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Bracketology Winners: Purdue, Kentucky emerging as serious risers

By Lukas Harkins

LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY - JANUARY 26: Ashton Hagans #2 of the Kentucky Wildcats celebrates during the 71-63 win over the Kansas Jayhawks at Rupp Arena on January 26, 2019 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images)
LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY - JANUARY 26: Ashton Hagans #2 of the Kentucky Wildcats celebrates during the 71-63 win over the Kansas Jayhawks at Rupp Arena on January 26, 2019 in Lexington, Kentucky. (Photo by Andy Lyons/Getty Images) /
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WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – JANUARY 27: Haarms of Purdue celebrates. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images)
WEST LAFAYETTE, IN – JANUARY 27: Haarms of Purdue celebrates. (Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images) /

Purdue Boilermakers

Purdue is seriously rising. After starting this season quite slowly and receiving plenty of criticism for their early 6-5 record, the Boilermakers have absolutely turned it on as of late. They have won eight of their last nine games to reach 14-6 (7-2 Big Ten) on the year. During this past week along, they won a road game over Ohio State before returning home to take down a top-5 opponent in Michigan State.

Now ranked in the top-10 in just about every quality metric, the Boilermakers have been absolutely superb so far this season. Even though Purdue’s record does not exactly scream a top seed in the Big Dance, their resume speaks for itself. Purdue only holds one bad loss (neutral-site versus Notre Dame) but they can boast eight wins over KenPom top-100 teams.

Prior to their win over MSU, the Boilermakers landed a No. 5 seed in our most recent bracketology. But now that they did secure that big-time win, it is time to seriously start considering Purdue for a potential protected seed down the road. Head coach Matt Painter has gotten plenty of production from his role players as of late and that is helping take some of the burden off of star player Carsen Edwards’ shoulders.

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