Wildcats Set to Take on No. 24 Purdue in West Lafayette

NORTHWESTERN MEN'S BASKETBALL: GAMEDAY INFORMATION
DATE	Opponent	TIME	LOCATION	Television	Live Stats
Saturday, Feb. 6	Purdue	3:30 pm CT	Mackey Arena West Lafayette, Ind.	Big Ten Network	Live Stats
Radio: WGN 720 AM Social: Twitter: @NUMensbball \| Instagram: @numensbball VIRTUAL PRESS BOX \| DIGITAL PROGRAM

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Northwestern hits the road this weekend to take on No. 24 Purdue in a Saturday afternoon showdown in West Lafayette. Saturday's game marks the Wildcats' ninth against a ranked opponent this season and first since Jan. 20.

Chicago's Big Ten Team last won at Purdue in Mar. 2014, a 74-65 victory that featured an all-time performance from Northwestern legend Drew Crawford who scored 27 points and brought down seven rebounds.

Purdue prevailed in heartbreaking fashion at Welsh-Ryan Arena last year on a three-pointer to break a tie with four seconds left. Miller Kopp, Boo Buie and Pat Spencer all scored in double digits in that game.

Tip-off is slated for 3:30 p.m. CT with live coverage on Big Ten Network and WGN 720 A.M.

Storylines:

The last time the Wildcats beat a ranked Boilermaker team was a 72-64 win on January 16, 2010 when Purdue was ranked sixth (at the time, the win was the highest ranked opponent Northwestern had defeated since 1979).
Chase Audige recorded a career-high five steals in the Wildcats' last game vs. Rutgers, tied for the second-highest output by any Big Ten player this season as well as the highest by an NU player since Anthony Gaines also had 5 vs. Illinois on March 13, 2019. Audige's 19 steals are the most by any Wildcat through the first 15 games since Reggie Hearn had 21 steals in 2012.
Miller Kopp ranks third in the Big Ten with an 87.5 free throw percentage, which would currently rank 7th in program history for a single season. Kopp made 89.6% of his free throws last season, good for second in NU single-season history.
Since their game at Penn State on Jan. 23 the Wildcats have played just one game over the last 14 days, due to a game at Wisconsin being moved up one week and a game vs. Michigan being postponed.
Saturday's game will mark the ninth opponent ranked in the AP Top-25 that Northwestern has played this season, tied with Maryland for the most among any Big Ten team. The 'Cats are searching for their third ranked win of the season, the last time they accomplished that feat was during their historic 2016-17 campaign (#22 Texas, #7 Wisconsin, #25 Maryland).