In the words of John Rothstein, “Death, Taxes, Matt Painter.” Painter has had tremendous success with the Purdue Basketball program during his tenure as the Boilermakers head coach. He’s been better at being more with less than any power five school in the country. To the point where he’s earned the nickname of “the new Bo Ryan.” However, this year seemed to be as tall of a task as he’s ever had as a head coach. In year one of the post-Carsen Edwards era, Painter has to figure out how to get a Boilermaker squad with almost no playmaking ability into the NCAA Tournament. The Boilermakers are officially on bubble watch. Can Painter get his squad off the bubble and into the big dance?
2019-20 So Far
The Boilermakers are currently sitting at 14-13 on the season and 7-9 in the Big Ten. To any normal person, it seems obvious that this isn’t an NCAA Tournament team. That’s where things get interesting. The Boilermakers have a 29 point win over then #5 Virginia, a three-point win over then #20 VCU, a 29 point win over then #8 Michigan State, a 19 point win over Wisconsin, a 36 point win over then #17 Iowa, and a 12 point win at Assembly Hall against IU.
Just when the Boilers seem to be out of things, they find a way to come out with a convincing win against a highly ranked team. Since the win at IU, the Boilermakers have been on a three-game skid with losses to Penn State, Ohio State, and Wisconsin.
Where They Stand
When it comes to analytics and numbers, computers love Purdue. They rank 13th in BPI, their strength of record (SOR) is 50th, and ESPN’s calculations have them 15th when it comes to teams with the best chance to win this season’s National Championship with .9% chance of cutting down the nets. Joe Lunardi even has them as a 10 seed in his latest bracketology.
Although they are on a skid, the Boilermakers have three of their final four games at home, (where they are 10-3 on the season). Their lone road game is at Carver-Hawkeye Arena against Iowa. You’d have to expect at least a 3-1 finish and a win in the Big Ten Tournament to lock the Boilers in. Will anything less than that be enough to take them off of bubble watch? It depends on how much the committee likes their analytics.
