Before his team traveled to face No. 14 Michigan State on Tuesday, Purdue coach Matt Painter talked openly about the No. 13 Boilermakers improving on the defensive end after allowing 94 points in a loss to then-No. 16 Wisconsin.”We have to be better on the basketball,” Painter said. “We can’t get beat as bad as we got beat the other night and expect to have positive results. When people are constantly getting angles … that’s where we have to do a better job.”Painter could probably use the same comments ahead of his team’s game against rival Indiana on Sunday in Bloomington, Ind. Another poor defensive showing lowlighted a 75-66 loss to the Spartans and likely knocked the Boilermakers out of the race for the Big Ten regular-season title.While taking a third straight loss for the first time in five seasons, Purdue allowed Michigan State to shoot 58.3 percent from the field and hit 68.6 percent of its 2-point attempts. That came on the heels of allowing Wisconsin to hit a staggering 20 of 22 (90.9 percent) on 2-point tries.Add in a dozen turnovers against Michigan State, six from star point guard Braden Smith, and you have a recipe for failure that could cost the Boilermakers some seed lines for the NCAA Tournament if they can’t correct it soon.”We just have to do a better job, when they get aggressive, not over-dribbling,” Painter said of his team’s reaction to heavy ball pressure. “We’ll keep re-screening it, doing it multiple times to try and drag those bigs out.”Purdue (19-8, 11-5 Big Ten) has fallen into a tie for fourth in the conference with Maryland heading into the weekend. A double bye for the Big Ten tournament, given to the top four teams, that seemed certain for most of the year is now in danger of being just a single bye if the Boilermakers can’t fix their flaws.While Purdue is trying to find its form, the Hoosiers (15-11, 6-9) are hoping they aren’t rusty. They have been idle since Feb. 14, when they fell 72-68 at home to UCLA, their sixth loss in seven games. It was the start of a three-game homestand for a team making its last, desperate attempt help its chances for an at-large NCAA bid.