Le Journal

2025-2026 Season Overall Record: 12-6 Big 10 Record: 4-3 Previous 3 Games 1/17: L – 74 – 86 vs Ohio State @ Away 1/14: W – 71 – 60 vs Penn State @ Away 1/10: W – 67 – 55 vs Maryland @ Home UCLA Personnel Starters Position#PlayerClassHeightWeightMinPtsRebAstPoint Guard2Donovan DentSr.6’2″18533.412.42.46.5Shooting Guard55Skyy ClarkSr.6’3″2102513.52.82.3Small Forward4Jamar BrownSr.6’5″20019.963.60.5Power Forward34Tyler BilodeauSr.6’9″23530.118.55.41.1Center1Xavier BookerJr.6’11”24518.26.83.20.9 Bench Position#PlayerClassHeightWeightMinPtsRebAstCenter24Steven JamersonSr.6’10”23012.42.62.80.7Wing/Forward3Eric DaileyJr.6’8″23026.510.55.51.4Wing8Eric FreenyFr.6’4″21510.31.31.30.4Combo Guard0Trent PerrySo.6’4″180252.81.80.6 Note Skyy Clark pulled his hamstring against Iowa and has missed the last four games. He was “questionable” for their game against Ohio State on Saturday, but it sounded like his return was imminent. I can’t find a source that says he’s not playing today, so I stuck him back in the starting lineup. Key Analytics (Per KenPom.com – National Rank in ()) KenPom Ranking – 42 Offense Adjusted Efficiency: 120.5 (50) Adjusted Tempo: 65.4 (300) Average Possession Length: 17.5 (186) Effective Field Goal%: 53.9 (85) Offensive Rebound%: 32 (154) Three Point%: 36.8 (38) Two Point %: 53.1 (127) Defense Adjusted Efficiency: 102.9 (50) Adjusted Tempo: 65.4 (65) Average Possession Length: 18.5 (352) Effective Field Goal%: 49.1 (95) Offensive Rebound%: 32.9 (265) Three Point%: 29.8 (31) Two Point %: 52.5 (217) Purdue Advantages Adjusted Efficiency Purdue Offense: 129.5 (1) UCLA Defense: 102.9 (50) Notes Efficiency, thy name is Purdue basketball. The Boilermakers still maintain a stranglehold on the best offensive efficiency, but did take a slight step back after the USC game, mainly because they left their shooting shoes in West Lafayette. On top of the shooting woes, Braden was uncharacteristically loose with the ball last time out, dare I say looking less like a Point God and more like a point guard. I anticipate Purdue’s favorite son to return to his deified status in this one. Mick Cronin’s teams are tough and play solid defense. Last season, they ranked 14th in defensive efficiency. They’ve taken a step back in 2026 in terms of efficiency, but they’re still going to make the Boilermakers earn it tonight. Two Point FG% Purdue Offense: 58.9 (25) UCLA Defense: 52.5 (217) Notes This is a weird one because UCLA does not lack size on the interior. In fact, when they play Eric Dailey and Tyler Bilodeau at the 3 and the 4, they’ll have a size advantage over the Boilermaker front court. If the Boilermakers try to put the ball through the basket instead of seeing who could make the rim vibrate the hardest, the mid-range game should be available with UCLA’s post defenders tending to stay closer to the basket. Offensive Rebounding % Purdue Offense: 37 (31) UCLA Defense: 32.9 (265) Notes Again, I don’t get it. It seems like UCLA should be a solid rebounding team. They’ve got size, but Tyler Bilodeau reminds me a little of TKR last season. He’s going to score, but rebounding occasionally eludes him. USC dominated the Boilermakers on the boards last time out, 38 – 25. Hopefully that was jet lag-related or possibly caused by the Purdue players having to adjust to the…verse weather conditions (is that the opposite of adverse?). I’m willing to bet that was a one-off performance from Matt Painter’s crew because I’m going to bet Coach Paint has had a little something to say about rebounding over the last couple of days. UCLA Advantages Two Point % UCLA Offense: 53.1 (127) Purdue Defense: 51 (155) Notes USC shot 61% from two; luckily for the Boilermakers, they only shot 15% from three. The good news is that UCLA isn’t particularly good at scoring inside the arc, but Purdue is slightly…

When the Knicks first started to struggle, fans and analysts were quick to diagnose the problem as fatigue, with a side of some schematic issues, and players just playing badly. But with every passing game, their so-called rough stretch looks less and less like a stretch, and more and more like who they actually are going to be the rest of the way. And in a lot of these losses, they don’t just look tired or like they aren’t executing. They look like a disjointed and dysfunctional team, if you can even call them that. During so many timeouts and blowouts, the players aren’t picking each other up, aren’t coming together, and it’s turned a lot of fans into sleuths and even lip readers. Yet all of that until recently was just speculation. But after the Knicks’ latest embarrassment, which came in the shape of a beatdown at the hands of the struggling Mavericks, players seemed to finally start voicing a bit more of their opinions on what’s taken place. Deuce McBride, who’s never been one to shy away from being honest and transparent, talked about how the team has had some underlying issues that were masked with wins earlier in the season, and how the Knicks have gotten way too comfortable while their opponents have been hungrier. "That's been the main thing over the last 11, teams are coming out more hungrier than us. When you get comfortable, when you've won, I think that's human nature and we have to fight against it"– Deuce McBride pic.twitter.com/q3pAs2uecq— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) January 20, 2026 Josh Hart, who is often labeled as the heart of the team and is among the most vocal players on the team, said, “We have to make sure we have a professional mindset to everything. We gotta come in & be locked in. We can’t go into practice & have things said several times; we can’t come out & not execute an ATO.” "We have to make sure we have a professional mindset to everything. We gotta come in & be locked in. We can't go into practice & have things said several times; we can't come out & not execute an ATO…At the end of the day that's the guys that have this jersey on" – Josh Hart pic.twitter.com/ABTDVyU2yC— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) January 20, 2026 Hart also spoke candidly about the need to look in the mirror, saying, “We all need to do some soul-searching. Some are looking in the mirror. Right now we’re playing embarrassing basketball. We’re not executing on the offensive end. Defensively, we’ve been abysmal. We’ve been terrible defensively all year”. "We all need to do some soul-searching. Some looking in the mirror. Right now we're playing embarrassing basketball. We're not executing on the offensive end. Defensively, we've been abysmal. We've been terrible defensively all year"– Josh Hart pic.twitter.com/o5VO06aWOo— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) January 20, 2026 The captain, Jalen Brunson, echoed those sentiments and added a sense of urgency and even desperation. Jalen Brunson on Josh Hart saying the Knicks need to do "soul searching""Should've started a couple weeks ago, but we gotta start tomorrow. We've got to figure this out fast" pic.twitter.com/OJ5t2Rp6D9— Knicks Videos (@sny_knicks) January 20, 2026 And that was just seconds after looking, and sounding a bit lost when asked about why the team didn’t show up. And that was after the broadcast caught Brunson trying to rally the guys together and instill that sense of urgency in everyone else. "At some point we gotta wake up…create some energy for ourselves. They're not gonna give it to us…our own f*king energy…Wake the f*k up…It's up to us…And don't watch the frigging news" –– AI on what Jalen Brunson said to Knicks during loss to Mavs (incomplete/imperfect) pic.twitter.com/OLVQlvguON— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) January 20, 2026 The honesty and frustrations didn’t end there as head coach Mike Brown, who has received his own share of criticisms, voiced his…