The Hoosiers wasted little time getting down to business on Wednesday night.

In a near-perfect performance, Indiana added another game to the history books as the Hoosiers defeated Purdue in a spectacular rout at Mackey Arena, 97-60.

With a rivalry that began in 1901 and spans more than a century, it was the single largest margin of victory against Purdue in West Lafayette. In a game where nearly everything was clicking offensively, the Hoosiers showed an almost poetic lethality that was both dazzling and devastating to watch — an Indiana ode to offense.

First Half Stats Analysis:

From the opening tip, Cody Zeller was determined to get his.

He promptly asserted himself in the paint, drawing two quick fouls on A.J. Hammons, sending him to the bench and igniting Indiana’s offense that took off and never looked back.

Zeller rapidly allayed any fears about his slumping play to lead all players with 13 points and 9 rebounds in the first 20 minutes of action.

Adding 11 points (hitting two 3-pointers) and 3 rebounds of his own, was this season’s ever-consistent Christian Watford, who had tallied his 11th straight double digit game by halftime.

And even though Victor Oladipo was limited briefly on the offensive end (five points), he was swarming the Boilermakers defensively, with 3 rebounds, 3 steals, and a block.

There weren’t a lot of early positives for Purdue.

Somewhat surprisingly, they held Indiana to 40.6% shooting from the field, but it was mostly for naught as the Hoosiers were able to corral in eight offensive rebounds, and had already out-rebounded one of the top rebounding teams in the country by a margin of 11.

Despite early foul trouble, the freshman Hammons had a respectable nine points; however; no one else for the Boilermakers had more than four, and they found themselves down 47-27 by halftime to a hot Hoosier team.

Looking at our Four Factors, we can clearly see the Hoosiers were dominating in just about every facet of the game, most notably on the glass and at the line.

FOUR FACTORS: HALFTIME

eFG% TO% OR% FTR INDIANA (away) 48.44% 13.49% 53.33% 50.00% PURDUE (home) 37.88% 22.00% 18.75% 6.06%

Second Half Stats Analysis:

The second half didn’t go much better for Purdue.

I have to hand it to most of their students, however; they stuck around through most of it, and were fairly loud right until the final whistle. Some Indiana-friendly ‘Ola-di-po’ chants broke out once or twice, but they were quickly squashed by a loud-countering of, “Boiler up!”.

Naturally, Vic delivered a little more second half offense, and finished with another impressive stat line: 17 points, 6 rebounds, 3 steals, and 2 assists.

Also finishing with 17 was Watford, who ended up hitting a career high four 3-pointers (going 4 for 5).

The most notable statistic of the night, however, goes to Will Sheehey, who led the team and also set a career high in assists with seven (7!), surpassing his previous high of four, set earlier this year against Coppin St. Although it was highly unexpected, it was extremely satisfying and entertaining to see a fired-up Sheehey set up his teammates over and over, while tacking on seven points and two boards of his own.

The bench also received contributions from Elston, who was playing in his first minutes back from injury, as well as Creek, Abell, and Hollowell, who combined for a total of 16 points. Down below, our tables weren’t all that much different from halftime.

Indiana still came out on top in every category, and they reflect one of the most complete, dominating performances of the season.

FOUR FACTORS: END OF GAME

eFG% TO% OR% FTR INDIANA (away) 58.21% 11.94% 54.54% 28.36% PURDUE (home) 41.82% 26.87% 40.00% 25.45%

Final Word:

It was everything you wanted to see from the Hoosiers ahead of Saturday’s game and then some.

They quashed many of the lingering concerns associated with this Hoosier team, whether it was Cody’s offense, team defense, bench scoring, coaching, etc.

They did, however, allow A.J. Hammons to score 30 points (21 in the 2nd half), which is something that cannot happen if they Hoosiers are looking to beat the top-ranked Wolverines.

Occasionally, this Indiana team has difficulty stopping opposing players who get hot. Last year it was: Keith Appling (25), Jon Shurna (29), Draymond Green (29), Lenzelle Smith (28) to name a few, and this year we’ve been torched by Matt Hunter (40), A.J. Hammons (30), and Greg Gantt (25). I’m worried the same thing could happen with Trey Burke, but we’ll just have to wait and see on Saturday.

Next up: Saturday, February 2nd, vs. #1 Michigan (20-1 overall, 7-1 Big Ten)