College basketball rankings: Purdue locks up Big Ten title as Matt Painter’s team silences preseason doubters

Purdue defeated Wisconsin 63-61 on Thursday night to secure the outright Big Ten regular-season title — plus what should be a sixth Big Ten Coach of the Year award for Matt Painter.

There’s really no great case for anybody else.

Painter lost four of the top seven scorers from last season’s team, enrolled zero heralded newcomers and still finds himself on the verge of winning the Big Ten by three games. His best player (Zach Edey) was ranked outside of the top 400 of his high school class. His starting backcourt consists of two freshmen (Braden Smith/Fletcher Loyer) who were ranked outside of the top 90 of their high school class. Despite those facts, Painter’s Boilermakers have gone from unranked in the preseason Associated Press Top 25 poll to legitimate candidates to earn a No. 1 seed in the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

So what did AP voters overlook about Purdue in the preseason?

Answer: The presence of Painter himself.

When I placed Purdue at No. 24 in Version 1.0 of the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 last April, this is what I wrote: “The Boilermakers’ ranking is based on Purdue returning three of the top seven scorers from a team that made the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament — among them All-American candidate Zach Edey. Admittedly, that’s not a lot — but Matt Painter deserves the benefit of the doubt based on the consistency with which he runs his program.” 

In other words, Purdue’s roster didn’t appear to be top-25 good, but I still ranked the Boilermakers in the preseason simply because Painter is always top-25 good, evidence being that he’s about to finish in the top 25 at KenPom.com for the eighth consecutive season. The only coach with a longer active streak of top-25 KenPom finishes is Gonzaga’s Mark Few (11 going on 12).

Purdue remains No. 5 in Friday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where Houston is No. 1 for the 15th consecutive day. The Boilermakers will close the regular season Sunday inside Mackey Arena with a game against Illinois.

Top 25 And 1 rankings