Purdue’s Latest Tourney Collapse Was an Incomprehensible Meltdown

In case you thought UMBC beating Virginia was incomprehensible … In case you thought March Insanity No. 1 seeds couldn’t get anymore shockingly collapsible … In case you thought you’d seen the outer fringe of NCAA match shock …

Get a load of Fairleigh Dickinson beating Purdue. My god.

Tony Bennett, you’re off the hook. Seems, the Thursday column on Virginia’s collapse was untimely. No less than the Cavaliers have that one nationwide championship, whereas Purdue has completely nothing apart from a seamless narrative of distress.

Matt Painter simply plummeted to the basement of March Insanity lore. It doesn’t get any decrease than the Boilermakers’ trifecta of choke-a-rama. The ghastly roll name:

In 2021, Purdue misplaced in its yard (Indianapolis) to No. 13 seed North Texas within the first spherical.

In 2022, Purdue misplaced within the Candy Sixteen to No. 15 seed Saint Peter’s, enabling a gilded Peacocks run.

And now, this. An entire meltdown of incomprehensible proportion, as a No. 1 seed, towards the 68th crew within the discipline of 68. The shortest crew within the 363-team Division I—common peak of six foot three and alter—defeated the crew led by seven foot 4 All-American Zach Edey.

The Boilermakers aren't any stranger to beautiful NCAA match losses, however few will sting greater than this.

Michael Conroy/AP

What an absolute flaming rubbish barge, floating down the Wabash River. Purdue has an ideal heritage of success, however its present place in historical past because the Exxon Valdez of March has overwhelmed all the pieces else.

How the Huge Ten regular-season champion and match champion might lose to a crew that didn’t even win its personal convention match, I’m unsure. Fairleigh Dickinson was overwhelmed within the Northeast Convention title recreation by Merrimack, which wasn’t eligible for the Huge Dance as a transitioning college from Division II. And the NEC is horrible—0–31 within the NCAA Match till this recreation.

Fairleigh Dickson was ranked No. 298 out of 363 in Division I within the Pomeroy Rankings coming into this recreation. The Knights weren’t even favored of their First 4 recreation Wednesday in Dayton towards Texas Southern, which misplaced 20 video games this season. They're, fairly probably, the worst crew to ever win two NCAA Match video games.

Purdue, for what it’s value, isn’t nearly as good because the 2018 Virginia crew that misplaced to UMBC. Most of us might see the warning lights flashing on the Boilermakers, regardless of profitable the league and the league tourney. No person picked the Boilermakers to lose this recreation, however they have been a reasonably fashionable decide to go down in rounds two, three or 4—lacking the Remaining 4 but once more.

Surrounding Edey, Purdue was depending on freshmen guards and wings who have been positive, not nice. They'd a pileup of position gamers surrounding a pillar of energy within the center. FDU succeeded in limiting Edey with a swarm of double groups, and the supporting forged flopped.

The stat sheet is a black-and-gold nightmare. Purdue was 5-of-26 from three-point vary. Exterior of Edey, it was 7-of-16 from two-point vary. Level guard Braden Smith dedicated seven turnovers.

However past recreation stats was the clear imaginative and prescient of who dealt with the stress and who wilted beneath it. For the third straight yr, Purdue demonstrably choked.

Dropping to North Texas in Indianapolis was brutal—and you would see the burden compounding itself as the sport went alongside and Purdue did not exert itself. Dropping to Saint Peter’s final yr was largely the identical—top-five NBA draft decide Jaden Ivey, plus a veteran forged round him, stored urgent and urgent. And now this.

Watching a crew actively soften down—and the coach fail to determine easy methods to cease it—is a painful actuality of sports activities. With Purdue and Painter, it’s a recurring scene. How a coach with Edey and 10 scholarship gamers couldn’t determine easy methods to rating towards Lilliputian Fairleigh Dickinson, I do not know.

There isn't any alternative now for Purdue however to tug again and look at all the pieces about its operation. Very similar to Bennett at Virginia, the Boilermakers have a coach who they’d in all probability prefer to preserve endlessly. Very similar to Bennet at Virginia, the Boilermakers have succeeded in beating their convention competitors and acting at a excessive stage in the course of the common season. Very similar to Bennett and Virginia, they've then flopped time after time after time when it’s time to enter the broader world.

Bennett put Painter behind him within the Huge Dance futility race with a literal last-second play within the 2019 regional last, on Virginia’s method to the nationwide title on the Boilermakers’ expense. This Purdue loss provides some additional distance between the 2. 

When it actually issues, Purdue doesn’t guard effectively sufficient. It doesn’t make sufficient huge pictures. It doesn’t coach its method out of tight spots. The Painter system is flawed, maybe fatally when it comes to NCAA championship competitors.

The varsity of John Picket, Rick Mount, Huge Canine Robinson and plenty of different greats has a brand new chapter of NCAA match embarrassment. That is the worst one but, and it’s the third in succession. Purdue is the brand new punchline of March Unhappiness.