{"id":141113,"date":"2022-11-27T18:40:13","date_gmt":"2022-11-27T18:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/college-basketball-rankings-purdue-looks-to-remain-unbeaten-in-phil-knight-legacy-showdown-with-duke\/"},"modified":"2022-11-27T18:40:13","modified_gmt":"2022-11-27T18:40:13","slug":"college-basketball-rankings-purdue-looks-to-remain-unbeaten-in-phil-knight-legacy-showdown-with-duke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/college-basketball-rankings-purdue-looks-to-remain-unbeaten-in-phil-knight-legacy-showdown-with-duke\/","title":{"rendered":"College basketball rankings: Purdue looks to remain unbeaten in Phil Knight Legacy showdown with Duke"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The championship game of the Phil Knight Legacy was supposed to be Duke vs. Gonzaga in a preferred Sunday afternoon window. Purdue had other plans, though. So our Kyle Filipowski-Drew Timme matchup has been replaced by a Kyle Filipowski-Zach Edey showdown that might not necessarily be what TV executives had in mind when they built the schedule but should still be a super-fun two hours.<\/p>\n

Tip is set for 3:30 pm ET on ABC.<\/p>\n

It’ll be a Duke team that’s 6-1 under first-year coach Jon Scheyer against a Purdue team that’s 5-0 and making me look smart. As I mentioned multiple times during offseason episodes of the Eye On College Basketball Podcast, Purdue is the school I got questioned about most each time I published an updated version of the preseason Top 25 And 1. All 18 versions of the Top 25 And 1 from April through November included the Boilermakers even though they lost four of their top seven scorers from last season and enrolled zero top-75 high school prospects and no transfers that ranked among the top 25 nationally.<\/p>\n

“Why are you ranking Purdue?!?!?!”<\/em> folks would ask\/scream, especially after Associated Press voters kept the Boilermakers out<\/em> of the AP’s preseason Top 25 poll.<\/p>\n

My answer to that question was always simple: I will forever assume a few coaches will have teams worthy of preseason rankings almost regardless of what surface-level examinations of their rosters suggest — and Matt Painter is one of those coaches, in part because his Boilermakers have finished in the top 25 at KenPom.com in seven consecutive years. Simply put, Painter deserved the benefit of the doubt heading into this season because of the consistency with which he runs his program. <\/p>\n

Now he’s delivering with a starting lineup of players who were ranked 94th (Fletcher Loyer), 103rd (Ethan Morton), 196th (Braden Smith), 220th (Mason Gillis) and 440th (Zach Edey) in their respective high school classes. Two of those starters (Loyer\/Smith) are freshmen. One of them (Edey) is a sub-400 prospect currently leading the Big Ten in scoring per game (21.8), rebounding per game (12.0) and blocks per game (2.8).<\/p>\n

It really is remarkable.<\/p>\n

You can probably count on one hand how many other coaches could have a team operating at this level with a starting lineup consisting of players ranked where Purdue’s starters were ranked coming out of high school, especially when 40% of this starting lineup consists of sub- 75 freshmen. It’s impressive stuff from Painter, who has guided the Boilermakers to the Sweet 16 in four of the past five NCAA Tournaments.<\/p>\n

Purdue is No. 7 in Sunday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Duke’s No. 16. After this meeting, both schools will next participate in the annual ACC-Big Ten Challenge. Purdue plays at Florida State on Wednesday while Duke hosts Ohio State. Both of those games will tip at 7:15 pm ET.<\/p>\n

Top 25 And 1 rankings <\/h2>\n

Of:<\/strong> Texas Tech
Out:<\/strong> Iowa<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n