March Madness is finally here, to celebrate I went through every B1G seed and matchup… I found that no team benefitted more than Purdue did with their draw.
Of the eight teams that received bids for the B1G, there are a lot of teams that could very well be eliminated in the first weekend. However, Purdue is not one of those teams. Matt Painter will have his squad ready to go after an early elimination in the B1G tournament.
On paper, they have an easier path to the Elite 8 (where I think they lose to Virginia.) If they get past two pesky opponents, ODU and either Nova/Saint Marys, they could highlight from a great matchup in the Sweet 16. The Boilermakers matchup really well with Tennessee as they play a more old school style offense. As they try to get a lot of their points inside.
For this engine to really move though, it is very dependent on which Carsen Edwards shows up. If it’s the Carsen that is NPOY candidate, this team will be an extremely hard out. If it’s 6-25 Carsen, it may be a quick tournament appearance for Purdue.