Purdue Basketball Earns No. 1 Seed in NCAA Tournament East Region
CHICAGO — Purdue basketball entered the postseason as the Big Ten regular-season champions and went on to capture its second conference tournament title in program history. With an overall record of 29-5, the team enters the NCAA Tournament as the No. 1 seed in the East Region.
The Boilermakers are slated to play the winner of a play-in matchup between Texas Southern and Fairleigh Dickinson on Friday at Nationwide Arena in Columbus Ohio.
"You want to have that momentum going into the tournament," Purdue junior center Zach Edey said. "It's always nice to win games, always nice to cut down nets and kind of validate all the work you've put in."
Texas Southern punched its ticket to the NCAA Tournament with a 61-58 win over Grambling State in the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament championship game. The Tigers finished eighth in their conference during the regular season but enter March Madness with a 14-20 overall record after three straight wins.
Fairleigh Dickinson earned a bid at 19-15 overall despite losing in the Northeast Conference final by one point. League tournament title winner Merrimack is ineligible for the NCAA Tournament as a transitional Division I program.
Last season, the Boilermakers were in No. 3 seed in the East and earned wins over Yale and Texas before losing to No. 15-seeded Saint Peter's 67-64 in the Sweet 16.
"I thought St. Peter's was tougher than us," Purdue coach Matt Painter said on Sunday. "I thought they were physically and mentally tougher than us, and they did a great job defensively. We just didn't play like we were connected."
Purdue started the 2022-23 season 22-1 before a stretch of four losses in the span of six games. Despite its late struggles in the regular season, the team clinched the program's 25th Big Ten championship with a road win against Wisconsin.
The Boilermakers have won their last five games, which all came during the month of March.
"Just work on what you're struggling on," Painter said. "Don't take a step back and give some speech to make it right. Just work on the things you're struggling with, but also try to magnify and enhance the things you're doing well. Just leave it there."
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D.J. Fezler is a staff writer for BoilermakersCountry.com. Hailing from The Region, he is from Cedar Lake in Northwest Indiana and has spent the last two years covering Purdue football and basketball.