9. Purdue (7-1)
When the season began, a lot of people expected Purdue to take a step back and that wasn’t an outrageous assumption. Losing a two-time national player of the year in Zach Edey leaves a significant hole, but the Boilermakers have managed to fill those holes with bigger roles from some of last year’s players. Whether or not this is a team that can return to the Final Four remains to be seen, but the early returns in West Lafayette have been positive.
Bouncing back nicely after last week’s loss at Marquette, the Boilermakers began the Rady Children’s Invitational on Thursday with a 71-61 over NC State. They handled a rematch from last season’s Final Four, getting 22 points and 8 rebounds from Trey Kaufman-Renn in his new major role. The following day saw they take the tournament title in an exciting affair, winning 80-78 over Ole Miss thanks to a Myles Colvin putback in the closing seconds, the most important of his 20 points.
This team is a bit different, but it’s clear that Matt Painter’s squad is talented and play together as a team. The 3-point shooting can still win games and the emergence of Kaufman-Renn means that Purdue can still run things through their big man, even if he isn’t the same kind of talent as Edey. Regardless, Purdue pushes forward, starting league play in the Big Ten with a trip to Penn State next week.