Purdue flexes muscle now, but the goal is March

Play along with this game for a moment.

Say there was a college basketball team that last year won 29 games and spent seven weeks atop the AP Top 25. Say that team returned the reigning national player of the year and all but two rotation players. And say that team opened the new season by winning the most loaded Maui Invitational in history, vanquishing three straight opponents ranked no worse than No. 11 in the nation.

That team would be hailed as a presumptive early national title favorite if it was Duke or Kentucky or UCLA.

Because it’s Purdue, there’s pushback and skepticism.

That is the price Purdue pays for its history of NCAA tournament futility. Until they shed the reputation of March underachievers, the Boilermakers will never get the respect they deserve, not even after back-to-back-to-back arduous but impressive victories in Honolulu this week.

It started with Purdue rallying past fast-paced Gonzaga on Monday. Next came a foul-plagued slugfest of a semifinal win over physical, hard-nosed Tennessee. The Boilermakers then outlasted never-say-die Marquette on Wednesday evening, building a 15-point lead in the opening minute of the second half and then hanging on for a 78-75 victory.

Purdue’s Maui Invitational title should vault the second-ranked Boilermakers to No. 1 when next week’s AP poll is released. The Maui title game became a de facto battle for the No. 1 ranking when fourth-ranked Marquette toppled current No. 1 Kansas in the semifinals on Tuesday night.

In retrospect, that is probably where Purdue should’ve started the season. An overemphasis on Purdue’s NCAA tournament shortcomings was the main reason the Boilermakers started below Kansas and Duke at No. 3.

In 2021, Purdue lost in the first round to 13th-seeded North Texas in nearby Indianapolis. In 2022, Purdue lost in the Sweet 16 to Saint Peters, extending the 15th-seeded Peacocks’ improbable run. Then came the debacle that Matt Painter admitted at last month’s Big Ten media day will bother him “forever.”

Last March, Purdue became only the second No. 1 seed to suffer a first-round upset since the NCAA tournament expanded to 64 teams in 1985. Fairleigh Dickinson, the shortest team in the 2023 NCAA tournament, embarrassed the cold-shooting, turnover-prone Boilermakers.

“I remember sitting there in shock, like damn, it’s really all over,” guard Fletcher Loyer told Yahoo Sports earlier this month. “You think about the accomplishments your team had throughout the year, the amount of work you put in. You look around at your teammates, the seniors who put in four years. That was the best team they’ve had and we couldn’t get it done for them.”

How Purdue would respond to that ghastly loss was one of the most intriguing questions of the college basketball offseason. What do you tweak when your program annually cruises along from November until conference tournament time, only to veer into a ditch when the spotlight shines the brightest?

So far the Purdue that has raced to a 6-0 start this season merely looks like a deeper, more experienced, more athletic version of last year’s team.

It starts once again with Edey, the most dominant low-post presence in college basketball and a Shaq-like master of drawing fouls against overmatched opponents. The 7-foot-4 center had 28 points and 15 rebounds against Marquette’s swarming defense and frequent double teams. He also had the game’s biggest basket, a late tip-in to extend Purdue’s advantage back to three when Marquette was threatening to take the lead.

Loyer and Braden Smith, the guards who faded down the stretch as freshmen last season, also appear fresher and more confident. Loyer torched Tennessee for 27 points on Tuesday night. Smith has taken his game to another level and sank 4 of 6 threes in support of Edey against Marquette.

The increased athleticism comes from transfer Lance Jones and promising freshman Myles Colvin. Both give Purdue a dimension in the backcourt that it lacked a year ago.

Does that mean Purdue will finally shed its reputation for falling short in March? Can this Boilermakers team pull a 2019 Virginia-esque turnaround? Can they go from losing to a No. 16 seed to winning a national championship?

It’s too early to make that declaration — after all, Purdue was the best team in America last November too, beating West Virginia, Gonzaga and Duke to capture the PK80 title. Still, the Boilermakers have the strongest early season resume in the country once again and the longterm outlook is encouraging.

Marquette was the sort of quick, aggressive team that gave Purdue fits at both ends of the floor last season. This year’s Boilermakers shot the lights out to build a double-digit first-half lead and then made enough plays down the stretch to hold on.

They may not be able to silence the skeptics in November, but they are putting themselves in the best position to do so when March comes around.