12. Matt Painter (Purdue)
Nobody has forgotten what Purdue accomplished last season. Painter led the Boilermakers to the Final Four for the first time since 1980, advancing to the national championship game on the back of Zach Edey, the two-time National Player of the Year. Life goes on, and Edey is now in the NBA, but Painter hasn’t stopped being one of the best coaches not just in the Big Ten but in the nation as a whole.
His Boilermakers are 15-6, with impressive wins over Alabama and Mississippi in nonconference play. Purdue has learned how to win gritty games leaning more on Braden Smith, while Trey Kaufman-Renn is playing like one of the best bigs in the Big Ten. This team sits 8-2 in league play and is certainly one of the favorites to take home another league crown even without Edey and other pieces from last year’s deep postseason run.
Seeing Purdue being successful isn’t a surprise, and we should have expected that Painter would have this team in a position like this even without his star center. He’s made a name out of building great frontcourt prospects and has Kaufman-Renn looking like another stud just months later. Whether or not Purdue wins the Big Ten title, it’s clear that Painter is the real deal and is having another brilliant year.