The Purdue basketball team is currently ranked #1 in the country, and they had yet another impressive victory on Tuesday night against Maryland basketball. The New Year is here, and now, the Boilermakers are into the bulk of the Big Ten schedule. Purdue had two early-season conference games, and they dropped one against Northwestern, but they won the other against Iowa. With the win over the Terrapins on Tuesday, the Boilermakers are now 13-1 on the season.

Purdue basketball had a good game plan for their matchup against Maryland. The Boilermakers ended up winning the game 67-53, and their defensive approach worked to perfection. They didn't let the Terrapins get a lot of points in the paint, and they forced them to take a lot of deep shots. That's exactly what Purdue head coach Matt Painter wanted to see.

“There's no question … ,” Matt Painter said in regards to wanting to force Maryland to shoot threes, according to a tweet from Emmett Siegel. “We wanted to clog up [the paint] as much as we could to make it difficult for Jahmir (Young) and for Julian Reese.”

The plan worked. Maryland shot 22 threes in the game, and they made just five of them. That is just 27.2% from deep. Purdue knew that if they could make that happen, they would be able to win, and they got out of College Park with a comfortable victory.

The Boilermakers have a big one on Friday at home against #9 Illinois as their quest for a national title continues. Purdue became just the second team in NCAA basketball history to lose to a 16-seed in the first round of the tournament last year, and they seem to be headed toward another top seed this season. When Virginia lost in the first round to a 16-seed, they won the national title the next year. Is the same thing coming for Purdue?