16. Purdue (17-4)
Two weeks ago Purdue was in an incredible position. At that point they were unbeaten in the Big Ten and riding a long winning streak. Their resume consists of great wins over Alabama, Auburn, and Texas Tech, beating the latter two by more than 25 points. However, the Boilermakers had a really bad week, blowing games against UCLA and Illinois while coming back down to earth.
Unfortunately for fans in West Lafayette, this past week was not a step in the right direction. Looking to shake off that bad taste, Purdue headed to Bloomington to face rival Indiana on Tuesday night and were humbled in a 72-67 loss. The Boilermakers couldn’t quite dig out of an 11-point halftime deficit despite 23 points from Trey Kaufman-Renn.
This three-game skid suddenly has the Boilermakers falling in the rankings and sitting a few games back in the Big Ten. Their defense just has not been acceptable in recent weeks, allowing far too many open shots and failing to close out games. Purdue’s offense really is incredible and can win them games but it just hasn’t been enough in recent weeks. They’ll hope to bounce back against a disappointing Maryland team on Sunday before hosting Oregon later in the week.
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