Purdue Finalizes 2023-24 Men's Basketball Non-Conference Schedule
With the returning National Player of the Year and the majority of production back from a team that won the Big Ten and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament expectations are sky high for Purdue basketball entering 2023-24. With those expectations come a tough non-conference slate, and Purdue has not lost a non-conference regular season game since December 2020 at Miami. That will be tested this coming season, as the Boilers finalized their non-conference schedule early this morning.
With the Maui Invitational, the home game against Xavier, and neutral site games against Alabama and Arizona, Purdue has six of the toughest non-conference games in the country. Purdue is projected to be third right now in the "Way-too-early" top 25 accoridng to ESPN, but Maui alone features #1 Kansas, #6 Tennessee, #8 Gonzaga, and #10 Marquette in one of its deepest fields ever. Arizona is 11th in that poll and Alabama is 18th.
As a result, the remaining five games are very much tune-up home guarantee games. Samford was the regular season co-champion with Furman in the Southern Conference at 21-11, 15-3, but it was upset in the first round of the conference tournament by Chattanooga. Purdue is 2-0 against the Bulldogs, beating them in 2003 and 2014,.
Purdue is also 2-0 all-time against Morehead State, beating them in 1985 and 2016. They were 22-12 last season and won the Ohio Valley regular season title, but were upset in the conference tournament by Southeast Missouri. The regular season title gave them an automatic bid to the NIT, where they beat Clemson at Clemson before losing to UAB.
Texas Southern was technically an NCAA team a year ago despite going 14-21. They surprisingly won the SWAC Tournament to steal the automatic bid before losing in the First Four by 23 to... Fairleigh Dickinson. Purdue is 1-0 against them, beating them in 2007.
Jacksonville has only played Purdue once, and that was in the 1974 NIT that Purdue won. Thy were 13-16 a year ago and failed to even make the Atlantic Sun Tournament. They lost twice to former Purdue guard Isaiah Thompson and FGCU.
The final non-conference game comes against Eastern Kentucky, who Purdue has never played in men's basketball. The Colonels were pretty good last season at 23-14 and made the Atlantic Sun semifinals before a nailbiting run to the CBI championship game. They beat Cleveland State in OT, Indiana State in OT, and Southern Utah in double OT before losing the championship game to Charlotte by 3.
Overall you can't ask much more from this schedule. The two neutral site games agaisnt Arizona and Alabama are incredible. Xavier was in the Sweet 16 a year ago, while the Maui field is as tough as you can ask. It is safe to say that even a 9-2 run through that slate is more than enough to set Purdue up for another No. 1 seed.