The Purdue Boilermakers are going dancing with a No. 1 seed in the 2023 NCAA tournament. Purdue basketball is still waiting for the First Four round to finish before knowing which team it would be dealing with in the first round of March Madness.
But based on the near-immaculate record of top seeds in the tourney, it's safe to say that Zach Edey and company will advance to the next phase. With all that being said, can Purdue go all the way and win it all? Here are some of the reasons why Purdue basketball is going to be the last team standing.
Purdue basketball has Zach Edey
Purdue opponents will have to deal with a huge problem, literally and figuratively. This is pertaining to the presence of a mammoth center in the 7-4 Zach Edey. He's not just a towering figure for the Boilermakers; Edey is arguably the best player in the nation this season and is the anchor of Purdue's efficient offense and sturdy defense. With Edey, Purdue basketball has a legitimate star it can rely on in big games. Ahead of the Big Ten title game against the Penn State Nittany Lions, Edey was averaging 22.1 points on an ultra-efficient 60.2 percent shooting from the field, 12.8 rebounds, and 2.2 blocks per outing. Per KenPom.
Edey is 22nd in the nation in terms of percentage shots taken and No. 1 in offensive rebounding rate. Aside from being the go-to guy of the Boilermakers' offense, he is also the one that almost always cleans up the board whenever Purdue goes unsuccessful with its shot attempts. In fact, Edey is No. 1 in Division I basketball with a 21.8 offensive rebounding rate. As a team, the Boilermakers are third nationally with a 38.3 percent ORB%, as of this writing. Edey has also just sent a strong message across the college basketball world in the Big Ten championship game when he exploded for nearly half the points of Purdue basketball, scoring 30 points to go with 13 rebounds (six offensive) in a 67-65 thriller.
Excellent offense
Speaking of offense, there aren't a lot of teams out there with a better attack that gets positive results as efficiently as the Boilermakers. At the time of this writing, Purdue basketball is ranked seventh overall in the nation by KenPom with an average of 119.4 points per 100 possessions adjusted.
Although the Boilermakers are only 90th with a 52.2 effective field goal percentage, it's mostly because they are not a pretty good 3-point shooting team, making only a little bit over 32 percent of their shots from behind the arc. With Edey, though, they are 35th in 2-point shooting percentage (54.1) while also so good at creating second-chance scoring opportunities, thanks to their offensive rebounding.
And what they lack in 3-point shooting accuracy, the Boilermakers make up for it — in addition to their 2-point prowess — with free-throw generation. Purdue is a top-50 team in terms of free-throw rate, while also giving so few opportunities to its opponents. The Boilermakers actually allow the lowest free-throw-to-field goal ratio in Division I basketball.
The Boilermakers are battle-tested
Coming out of the Big Ten, which is a dog-eat-dog world, Edey and the Boilermaker are undoubtedly experienced in tough games against elite competition. The Big Ten is arguably the toughest conference in college basketball, with eight teams from the league getting tickets to the Big Dance.
Winning the Big Ten conference tournament title was also just another reminder about how capable Purdue is at making a deep run against top programs. Prior to Big Ten play, Purdue had also shown how terrifying it can be to Power Five teams outside of its league, with the Boilermakers coming away with comprehensive victories over the likes of the Marquette Golden Eagles, West Virginia Mountaineers, and Duke Blue Devils. That's not to mention Purdue's destruction of the Gonzaga Bulldogs.
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