Bracketology 2024: Purdue, Villanova, and BYU among Feast Week winners

1. Purdue Boilermakers

The No. 1 spot on this list had already been reserved at the start of Feast Week to whoever won the Maui Invitational. It was a loaded field with five teams ranked in the top 11 overall, along with two other capable teams in Syracuse and UCLA. After three days, one team managed to emerge with a 3-0 record and three Quad 1 wins.

Purdue was a 1 seed last year and brought back National Player of the Year, Zach Edey. After beating up on Xavier, they had the toughest opening matchup of any of the top-10 teams, taking on Gonzaga. But after trailing at halftime, the Boilermakers won 73-63, led by 25 pts and 14 rebs from Edey.

The semifinals against No. 7 Tennessee wasn’t very watchable but it was certainly close and hard-fought. Purdue managed to win that won, 71-67, thanks to 27 pts from Fletcher Loyer. And in the finals of the Maui Invitational, the Boilermakers defeated Marquette, 78-75, with Edey having another big game with 28 pts and 15 rebs. The big man not only became the clear favorite to repeat as NPOY but Purdue clearly has the best Bracketology resume in all of NCAA Basketball.

It’s three guaranteed Quad 1 wins and maybe outside of beating Kansas in the finals, couldn’t have done any better from a resume standpoint. Some huge games still awaits this team in December, with Alabama and Arizona in a possible 1 vs 2 national matchup.