Purdue is now 57th in the RPI.
It's gotten some help lately.
Vanderbilt's three-game win streak, most recently its Saturday win over Alabama, has moved it into the top 100 with a relatively soft schedule to finish out the regular season. As long as Vandy is inside that top 100, it is not considered a 'bad loss' by the RPI measure, so as of right now, Purdue has only two bad losses: North Florida and Gardner-Webb.
Meanwhile, Kansas State's win over Iowa State on the heels of its win over Kansas has moved the Wildcats up to 78th in the RPI. It was a bad loss a few weeks ago, but now they're cushioned to the point that they're pretty much assured that they can't fall back out of the top 100.
BYU's win at No. 3 Gonzaga was a double-edged sword for Purdue, but more bad than good.
Yes, it really helped the Cougars in their case for one of the at-large NCAA bids Purdue is vying for, but at the same time, BYU is one of Purdue's two quality non-conference wins - along with NC State - and the victory moved it up to 35th in the RPI. By the RPI measure, BYU is now Purdue's best win of the season and the fact it was done on a neutral court can't hurt, though I'm not sure it really matters.
If you were wondering: The last two times Purdue has been in position where it had to play its way into the NCAAs this late in the year were 2006-07 and 2011-12.
In those seasons, Purdue FINISHED in the RPI (according to Jerry Palm's old collegerpi.com site) at 44th and 28th, respectively.
You'll recall in '07, Purdue pretty much had to win a Big Ten Tournament game - it was thought - to get in and they did, beating Iowa in Chicago before losing to Ohio State's Greg Oden-led team. In 2012, Purdue was walking a fine line until Feb. 25, when it won at No. 11 Michigan 75-61. That win pretty much sealed the day and it came on the day you might otherwise remember as The Day Vince Edwards Kinda Committed To Purdue As A Sophomore But Didn't Really.
It's gotten some help lately.
Vanderbilt's three-game win streak, most recently its Saturday win over Alabama, has moved it into the top 100 with a relatively soft schedule to finish out the regular season. As long as Vandy is inside that top 100, it is not considered a 'bad loss' by the RPI measure, so as of right now, Purdue has only two bad losses: North Florida and Gardner-Webb.
Meanwhile, Kansas State's win over Iowa State on the heels of its win over Kansas has moved the Wildcats up to 78th in the RPI. It was a bad loss a few weeks ago, but now they're cushioned to the point that they're pretty much assured that they can't fall back out of the top 100.
BYU's win at No. 3 Gonzaga was a double-edged sword for Purdue, but more bad than good.
Yes, it really helped the Cougars in their case for one of the at-large NCAA bids Purdue is vying for, but at the same time, BYU is one of Purdue's two quality non-conference wins - along with NC State - and the victory moved it up to 35th in the RPI. By the RPI measure, BYU is now Purdue's best win of the season and the fact it was done on a neutral court can't hurt, though I'm not sure it really matters.
If you were wondering: The last two times Purdue has been in position where it had to play its way into the NCAAs this late in the year were 2006-07 and 2011-12.
In those seasons, Purdue FINISHED in the RPI (according to Jerry Palm's old collegerpi.com site) at 44th and 28th, respectively.
You'll recall in '07, Purdue pretty much had to win a Big Ten Tournament game - it was thought - to get in and they did, beating Iowa in Chicago before losing to Ohio State's Greg Oden-led team. In 2012, Purdue was walking a fine line until Feb. 25, when it won at No. 11 Michigan 75-61. That win pretty much sealed the day and it came on the day you might otherwise remember as The Day Vince Edwards Kinda Committed To Purdue As A Sophomore But Didn't Really.
