The Purdue Boilermakers are 16.5 point favorites. Despite the bevy of low seeds struggling on day 1, the heavily favorited Boilers line keeps going up. It was 15.5 when the tournament started.
As I wrote Wednesday, every Purdue NCAA game seems to carry just a little more weight these days, but it’s possible that all that nervous hesitation has turned into unbridled optimism for Boiler fans despite themselves and all they know of March with the, you cannot say it enough, incredible upset of the #2 seed Kentucky by St. Peter’s giving any saint in history a run for their miracle money.
The overtime lost was just one of many head scratching results, upsets, and almost upsets.
#5 seed Iowa who came in as one of the favorite teams to over achieve in the tournament and Big Ten Tournament champs, fell to the cliche of a #12-#5 upset to a Richmond team that wouldn’t have been in the tournament if they hadn’t won their conference tournament.
#4 seed UCLA struggled against a game Akron team in the East Region, 57-53. Murray St. did what they always do, win. With only 2 losses on the season and a second round match up against the #15 seed St. Peter’s now, they have to all of a sudden be feeling very much like midnight is a long long way away for one of the earliest Cinderella favorites.
Baylor handled business against Norfolk St. but they are still without their best player for the rest of the tournament.
Saint Mary’s dominated Indiana as a #5 seed after IU had to go through a brutal schedule and some travel delays and then copious excuse givings just to get into the tournament at all.
What I’m trying to say, is the chaos is absolutely back. The fans or 2022 or Britney Spears being free has brought the magic back into the world and Purdue will just try to harness a little bit of against Yale because all of a sudden, a daunting path that looked inevitably lead to a Sweet Sixteen throwdown with an uber talented and athletic Kentucky team will now have Purdue facing a lower seed at least until the Elite Eight.
It’s only been one day and the whole landscape of college basketball has changed. That’s the nature of the beast. That’s the beauty of the month.
What we learned from Day 1 is sometimes the most important lesson, what we already know.
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NCAA 2022 Tourney East Region: What We Learned from Day 1
The Purdue Boilermakers watched their bracket get busted on Day 1 and now it’s their turn to hold the #3 seed.