Trivia Time! What is the only team in the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings that didn’t open the season on Monday?
Answer: Purdue.
The Boilermakers waited until Tuesday to get started, for whatever reason. But just like every other team in the Top 25 And 1, Purdue ultimately opened with a victory over an outclassed opponent — an 84-53 win over Milwaukee.
Freshmen guards Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith both had impactful debuts. They combined for 24 points, eight steals, seven assists and six rebounds. When asked in the postgame press conference what it was like to see two first-year guards perform so well so early, Purdue coach Matt Painter said this: “It’s great. Obviously, [they’re] good young players — [but] it’s [still] hard to be good right away even with someone who is talented. There’s just a big learning curve when you first start. … But [Loyer and Smith] have a lot of similarities. They can shoot the basketball. They can pass the basketball. They have a good feel for the game. So they plug right in.”
Purdue is one of just two schools in the top 25 of the Top 25 And 1 that isn’t also in the Associated Press Top 25 poll. (The other is Texas A&M). Throughout the offseason, I had plenty of folks ask why I was ranking the Boilermakers given that they lost four of the top seven scorers from last season’s team and didn’t add, relatively speaking, a heralded recruiting class. My response, consistently, was that I just believe in Painter, who has guided Purdue to a top-25 finish at KenPom.com in seven straight seasons. He’s almost always good, rarely anything less, and thus deserving of the benefit of the doubt nearly regardless of his roster make-up. Simply put, I’ll always assume Purdue wil be good under Painter until that trend discontinues.
With Tuesday night’s 31-point win, the Boilermakers remain No. 24 in Wednesday morning’s updated Top 25 And 1. Their next game is Friday against Austin Peay.