Purdue Basketball NET Update - December 30th Edition

The non-conference season is over. Purdue has finished playing basketball for the year 2022. They sit at 13-0 and 2-0 in conference play. An absolutely perfect record. They are #1 in the AP poll. Everything is right with the world. So now seems as good a time as any to take a look at the Boilermakers NCAA Tournament resume and specifically focus on the NET ranking and where the Purdue wins stack up.

For those unfamiliar with the NET ranking it stands for the NCAA Evaluation Tool. This is the tool that replaced RPI a few years ago. In these rankings you get rewarded for beating quality teams and road wins are valued higher than home wins. It makes sense because as any college basketball fan knows winning on the road is much harder than winning at home. It’s not rocket science. The better your opponents look throughout the season the better you look. This is one of the main criteria used when seeding the NCAA Tournament so it is an incredibly important measurement. Things obviously change throughout the year but let’s look at where Purdue sits right now and where their vanquished foes are. You can see the entire NET ranking here but I’ll give you everything you need to know below.

A teams wins are broken into quads based on the quality of the win. These cutoffs are explained below and taken directly from the NCAA website.

Quadrant 1: Home 1-30, Neutral 1-50, Away 1-75

Quadrant 2: Home 31-75, Neutral 51-100, Away 76-135

Quadrant 3: Home 76-160, Neutral 101-200, Away 135-240

Quadrant 4: Home 161-353, Neutral 201-353, Away 241-353

Purdue currently sits at #4 in the NET below Houston, UConn, and Tennessee. Pretty respectable bunch right there. No shame in being #4 especially when you remember that there are four #1 seeds come March and that’s where Purdue wants to be. Looking at their overall profile Purdue is 5-0 in quad 1 games. Those victories come over West Virginia (neutral) at 11, Gonzaga (neutral) at 12, Duke (neutral) at 17, Marquette (home) at 24, and against Nebraska (road) at 74. Nebraska just jumped into a quad 1 victory after their defeat of Iowa. Previously they were ranked 78th.

In case you were curious where Purdue’s two most recent opponents rank in NET as I was rest assured I’ve got you covered. New Orleans sits at 356 with Florida A&M at 359. There’s a reason they would call games like that bad losses. They don’t even fall within Quad 4 victories.

Purdue obviously with have numerous chances to add additional quad 1 victories to their resume with Big Ten season getting back underway in the New Year. Here’s a quick look at where the remainder of the Big Ten sits with non-conference play over and the December Big Ten games done:

Purdue - 4

Ohio State - 16

Indiana - 19

Rutgers - 25

Maryland - 27

Illinois - 42

Wisconsin - 43

Northwestern - 48

Penn State - 61 (Go Coach Shrewsberry!)

Iowa - 68

Michigan State - 70

Nebraska - 74

Michigan - 110 (dropped from 81st. Yikes. Losing to Central Michigan hurts.)

Minnesota - 249 (Has to be one of the lowest Big Ten teams ever.)

So there you have it. Taking a look at these current rankings, keep in mind they are ever shifting, it shows Purdue has a chance for a multitude of quad 1 wins with everyone except Michigan and Minnesota qualifying as quad 1 if the game is played on the road and everyone above Penn State qualifying as quad 1 on a neutral court with Maryland and above qualifying as quad 1 if played in the lovely confines of Mackey Arena.

Stay tuned to this site as we will regularly update you on where Purdue stands in the NET and where the rest of the conference sits.