Is Purdue not only a lock for the NCAA Tournament, but a No. 1 seed? It is starting to look like it. Just about the only way Purdue could lose its grip on the coveted Indy-Detroit path to the Final Four would be a four game losing streak heading into March. That seems unlikely.

Purdue can clinch at least a share of the Big Ten as soon as tonight if it gets an assist from Minnesota. It only has Tier 1 games left as Michigan State, Illinois, and Wisconsin are all in the top 25 of the NET. I tis now impossible for Purdue to get a "bad" loss before selection Sunday, so the only thing that could affect the seed is a volume of losses.

Even then, Purdue is on a level above everyone else nationally except for UConn and Houston. Both UConn and Purdue are 9-3 against Tier 1 teams. Houston is 7-3 along with Arizona, and that is enough for all four teams to currently be projected as No. 1 seeds. Purdue, UConn, and Houston are and impressive 50-0 against the bottom three tiers.

All of that means much of this column is academic, but it is still interesting to see how Purdue's opponents are doing. The Boilers have played a team favored to be a 16 seed and a team favored to be a 1 seed. If you want an example of the type of team Purdue could play each round it is there with Eastern Kentucky (projected 16 seed), Northwestern, Michigan State, or Nebraska (projected 9 seeds), Illinois (projected 4 seed) and Marquette or Tennessee (projected 2 seeds).

In short, Purdue will never have a better shot at ending the Final Four drought.