Purdue's Mission in Big Ten Tournament? 'Just Win'

INDIANAPOLIS — Throughout the season, Purdue coach Matt Painter has talked about the competitive nature of the players on his team. Even though the Boilermakers fell short of their regular season goals, they head to Indianapolis with a new one in mind: Winning the Big Ten Tournament.

Purdue suffered an 88-80 loss in the regular season finale against Illinois on Friday. Although the Boilermakers tied for fourth place in the conference standings with UCLA and Wisconsin, they earned a No. 6 seed in the Big Ten Tournament because of the tiebreaker structure. They'll play either No. 11 Rutgers or No. 14 USC on Thursday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

That fourth-place finish in the Big Ten standings is a far cry from where Purdue wanted to be this season — especially with Trey Kaufman-Renn, Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer returning as starters from last year's team.

So, heading into Indianapolis, the Boilermakers have one mission.

"Just win. Prove that you're the best team, I think it's as simple as that," Kaufman-Renn said. "I think we have confidence that we can compete with anybody when we're all locked in and doing our jobs. It's an opportunity for us to show that."

Winning this year's Big Ten Tournament would require Purdue to win four games in four days. That's not an easy task in college basketball, especially with the quality of the competition from top to bottom in the league.

Will Purdue worry about limiting minutes for certain guys this week, especially with March Madness starting the following week? Right now, it's not really a major concern.

"You win the game in front of you," Painter said. "You think about it afterwards, you don't think about it during ... you have to win the game in front of you and that's where you have to keep your focus."

Before Purdue thinks about a deep run in the Big Ten Tournament, though, it has to stay focused on one thing: Thursday night. Yes, the Boilers have had success against both Rutgers and USC, going 3-0 in the three regular season matchups against those two opponents. The average margin of victory was 21.7 points.

In a win-or-go-home situation, though, teams will be fighting for their seasons. That's why it's important for Purdue to take the Big Ten Tournament one game at a time.

"It's just one game at a time, and we have to be good in every single part and aspect of the game for one game at a time," Smith said. "We've got to come out defensively — offensively, I think we're fine — just sticking to our rules.

"I think if we stick to our rules, do what we did at the beginning of the Big Ten season, we'll be just fine."

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