North Carolina, in 2023, became the first No. 1 team in the history of the AP Top 25 poll to miss the NCAA Tournament. Those Tar Heels lost three times at home that season.
Purdue has now lost four times at home this season — and the Boilermakers were this preseason’s No. 1 team in the AP poll. No, Matt Painter’s program isn’t going to miss the Big Dance like UNC did in 2023; Purdue is in no danger of that. But, that acknowledged, there’s no way to label a preseason No. 1 that’s lost four times at home anything other than surprising/disappointing.
It’s the first question Painter was asked postgame — a question about the four losses at Mackey. It was also, just framed slightly differently, the second question Painter was asked postgame — a question about the four losses at Mackey.
“It shows you how good our league is,” Painter said, “because all of the teams that have beat us are really good teams, right?”
I’d certainly say that’s right. The four visiting teams that have won at Purdue this season are Michigan, Iowa State, Illinois and Michigan State. Those four teams are No. 2 (Michigan), No. 4 (Iowa State), No. 9 (Illinois) and No. 13 (Michigan State) in Friday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Duke remains No. 1 for the sixth consecutive day.
They are all really good by any reasonable standard. But the problem with these Boilermakers isn’t just that they’ve lost four times at home to really good teams; it’s that elite teams aren’t supposed to lose that many times at home, period. And it’s also that they’ve also lost twice on the road to just-OK teams (UCLA/Indiana), one of which is no longer projected to make the NCAA Tournament (IU), the other consistently labeled as disappointing itself (UCLA).
To be clear, Purdue’s issues are still smaller than most teams’ issues — but they’re bigger than they should be for a team with a goal of winning six in the bracket and cutting nets a little more than an hour away from campus by car. Evidence of that is the Boilermakers are now only two games above .500 in Quadrant 1, with 8 Q1 wins. As a reference point, consider that Duke, the No. 1 team in the Top 25 And 1, is nine games above .500 in Quadrant 1, with 11 Q1 wins.
Next up for Purdue is Sunday’s game at Ohio State. Tip for that one is set for 1:30 pm ET. You can watch it on CBS or stream it on the CBS Sports app or via Paramount+ Premium.
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