Purdue the fourth No. 1 seed in early NCAA bracket projection
Despite back-to-back last-possession losses in the last week, the NCAA considers Purdue a No. 1 seed in the Tournament, if it started right now.
For the second year, the NCAA Selection Committee revealed its top 16 seeds, a month before it will Selection Sunday. Purdue was joined by No. 1 overall Virginia followed by Villanova and Xavier. The committee, said chair Bruce Rasmussen, who is Creighton's athletic director, put a heavy emphasis on away records.
“Those four teams are 40-8 away from home. That’s amazing," Rasmussen said.
Purdue, which is 23-4 overall, 12-2 in the Big Ten, has notable true road wins at Marquette and Michigan, plus neutral site wins over Arizona and Butler. Away from Mackey Arena, the Boilermakers are 6-1 in the Big Ten, 7-1 including the nonconference and 2-2 on neutral sites.
The Boilermakers are coming off losses to No. 14 Ohio State, a home game, and on the road at No. 4 Michigan State, by a combined total of four points. They'd lost back-to-back games previously this season, falling to Tennessee and Western Kentucky in the November Battle for Atlantis. But a win over then-No. 2 Arizona on Day 3 of the holiday tournament was the start of a program-record 19-game winning streak.
Although Purdue has lost four games, including the two most recent, the Boilermakers' NCAA résumé benefits by being without a bad loss. WKU's (17-7) RPI is 55, while Tennessee (18-6), Michigan State (24-3) and Ohio State (22-5) are 13, 14 and 16, respectively, per realtimeRPI.com.
The Boilermakers were placed in the West Region, joined there by No. 2 Kansas, No. 3 North Carolina and No. 4 Arizona.
A look at the top 16 reveal:
No. 1 seeds: 1. Virginia 2. Villanova 3. Xavier 4. Purdue
No. 2 seeds: 5. Auburn 6. Kansas 7. Duke 8. Cincinnati
No. 3 seeds: 9. Clemson 10. Texas Tech 11. Michigan State 12. North Carolina
No. 4 seeds: 13. Tennessee 14. Ohio State 15. Arizona 16. Oklahoma
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