When Purdue got waxed by Iowa State two weeks ago, the Boilermakers dropped from No. 1 to No. 6 in the polls, and lost some luster in the eyes of the critics. But they won Saturday, beating the daylights out of No. 21 Auburn. It's a good reminder that they're still going to be a tough out in March.
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Purdue has spent four weeks as the No. 1 ranked team in all the land already this season, but they had an ugly 23-point loss to Iowa State two weeks ago. They sit at No. 6 now, and they've been forgotten a bit. An ugly loss — at home, no less — has a tendency to linger in the mind of basketball observers.
Forget Purdue? That's probably a bad idea.
The Boilermakers, who have had a challenging nonconference schedule, played No. 21 Auburn on Saturday in Indianapolis. The whipped the Tigers, too, winning 88-60 to raise their record to 11-1. It's their third win over a ranked team this season — they beat then-No. 8 Alabama and No. 15 Texas Tech in November — and also have decent wins against Memphis and Marquette, plus two Big Ten wins over Rutgers and Minnesota.
With the win, Purdue is now 8-2 in its last 10 games against teams in the SEC at the time of the game. Matt Painter is now 15-6 all-time against SEC opponents.Purdue’s 28-point win was its second win this season over a nationally-ranked team by at least 25 points. It is the sixth-largest margin of victory over a ranked team in school history.
The two 25-point wins over ranked teams are tied for the most in the country with both Gonzaga and Michigan.
Since the start of the 2019-20 season, Purdue has seven wins over ranked teams by 25 or more points. No other team has more than four.
This one was special, because Auburn beat Purdue last year in Birmingham. They haven't forgotten, either.
“This is a game I definitely circled on my calendar coming into the year,” said Purdue forward Trey Kaufman-Renn, who led the Boilers with 18 points. “I really wanted to beat this team. I wish we had won by 50 points instead of what we did.”
Purdue basically led from the start, and point guard Braden Smith continues to raise eyebrows. He had 14 assists, a season high and the most since the 15 he had in last year's final game, the regional semifinal loss to Houston.
Smith now has 1,526 points, 873 assists, 584 rebounds and 205 steals for his career, needing 18 assists to set the Big Ten record for career assists — 204 for the NCAA record.
Smith notched his 21st career double-double (20-1 record) and his 30th career 10-assist game (8th most in NCAA history). Smith recorded his seventh career game of 14 or more assists. There have been 11, 14-assist games in Purdue history. In 16 games against ranked teams since the start of last season, Braden Smith is now averaging 14.7 points and 8.8 assists per game.
Being ranked No. 1 is not anything new for Purdue. They've been ranked the top team in the country at least once in four of the past five years.
Arizona and Michigan and hogging most of the No. 1 votes now. Duke and Iowa State are still unbeaten and No. 5 Connecticut has one loss, to Arizona. Purdue falls in right behind them.
All six of these teams have shown off a good bit in November and December, and it's entirely possible that some of them will make up our Final Four bracket. We've learned a lot already, and we'll learn a lot more over January and February once all the conference schedule kick into high gear.
Purdue has a deep team, and it's experienced, too. Smith, Kaufman-Renn and Fletcher Loyer have been attached at the hip for four years.
That one loss to Iowa State, because it was so bad, has put a bit of a chip on the shoulders of the Purdue. They didn't like getting embarrassed, and they're playing like it.
That next loss? It might be a while down the road.