Fan Pulse: Confidence Shaken?

Welcome back to Fan Pulse, basketball edition, this time with more hoops.

I’m back as your friendly (and favorite) Boilermaker blogger. Instead of the Top 25, basketball FanPulse focuses on the confidence of fans in the program. For Purdue, this may be one of the more interesting questions you can ask, because Purdue fans have been sparring over this question for years.

Last year, the pendulum swung firmly towards the “In Painter We Trust” camp but this season has seen it swing back towards the “Painter is Holding Purdue Back” camp. Over the past 7 weeks, Purdue’s data set has been one of the most mercurial in the nation.

Week 1-5 saw the voting go about has I expected. Based on my experience on this site, while 100% said they were sold on the direction of the program, I knew that was tenuous at best. I know that 100% of you guys weren’t all the way sold, even after last year, but knew you had to go with Painter the first week because of the elite 8 run.

I thought week 5 was going to be bedrock for the “Painter Aint It” crowd. I figured about a ³⁄₄ of you guys are with Painter and about ¹⁄₄ have some serious questions (which is fine, no hate here, I’ve asked those questions myself).

Week 7 Poll

Week 7, however, found a new low in confidence, with exactly half of you going with the no confidence vote. This poll was taken directly after the Illinois game, so I understand there may be some “we scored less than 40 points in a college basketball game” disgust votes, but I was somewhat surprised none-the-less.

I’m interested to see if these numbers bounce back after Purdue’s road performance (albeit a loss) against Michigan. Personally, I’m not concerned about the Illinois game. That was one of those games where everything goes wrong (historically so in this case) and you burn the tape and move on because it wasn’t an accurate representation of the team. I feel like the Purdue team you saw against Minnesota and Michigan is the real Purdue squad.

Do y’all feel good enough about Purdue’s double overtime loss to bump Painter back up to 75% or do you need to see and actual win?

I’m still team confidence until further notice.

National Question

This has to be one of the toughest years to pick a favorite. Gonzaga has the lead right now, but I’ve yet to see them play because of late tip times and my never ending march into middle age. They’ll have staying power in the poll because they are always the prohibitive favorite to win their conference.

Other than that, I’m not sold on anyone.

Auburn, Duke and Kansas are fine I guess. I’d be happy if Purdue was in their place, but at the same point, I don’t particularly trust any of them. I do find it interesting that Michigan State didn’t make the top 4 selections after their preseason hype.

* If you’re interested in voting, it’s not too late. You can sign up HERE