While this Purdue basketball team ended up losing the only B1G conference game that will end up having major national significant this season, the Boilermakers are still in great shape for a #1 seed. Michigan State actually needed that game a lot more than the Boilers did, and it was a hotly contested battle that went down to the final seconds.
In the NCAA’s “what the bracket would be if it started today?” reveal yesterday, MSU was only a #3 (here’s an in-depth look at their resume) and Purdue was still a #1. That tells you where things stand right now, but where are they going? Let’s take a look at Purdue’s resume, and then figure out what they need to do still in order to cling to that #1 seed.
Purdue Basketball NCAA Tournament Resume
Record: 23-4 (12-2)
Rankings: AP #3 RPI #12 Sagarin #2 KenPom #3 SoS #47
Key Wins: Arizona RPI #22 Butler RPI #36 Michigan (x2) #40 Louisville #43 It is a bummer for the Boilermakers that Louisville is not truly Louisville this season, because that would solidify the resume even further.
Resume Blemishes: Western Kentucky’s RPI is #55 so it’s not the end of the world. It is obviously a red mark, but it’s still not as bad as you might think, because the HillToppers are a good mid-major program. Tennessee and Ohio State are both RPI top 16, so in the big picture, no harm, no foul there.
Remaining Regular Season Schedule: @ Wisconsin, Penn State, @ Illinois, Minnesota
This Purdue basketball team gets to coast on in to the B1G Tournament, closing with the the 13th, 11th, 10th and 8th place teams in an extremely weak B1G.
Is this what the 2018 Sweet 16 will look like? #BracketPreviewhttps://t.co/PxBQXWxUP0 pic.twitter.com/Rdru8SJez5
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) February 11, 2018
It appears Purdue basketball will head to New York City with a 27-4, 16-2 mark, meaning three more wins in Madison Square Garden would lock up a #1 seed. It’s highly unlikely a 30 win team from a power conference gets left off the top line. Of course, the B1G is a hallowed out shell of what the B1G typically is, and while that is not Purdue’s fault, it does adversely affect their resume.
The good news is that all four #1 seeds are still essentially all up for grabs. Villanova, considered a lock for a #1 seed, just suffered an inexplicable loss to a AWFUL St. John’s team.
Virginia, the other strong front-runner for a #1 seed, just lost to a very mediocre Virginia Tech team this past weekend.
So two of the four #1 seeds aren’t etched in stone just yet, and the last two #1 seeds will be probably filled out by two of the following:
Michigan State, Xavier, Kansas or Texas Tech if they run the B1g 12 table and tournament, Auburn and of course this Purdue basketball team.
We discussed Carsen Edwards, Michigan State, Purdue, and the resume for both teams to obtain a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, during the Hammer and Rails podcast, embedded below
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
Follow him on Twitter, Instagram, Sound Cloud, LinkedIn and YouTube.