Brought to you by WBIW News and Network Indiana
Last updated on Tuesday, February 19, 2008
(BLOOMINGTON, IN) - The 15th-ranked Purdue Boilermakers will try to maintain first place in the Big Ten tonight when they travel to Bloomington to face number-14 Indiana.
The Boilers have won eleven-straight games and are 12-and-1 in conference play, one game ahead of second-place Wisconsin.
The Hoosiers are lurking a game and-a-half back at 10-and-2 in the Big Ten. IU has won five of the last six meetings between the two archrivals. Purdue snapped their five-game skid against the Hoosiers with a win last February in West Lafayette.
IU center D.J. White is expected to play in tonight's game. An MRI on White's left knee showed no structural damage and he has been diagnosed with a sprained knee.
Head Coach Kelvin Sampson addressed White's injury on his weekly radio show, saying IU 's medical staff has cleared white to play. Sampson did not say whether White would be in the starting lineup.
Losing White would be a blow to IU's chances against the powerful Boilermakers. The 6-9 senior from Huntsville, Alabama is the Big Ten's leading rebounder and the conference's second-leading scorer behind teammate Eric Gordon.
While tonight's game between Indiana and Purdue pits two of the top teams in the Big Ten, much of the focus will be on the controversy surrounding Sampson. Sampson is under investigation for possible NCAA rules violations involving making inappropriate phone calls to recruits and lying to NCAA and university investigators regarding those phone calls.
Tonight's game could be Sampson's last with the Hoosiers. Athletic Director Rick Greenspan is scheduled to report to school president Michael McRobbie on the charges against Sampson on Friday.
The Hoosiers do not play again until Saturday when they travel to Northwestern.
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