Indiana basketball starting lineups, introductions video
The Hoosiers met undefeated Nebraska on Jan. 10. Here are the starting lineups from Assembly Hall.
- Indiana coach Darian DeVries and Purdue coach Matt Painter have a history dating back to their time in the Missouri Valley Conference.
- DeVries praised Painter’s evolution as a coach, noting Purdue’s elite offense.
- Purdue enters the game ranked No. 12, averaging 84 points per game on 51.3% shooting.
BLOOMINGTON — Indiana basketball’s game against Purdue on Tuesday night won’t be the first time Darian DeVries has crossed paths with Matt Painter.
They had memorable battles for bragging rights in the Missouri Valley Conference while DeVries was an assistant on Dana Altman’s staff at Creighton and Painter was at Southern Illinois. Their tenures at the schools overlapped from 2001-04.
“They had a really good team,” DeVries said Monday afternoon during a virtual news conference. “That was a good rivalry within our league.”
Celebrate IU’s title with books, special sections, page prints!
Southern Illinois won at least a share of the regular-season conference title in three of the four seasons during that stretch while Creighton won the conference tournament three times and shared the regular season title in 2001-02.
DeVries was 3-7 against Painter, but two of those wins came in the MVC tournament finals. Painter landed the head coaching job at Southern Illinois in 2003 and guided it to the NCAA tournament with a 25-5 record.
He accepted a job as the coach in waiting for Purdue’s Gene Keady the following year.
DeVries told reporters that scouting the Purdue team Indiana will face at Assembly Hall on Tuesday night has been a much different experience than breaking down Southern Illinois’ film back in the day.
“I’ve followed him for a long time, he does such a great job,” DeVries said. “They used to be all defense, then their offense lacked. Now they are elite, elite offensively and run so much stuff. It’s been, from a coach-to-coach standpoint, just being able to follow his career and watch how he’s continued to evolve at both ends of the floor, he does a good job with everything.”
Indiana (13-7, 4-5 Big Ten) will have its hands full against No. 12 Purdue (17-3, 7-2) that comes to Bloomington averaging 84 points per game on 51.3% shooting (No. 8 in the country). The Boilermakers are averaging 20.5 assists (No. 3) while only turning it over 9.3 times per game (No. 10).
The Hoosiers won last year’s game at Assembly Hall, but are 4-6 over the last 10 meetings.
This will be an introduction to the rivalry for most players on IU’s roster, but he didn’t anticipate anyone struggling to understand the importance of the moment.
“I think it’s something from your first day on the job, you understand the rivalry,” DeVries said. “When you are around college sports, you understand all the rivalries across the country and there are a lot of good ones. This is certainly one of those that is a pretty special rivalry. Certainly excited for my first opportunity and our team’s first opportunity to be a part of it.
Want more Hoosiers coverage? Sign up for IndyStar’s Hoosiers newsletter. Listen to Mind Your Banners, our IU Athletics-centric podcast, on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the latest on IndyStar TV: Hoosiers.
