Sometimes, it just comes down to shooting

In their only matchup of the regular season, Purdue went on the road and defeated Minnesota, 70-62 in a 68 possession game. This game illustrated that, sometimes, it just comes down to who makes their shots. Both teams turned the ball over a lot (as you'd expect against these two defenses), both teams got to the foul line a lot (uncharacteristically), and both teams grabbed a lot of offensive rebounds. The only real difference was in how the two teams shot the ball, and it wasn't even close - Purdue made it their fourth game out of five in which they shot north of 50% eFG, while Minnesota was frigid (33% from two, 16% from three). E'Twaun Moore and Keaton Grant seem to be emerging from their season-long slumps - they combined to go 4 for 5 from downtown, scoring 25 points on 14 shots. JaJuan Johnson also had a nice game - 19 points on 10 shots, 8 rebounds, and 5 blocks.

Whether it was great defense by Purdue or just cold shooting, Minnesota really struggled from the field. They came into the game 23rd nationally in eFG%, driven by a nice balance of threes and twos. Turnovers and poor rebounding are nothing new for the Gophers, but this was easily their worst shooting night of the season (30.2% eFG). There's plenty of blame to go around, as nobody shot well except for big men Colton Iverson and Ralph Sampson III - and they took only 7 shots combined. Against a thin Purdue front line (including Robbie Hummel playing at less than 100%), you'd think that the Gophers would have tried to go to their big men a bit more. Of course, JaJuan Johnson's shotblocking might have discouraged those thoughts. Box score.

This is a big win for Purdue - Minnesota is going to win a lot of games in The Barn, plus this was the only chance for Purdue to grab the tiebreaker against the Golden Gophers. The Boilermakers still have a tough stretch ahead - 3 of the next 4 are road games at Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Illinois - but this win keeps them squarely in the title hunt.

Minnesota, meanwhile, loses their second home game of the season - the other to Michigan State. I think it's becoming clear that the Gophers aren't title contenders this season, but they're still in great shape to grab an at-large bid at season's end. Considering expectations coming into the season, that's still a nice surprise.

The conference takes a break until Saturday, with the following games on tap (all times CT):

Wisconsin @ Illinois - 3pm - ESPN
Iowa @ Penn State - 5pm - Big Ten Network
Northwestern @ Michigan - 7pm - Big Ten Network