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College Basketball Rankings December 23: Purdue Still Receiving Votes

A loss to a top 20 team wasn’t enough to keep some voters from still believing.

By BoilerTMill
NCAA Basketball: Crossroads Classic-Purdue at Butler Trevor Ruszkowski-USA TODAY Sports

Yes, Purdue is 7-5 and is still receiving votes in the AP Poll. That shows that peoples till believe in this team and that it is close. Even last year after losing to Notre Dame and falling to 6-5 with only one decent win Purdue was receiving votes, so this year, at 7-5 in the same spot but with a couple of better wins, Purdue is still getting votes.

And really, Purdue is not THAT far off. The offense can be putrid at points, but the defense is still solid. Purdue needs to start hitting its shots at the rim and find just a little more consistency on offense. Against Marquette, Butler, and Nebraska it took three horrendous shooting stretches (as in, below 25% for most of the game) for Purdue to lose. Texas was three bad turnovers and Florida State was a missed opportunity.

Of course, this could be more of a trend, but the Boilers are still close. They are about 4 possessions vs. FSU and Texas from being 9-3, and in the others the offense was ridiculously bad. Given what Purdue did against Virginia we know the offense can be good, too so hopefully they can turn it around. The only truly bad loss was Nebraska, which has the double sting of being a conference game.

Get Matt Haarms back. Hit shots at the rim that open up more open looks for Eric Hunter Jr. and Sasha Stefanovic. Have Nojel Eastern actually attack the basket (ironically, he is our best finisher at the rim. This season can be salvaged, so I trust in Painter. I still expect to make the NCAA Tournament, probably in the 6-10 seed range, but there are a ton of chances in Big Ten play with 12 of the 14 teams currently rated in the top 50 of the NET rankings. With a little more consistent offense (and from Virginia, we know it can be good) Purdue can still do some good things this year.

Here is this week’s AP Poll:

  1. Gonzaga 1,608
  2. Ohio State 1,520
  3. Louisville 1,460
  4. Duke 1,429
  5. Kansas 1,388
  6. Oregon 1,286
  7. Baylor 1,207
  8. Auburn 1,107
  9. Memphis 1,040
  10. Villanova 950
  11. Michigan 889
  12. Butler 853
  13. Maryland 785
  14. Michigan State 775
  15. San Diego State 763
  16. Virginia 595
  17. Florida State 583
  18. Dayton 541
  19. Kentucky 411
  20. Penn State 332
  21. Washington 326
  22. West Virginia 229
  23. Texas Tech 178
  24. Arizona 153
  25. Iowa 125

Others receiving votes:

Wichita State 112, Colorado 79, Xavier 68, DePaul 54, Indiana 45, Liberty 40, Utah State 36, Saint Mary’s 29, Marquette 28, Tennessee 24, Northern Iowa 23, Creighton 12, Purdue 11, Georgetown 9, Stanford 7, BYU 4, St. John’s 4, Virginia Tech 3, Seton Hall 2, East Tennessee State 1, Yale 1

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