GoldandBlack.com videos: Matt Painter, Purdue players discuss NCAA bracket on Selection Sunday
Is this the year Purdue ends a Final Four drought that dates to 1980, when Joe Barry Carroll led the program to college basketball’s promised land?
Purdue will take its first steps in the NCAA tourney on Friday in Indianapolis as a No. 1 seed, the second season in succession it has been a No. 1.
Matt Painter’s squad will begin vs. the winner of a play-in game between No. 16 seeds Montana State/Grambling State in Dayton, Ohio, on Wednesday. Purdue is 1-0 all-time vs. Grambling, winning 82-30 in 2014. The Boilers are 2-1 all-time vs. Montana State, last meeting in 1959 (70-48 Purdue victory).
If the Boilers win their first-round clash, they will meet the winner of No. 8 Utah State-No. 9 TCU. The Boilermakers are 1-0 all-time vs. Utah State, winning 85-61 in 2016. Purdue is 4-1 all-time vs. TCU, losing 97-69 in the last meeting in 1996.
The other top seven seeds in the Midwest: Tennessee is the No. 2 seed; Creighton is No. 3; Kansas is No. 4; Gonzaga is No. 5; South Carolina No. 6; Texas is No. 7.
Purdue (29-4) will ride into the Big Dance off an overtime loss to Wisconsin in the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament. Still, the Boilers have some mojo entering the NCAA tourney as they are coming off a second consecutive outright Big Ten regular-season championship.
Purdue will be looking to exorcise demons from last year’s tourney, which saw the Boilermakers became the second No. 1 seed ever to fall to a No. 16 seed when Fairleigh Dickinson shocked the world with a 63-58 win vs. Purdue.
The season before, Purdue was shocked in the Sweet 16 by No. 15 seed St. Peter’s.
Is this the tourney when the Boilermakers flip the script and march to the Final Four in Phoenix?
The program came within a whisker of the Final Four in 2019, when it lost in overtime to eventual national champ Virginia in the Elite Eight.
Purdue’s charge is led by Zach Edey, who became the program’s all-time leading scorer on Saturday. The two-time Big Ten Player of the Year is expected to be named consensus national player of the year for a second season in a row.
Purdue players shared their thoughts on the tourney bracket and more on Sunday.
