Purdue Basketball: 2021-22 season preview and outlook for Boilermakers

Season Outlook

Few coaches have given as detailed and descriptive of answers at this year’s assortment of Media Days than Matt Painter, who sounded extremely optimistic at last week’s Big Ten Media Day – particularly about using Virginia’s 2018 opening-round upset to UMBC, and their turnaround to a national title the following season, as an influential example.

"We have some new faces, but a lot more familiar faces on our team.  That’s what we really talked about, was learning from (the loss to North Texas) and being better, even in a better position in next year’s hopeful NCAA Tournament. […] That’s part of March Madness.  We’ve really tried to magnify some of the things we struggled with in that game, and hopefully that can make us a better team and a better program."

Purdue’s success last season was no fluke – Painter has led his team to 12 NCAA Tournament appearances in 16 seasons with the Boilermakers.  But Purdue has struggled with high preseason expectations; the 2019-20 season saw the Boilermakers enter the year ranked 23rd before falling out of the poll – permanently – within a week.  The season prior, Purdue was slotted 24th at the campaign’s start – and then drop out within a month, before reentering in late January en route to their Elite Eight run.

Additionally, the Boilermakers are fighting history, considering they have cracked the Elite Eight just twice in this century – and the Sweet Sixteen three times in the last decade.  Their last Final Four appearance was in 1980, and – with the exception of the retroactively deemed title of national champion for the 1931-32 season by the Helms Athletic Foundation and the Premo-Porretta Power Poll – they still have not yet won an NCAA Championship.

Ultimately, if Purdue enters the season ranked within the top 10, it will be the first time the Boilermakers have done so since the 2009-10 season – which saw Purdue’s season ended prematurely in March Madness by Duke in the Sweet Sixteen.  Purdue has the talent necessary this season to avoid such an early exit – but given last year’s loss to North Texas, it is still easy to be skeptical about the Boilermaker’s legitimacy.

Purdue’s duels in the Hall of Fame Tip-Off will showcase much of the Boilermakers’ validity, before the gauntlet of the Big Ten.  However, between a potential Player of the Year candidate in Trevion Williams and a budding star in Jaden Ivey – in addition to a solid freshman class, legitimately dangerous depth, and a wealth of experience – the Boilermakers have a genuine opportunity to claim their first outright Big Ten title since the 2016-17 season, as well as making a run through the NCAA Tournament.