Purdue Basketball: 2021-22 season preview and outlook for Boilermakers
Schedule
Much like Purdue’s 2020-21 season, Matt Painter has yet again strung together a schedule comprised of tilts that should be decisive victories – but also a handful of challenges that will determine Purdue’s legitimacy in the opening weeks.
The Boilermakers’ opening week is filled with competent mid-majors in Bellarmine (a program that nearly won the Atlantic Sun in its first-ever season as a Div. I institution), Indiana State (a team that knocked off Loyola-Chicago once and lost to Purdue by 12 last season), and Wright State (a squad that finished 18-6 overall and 73rd in the final KenPom rankings) – but it will be the stretch afterward that marks the high of Purdue’s non-conference schedule.
Painter’s team will partake in the annual Hall of Fame Tip-Off Tournament, and in its tenth incarnation, the field may be the deepest it has ever been. Consisting of four programs that project to rank within the preseason top 25, the Boilermakers will take on North Carolina for the first time since 1999, and will search for their first win over the Tar Heels in 47 years. Pending a win or loss, Purdue will take on either Villanova or Tennessee a day later, on November 21st.
The Boilermakers’ remaining schedule before the end of the calendar year consists of a trio of what should be straightforward games against Omaha, Incarnate Word, and Nicholls – as well as a few dangerous duels against Florida State (as part of the ACC-Big Ten Challenge), NC State (in the Basketball Hall of Fame Invitational), and Butler (in the Crossroads Classic), and a pair of sneakily dangerous conference duels versus Iowa and Rutgers.
The Big Ten is coming off a historically excellent regular season in 2020-21, which saw the league earn nine bids to the NCAA Tournament while 12 different teams received votes to the AP Poll at some point throughout the year; additionally, the league-owned the consensus National College Player of the Year in Iowa’s Luka Garza. The Big Ten’s success was short-lived by the time March Madness rolled around, however, as just one team – Michigan – reached the Sweet Sixteen, and the Wolverines’ season was ended in the Elite Eight.
And, while the conference is not expected to be as strong in 2021-22, the Big Ten will still boast a handful of top 25 squads – in addition to a few others that are expected to flirt around the outside of the national rankings. Our own Busting Brackets preseason poll had Maryland right on the outside of the top 25, while five other teams – Indiana, Illinois, Ohio State, Purdue, and Michigan – were slotted within the top ranks.
Despite the strong expectations for Purdue, they were not deemed the top team in our poll, coming in at sixth – just one spot behind Michigan. The Wolverines and Boilermakers will meet on two occasions in 2021-22, hitting the road to Ann Arbor on January 11th before hosting Michigan on February 5th.
Purdue will also have a pair of tilts on CBS, both of which will be at home – January 30th against Ohio State, and February 13th versus Maryland. Notably, also, is Purdue’s regular season-closing duel in West Lafayette against Indiana, on March 5th, in the Indiana National Guard Governor’s Cup.
Purdue will be tested early, meaning their legitimacy will be put through the wringer immediately – and the Boilermakers’ schedule will rarely let up through Big Ten play. Painter’s crew struggled with consistency last season, particularly when it came to collecting seismic victories – and then suffering a few losses immediately afterwards. Avoiding those losses – particularly to unranked teams – while scooping up key non-conference victories in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off field and over Florida State – would eradicate any potential early concerns about the Boilermakers.