Le Journal

Purdue takes on UCLA tonight, and I do mean tonight, in the second game of their west coast swing. After surviving a scare from USC in their first game all eyes will be on if the Boilermakers can improve in this one. Special focus will be on TKR who has had a rough three games and is looking to have a get right game tonight. Check out Casey’s preview for more on why he thinks that could be the case tonight. Who: #4 Purdue at UCLA When: Tuesday, January 2o, 2026 – 10:00 p.m. ET Where: Los Angeles, CA – Pauley Pavilion- Capacity – 13,800 (UCLA says this is an approximate number) TV: Peacock Purdue Radio: Purdue Global Radio Network (Rob Blackman, Bobby Riddell) So come and join your fellow Boilermaker fans in our fan discussion (formerly known as the open thread) as we talk about Purdue versus the UCLA Bruines in a late night, for us on the eastern part of the country at least.

The Big Ten has gone through a lot of changes in the last 15 years. It has gone from the Big Tenleven, to 12 Big 12 Ten (including a really confusing time where the Big Ten had 12 teams and the Big 12 had 10 teams), to the Bigger Ten, and now to the B1GGEST TENTEEN. Yes, all of this was for football, but since Purdue football is now dead and serves only as a vehicle to funnel those sweet media rights checks to the rest of the university for the price of never winning a game in the 18-game era, we only care about basketball here at Hammer & Rails. Through this wave of conference bloat expansion I have become the sacred keeper of two things: The Traveling THE and the Delaney Dozen. Think of the Delaney Dozen as a baker’s dozen (as in yes, it is more than 12). Named after former Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney, who started so much of this conference expansion nonsense, The Delaney Dozen is an honor given to Big Ten men’s basketball players who, over the course of their careers, manage to collect at least one victory in each conference arena. It is an honor that lies mostly with Purdue players because the Boilermakers have defended Mackey Arena so fiercely that many of the league’s greats on other teams simply do not win there. It is sustained excellence (with some luck) over the course of a career. In the 14 team team era only Iowa’s Peter Jok and the following players from Michigan got a win in Mackey and in every other arena: CJ Baird, Eli Brooks, Austin Davis, Isaiah Livers & Luke Wilson. We’re now in the 18-team era and you can already eliminate most of the conference, as Purdue has only lost at home to Wisconsin and Ohio State since the West Coast schools joined the league. Ohio State lost at UCLA last season and does not go back this year, so any freshmen or sophomores from last year will only get one more shot at that one. Wisconsin is in the same boat. Also, as an added note, Caleb Furst is in his own strange category. He played just one season in the 18-team era and never had a chance to play at USC or UCLA since both came to West Lafayette last season. He did, however, collect wins in all 16 arenas that he played in during his career. Furst also collected a neutral court win over USC last year in the Big Ten Tournament and a bonus road win over Penn State at the Palestra. Through all that, to my knowledge, Trey Kaufman-Renn can become the first player in league history to be part of a team that earns a win in all 18 Big Ten basketball arenas. Now there are a few caveats to this, but I am willing to count them. Here are all of his most recent wins in each as he prepares for his lone shot at Pauley Pavillion: Purdue Boilermakers – Mackey Arena – This is an easy one, as TKR has dozens of wins here. The most recent was last week’s 79-72 win over Iowa. USC Trojans – Galen Center – Purdue’s 69-64 win on Sunday was the program’s first in 53 years at USC, and the program is now 1-0 all-time at the 20-year old arena. Wisconsin Badgers – Kohl Center – Purdue’s 89-73 win in Madison a few weeks ago was not his only win, as the Boilers also won there on March 2, 2023. In fact, we have won three in a row now at the Kohl Center. Rutgers Scarlet Knights – Jersey Mike’s Arena – Purdue’s 81-65 win in Piscataway back in December was Purdue’s third straight win there, so he easily has this one. Iowa Hawkeyes – Carver-Hawkeye Arena – Purdue rolled to a 90-81 win in Iowa City last year on February 4, it’s third straight win there. The Boilers’ longest active win streaks in opposing arenas are now at Rutgers, Iowa, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Oregon Ducks – Matthew Knight Arena – Purdue grabbed a 65-58 win in Eugene last season on January 18th in its first visit to Oregon as part of the conference. Washington Huskies – Alaskan Airlines Arena – Purdue started last year’s west coast swing on January 15th in Seattle with a 69-58 win. Minnesota Golden Gophers…

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Purdue’s trip out west did not start out on a pretty foot. Purdue played poorly, saw its star point guard go down early, and though Braden Smith would return to the court and Purdue would record its 9th straight win when it hung on 69-64 against USC. Now Purdue hopes to have a healthy Smith after banging knees twice against the Trojans as the Boilers look to finish its two game California swing. The final leg will be against what looks like a not very good UCLA team that will want its first marquee win of the season. #4 Purdue 17-1 (7-0) at UCLA 12-6 (4-3) Purdue remains at the top of the Big Ten with Nebraska, but its schedule is just starting to show its teeth.UCLA has taken advantage of an easy early slate to get to four wins, but against good teams, its struggled. It doesn’t have a win against a top-50 Kenpom team and has nothing on its resume that suggests it’s going to be a tournament team. But Mick Cronin is a good basketball coach and there are players on UCLA. Can it make its first statement against a Purdue team that’s struggling to put a good forty minutes together? Familiar names lead charge for UCLA Tyler Bilodeau is back and averaging 18.5 points a game for UCLA. Skyy Clark is scoring 13.5 points a game. Trent Perry and Xavier Booker provide two more 40+% three point shooters for the Bruins, but neither UCLA’s offense or defense have caught a groove this season. Both are hovering around 50th best in the country according to Kenpom. UCLA has been bullied inside on both sides of teh floors. The guards are talented. The team is skilled. It can shoot. It makes UCLA a dangerous team for an upset, but it doesn’t have the big men play inside to take on some of the more physical teams in the Big Ten. It’ll have its hands full going up against the best big man combo in the Big Ten on the glass with Oscar Cluff and Trey Kaufman-Renn.UCLA also isn’t turning teams over the way it was last year to make up for its lack of size and play on the glass. Bruins are one of the worst defensive rebounding teams in the country. Teams are rebounding nearly a third of its misses against the Bruins. Purdue is one of the best teams on the glass in the country. Purdue got out rebounded by USC on Saturday. That could be fatal for UCLA. Purdue has responded loudly from poor rebounding performances this season with some of its best efforts. UCLA also isnt great at getting to its strength. Despite being a jump shooting team, it doesn’t get a lot of three pointers up. It makes them when it does, but its offense has really been a slog this year. It lacks elite play making and ball handling. TKR slumping Trey Kaufman-Renn has been at Purdue for five seasons now. We’re way past doubting his ability to produce. Kaufman-Renn was an All-American last year after averaging 20.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 2.2 assists a game.Kaufman-Renn has yet to get to 20 points in a game this season. Part of that, a large part, is credit to Kaufman-Renn’s continued sacrifice for Purdue. Kaufman-Renn took the lion’s share of Purdue’s scoring out of necessity last season. This year, he’s raised his effort and rebounding to a level Painter has often commented that he’s never seen before. People don’t get that much better at rebounding all of a sudden, but that’s exactly what Kaufman-Renn has done. TKR is averaging 9.7 rebounds a game this season. He has the 19th best offensive rebound rate in the country despite playing with the second best offensive rebounder in the country. But with Smith going out for stretches against USC and Purdue’s offense struggling with CJ Cox and Fletcher Loyer both going 0-3 from three, Kaufman-Renn’s offensive slump was highlight as Purdue for one of the few times this season struggled to find points. Purdue has the nation’s best offense in the country and it’s not been close. Kaufman-Renn willingness to fill needs instead of the scoreboard has been one of the least talked about storylines of the season for Purdue. Kaufman-Renn has earned the…

If last Wednesday night’s loss to the lowly Sacramento Kings didn’t make you pull out your hair, scream, shake your head, and or contemplate how much you believe in this team for the rest of the season, than chances are, the loss to the Warriors, Suns, or the embarrassing loss at home to a 17-26 Mavericks team did. For nearly a month now, the Knicks, yes, the same Knicks that were labeled as favorites to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals, have looked closer to the worst team in the league than even a good one. That’s led to the front office being tasked with two major questions. One, do they think that there are personnel issues, or do they think that the team, as currently constructed, is good enough, and that they are just in the middle of a rough patch? And two, if they do think there are some personnel issues, then are there moves out there that are both realistic, and can help remedy whatever issues that they have diagnosed. Regardless of the front office’s view, the answer to the first question is a clear yes. Whether fans like it or not, the team is flawed. Few teams are perfect, but the Knicks’ talented roster has clear, exploitable weaknesses. They have only one point-of-attack defender in Deuce McBride, who, despite his development, is still undersized and can’t play full games. Besides Jalen Brunson, they lack real ball handlers, resulting in poor shot creation. The bench, though occasionally effective, remains inconsistent. The Knicks are considering trading Karl-Anthony Towns and have discussed potential deals with the Magic, Hornets, and Grizzlies, per @StevePopper (h/t @RealGM ) pic.twitter.com/1gApuXnoYL— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) January 20, 2026 The second question, unfortunately, is one that we cannot answer. Fans can speculate, but they are left to social media and media outlets. And even then, they seem not to be able to come to a full agreement for much of the season. Throughout this turbulent season, fans have heard about the possibility of the Knicks moving on from Karl-Anthony Towns, as well as players like Mitchell Robinson and the aforementioned McBride. Whether Towns is involved in a deal for a certain Greek superstar or not, it seems that his defense has struggled, paired with what has now become one of his worst offensive seasons in a very long time, making Towns a likely trade candidate. See a lot of attention on the trade stuff at the bottom of this column— which i still think is unlikely to happen. As noted, Knicks not openly shopping and anything outside of Giannis downgrades talent. Lots of other issues to fix without breaking up roster. https://t.co/86gb2y0D1x— Steve Popper (@StevePopper) January 20, 2026 Steve Popper of Newsday Sports said yesterday there were “whispers around the league” about New York possibly moving Towns. He added, “His name surfaced when Bucks & Knicks discussed the chance of a Giannis deal, but now league sources said that talks have involved other teams including Memphis, Orlando & Charlotte.” That certainly must’ve raised the eyebrows of some Knicks fans, especially as the fanbase has slowly, but very surely, started to turn against the big man. But Popper also reiterated earlier this morning that he doesn’t think a trade is likely, and that the team isn’t openly shopping anybody. That sentiment was backed up by Sports Illustrated’s Chris Mannix, who spoke about how the Knicks are not looking to move any of their core guys and are planning to ride the season out with the group. He did make sure to include the fact that this doesn’t mean they aren’t speaking to teams. New York will still do their due diligence as they often have, and in a league that just saw superstar Luka Doncic traded away less than 12 months ago, you can never say never. But much to the dismay of most Knicks fans, it’s looking more and more likely that this team won’t be making any substantial changes this season.