I officially stopped trying to make sense of the Associated Press Top 25 poll years ago, right after I retired that old Poll Attacks column. Life’s too short and all that. But I still pay attention to it, obviously. And so, yeah, I noticed on Monday, when AP voters collectively dropped Purdue from No. 1 to No. 2 after one week of this season, presumably because the Boilermakers weren’t impressive enough while starting 2-0 with their All-American forward (Trey Kaufman-Renn) sidelined by a minor injury.
It was a confusing move, if only because undefeated top-ranked teams had only ever previously dropped once in the AP poll without losing. And if we were following the script of that Michael Jordan documentary, this is where Purdue All-American Braden Smith might pop in and say, “It became personal with me.” Because, on Thursday night, in Purdue’s first game since being demoted by AP voters, the CBS Sports Preseason National Player of the Year got 29 points, seven rebounds and four assists in an 87-80 victory at Alabama.
“I give Purdue a ton of credit — they’re tough,” said Alabama coach Nate Oats, whose Crimson Tide had just won at St. John’s f five days earlier, giving credence to the idea that the Boilermakers now possess the sport’s best victory to date, specifically a seven-point win on the road over a top-10 team that just won a road game at Madison Square Garden. “They’re one of the most disciplined [teams]. They run their stuff in the halfcourt. They know how to attack all of your coverages.
“At the end of the day, the tougher team won tonight,” Oats added. “They out-rebounded us by 24. That’s embarrassing.”
Needless to say, I get Oats’ point. Allowing Purdue to grab 19 offensive rebounds on 35 missed shots was a problem too difficult to overcome. But, broadly speaking, there’s nothing that embarrassing about losing to the Boilermakers, regardless of the circumstances, because most everybody who has played them since Smith enrolled as an unheralded recruit has pretty much done the same thing.
Purdue is now 90-23 since Smith joined Matt Painter’s program with three outright Big Ten regular-season titles, one Big Ten Tournament title and three straight appearances in the NCAA Tournament, one of which resulted in a trip to the championship game. Winning is what the Boilermakers do. And they did it again Thursday, in front of a hostile and capacity crowd, thanks to an all-everything performance from Smith, the first of many double-doubles this season from Kaufman-Renn, and a 9-of-21 effort from beyond the arc that helped offset Alabama’s 16 made 3-pointers.
The Boilermakers remain No. 1 in Friday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Alabama is No. 10. Purdue’s next game is Sunday against Akron. After that, the Boilermakers will travel to the Bahamas, where they’ll meet Memphis in the Baha Mar Championship on Thursday.
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