The Purdue Boilermakers season has been the polar opposite of a mullet (“business in front, party in the back”) Usually, you party with the early, softer non-conference schedule, and then take care of business with the more rugged Big Ten schedule.
Purdue has been the anti-thesis of that in 2014-15. They didn’t take care of business in the pre-conference; but they have been really solid during league play. Hence the very confusing and contradicting Purdue Boilermakers NCAA Tournament profile.
In our latest bracketology, we have Purdue as among the few teams that are just “on the wrong side of the bubble.” So the Boilermakers are still in business if they can set up shop appropriately down the stretch. The Boilers can utilize their size advantage with A.J. Hammons and Isaac Haas against some smaller Big Ten opponents over the season’s final weeks.
Pair that with the leadership in the backcourt of Raphael Davis, and a 4-3 or 5-2 finish is quite possible for the Boilers. That’s got to be enough to get them in dance, right? Let’s take a look.
All figures according to RealTimeRPI
BAD LOSSES: Vanderbilt RPI 114. North Florida (204), Kansas State (109), Gardner-Webb (155) These four games are to the Purdue Boilermakers tourney profile what a eating a donut is to your stomach. It just sits there like a rock forever; holding you back and dragging you down.
SIGNATURE WINS: Indiana (31), Ohio State (35), Iowa (38). Matt Painter in B1G play? Potential Coach of the Year candidate. Matt Painter in pre-conference? Scorching hot seat.
RPI: 73
SOS: 55
POTENTIAL FUTURE SIGNATURE WINS: at Indiana (31) 2-19, at Ohio State (35) 3-1.
POTENTIAL BAD LOSSES: There are two dates with Rutgers remaining.
PROJECTED FINISH: 19-12, 11-7 in conference, according to GAMER. This site projects Purdue to finish 4-3 down the stretch, to win all their remaining home games and lose all their remaining road games. That’s a tad predictable, and I doubt that will happen. This Purdue team isn’t boring. The most optimistic but still realist view would predict 5-2, and that would be enough to make sure the Boilers don’t have to do anything in the Big Ten Tournament to get in.
What if the Purdue Boilermakers finish 11-7 in the league? How can you leave a team that went 11-7 in a power five conference out of the big dance? Well, in this case you can. The magic number here is 12. A lot of 12 loss teams get into the tourney. Very few 13 loss teams do.
BOTTOM LINE: Finish 11-7 in conference, get one win the Big Ten Tourney and you’re solidly in.
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and writes The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports Digital, eBay, Google News and CBS Interactive Inc.
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