5. Purdue (19-9)
A participant in last year’s national championship game, Purdue has spent much of this season proving that the entire success wasn’t built on Zach Edey’s shoulders. Losing the two-time national player of the year was certainly a big blow but Matt Painter’s home-built squad wasn’t backing down that easily. They aren’t the clear favorites in the Big Ten any longer but have shown that they’re still a monster in this conference.
Purdue proved their worth early in the year with a great win over Alabama, following it up with some nice performances against Ole Miss and Maryland. However, the Boilermakers took a few licks in nonconference play and lost a rough road game at Penn State at the beginning of January. They’d then hit a hot spurt after New Year’s and once again looked like a top team, with nice wins over Michigan and Oregon.
Trey Kaufman-Renn has taken a great step forward as the new focal big man while Braden Smith continues to be one of the nation’s most effective point guards. Things have been going rather smoothly for the Boilermakers until these last few weeks, when their disappointing defense has started to let them down. Purdue has now lost four games in a row, with three to top teams in the Big Ten before blowing a sizeable halftime lead at Indiana on Sunday afternoon.
This isn’t the team that’ll march to the title game on the backs of elite shooting and a dynamic big, but there are still traces of that success on this roster. The Boilermakers have fallen back to 11-6 and likely aren’t winning the conference crown, but can still do damage in the postseason if they can get this thing back on track. Painter’s crew hosts UCLA in a critical matchup next week and ends the season at Illinois.
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