| NORTHWESTERN BASKETBALL: GAME DAY INFORMATION | |||||
| DATE | OPPONENT | TIME | LOCATION | TELEVISION | LIVE STATS |
| Saturday, March 9 | #11 Purdue | 1:30 p.m. | Welsh-Ryan Arena | BTN | Sidearm |
| Radio: WGN Radio AM-720 (Dave Eanet and Nate Taphorn) Social: Twitter (@NUMensBball) | Instagram (@numensbball) | Facebook Notes: Northwestern | Purdue |
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EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern will host Purdue on Saturday, March 9, in its final regular season game and the 'Cats are set to honor Vic Law, Dererk Pardon, Ryan Taylor, Jordan Ash, Charlie Hall and Aaron Falzon for Senior Day. Tipoff is set for 1:30 p.m. CT with Senior Day festivities starting at 1 p.m. CT in the new Welsh-Ryan Arena.
The 'Cats are coming off a victory over Ohio State in which senior center Dererk Pardon led the team with 20 points and 13 rebounds — his 8th double-double of the season — which places him fifth on Northwestern's career rebounding list.
The six senior night honorees have recorded a combined 1,219 points and 508 rebounds this season. Law, Pardon, and Taylor lead the team in points with Pardon and Law also tallying the most rebounds.
Law has been a key contributor for the Wildcats over his career. The captain reached his 1,000th point early in his final season. Law entered the Big Ten with a dominating first-year performance, including a .422 three-point field goal percentage in conference play. Following a 2015-16 season-ending injury, Law returned in the 2016-17 season to start all 36 games and earn a spot on the Big Ten All-Defensive team. Law will round out his career as a Wildcat averaging about 15 points per game and about six rebounds per game in his senior season.
Pardon will end his career as a Wildcat with a Northwestern record under his belt; he owns the best career field goal percentage in NU history (.608). The center captain is fifth on Northwestern's career rebounding list and has notched eight double-doubles this season. The Cleveland, Ohio, native began his career earlier than expected after injuries prompted the center to burn his redshirt and record 28 points and 12 rebounds in his second game as a Wildcat. Pardon led the Big Ten in field goal shooting percentage in 2016-17 and earned an All-Big Ten Honorable Mention the following season.
Although graduate guard Ryan Taylor was only a Wildcat for one season, the transfer from Evansville has been a key contributor for the 'Cats — he is third-highest scorer on the team with 301 points this season. In his career, Taylor has recorded 1,535 points, 149 assists and over 70 double-digit scoring games.
Forward Aaron Falzon entered Northwestern's recorded books during his debut season after hitting 63 3-pointers, the second most ever by a Northwestern rookie. During his career, the Newton, Massachusetts, native recorded 477 points, 149 field goals ,and 180 rebounds.
Senior captain Jordan Ash will finish out his Wildcat career with 109 points, 64 rebounds and 60 assists and redshirt junior forward Charlie Hall played in 20 games during his time in Evanston.
Purdue heads into Evanston 22-8 on the season and 15-4 in the Big Ten. The Boilermakers are fighting to earn the No. 1 spot in the Big Ten after an upset by Minnesota knocked the team even with Michigan and Michigan State in the Big Ten standings.
STORYLINES TO WATCH
BY THE PLAYERS: Northwestern will be honoring six players for Senior Day. The senior class collaborated with Under Armour to create their 'By The Players' uniform that the Wildcats will be wearing for their final home game.
DOMINATING DEFENSE: The 'Cats held Ohio State without a made field goal for the game's opening minutes and to a 26.6 field goal percentage in the game on Wednesday. The Wildcats have held major conference opponents below their scoring average in 19 contests this season.
DYNAMIC OFFENSE: The 'Cats outscored Ohio State, 36-20, in the paint and shot 44.8 percent overall. The Wildcats have been efficient under the basket, dishing out 15 assists on Wednesday to add to their 424 total assists on the season. Northwestern has outscored or matched their opponents in the second half in two of the last three games.
QUOTABLES
"Hopefully this will give the guys some confidence. I tell them all the time that until you are told you don't have any more games, you get ready to play and you compete to win. Obviously, we are not where we want to be in terms of wins and losses, but we can't look back. We can't look at what did or did not happen in the last month and a half. We control what we did tonight and now we can control what we do on Saturday."
-- Sullivan-Ubben Head Men's Basketball Coach Chris Collins on the win over Ohio State
"It feels really good. Especially going into Saturday into Senior Night. I am just happy we can go into Senior Night and the Big Ten Tournament on a high note."
-- Senior captain Vic Law on the Ohio State victory
"We held them to 50 points and that's something we always pride ourselves on: playing defense. I felt like we got stops when we needed to, we executed when we needed to when they turned the heat up a little bit. That was a positive for us as a group."
-- Senior captain Dererk Pardon on team highlights against Ohio State.
"I feel like [the future] is very bright. We have some good guys here, young guys here and some good guys coming in. As long as we take pride in what we do, which is playing defense and setting up some offense, I feel like we will be good in the future."
-- Pardon on the future of the Wildcats.