boilermakers.

How to follow

This story was written by Raquel Ruiz. She can be reached at raquel.ruiz@marquette.edu or on Twitter/X @RaquelRuizMU.