Here’s what has to happen for the No. 3 Boilermakers to move to the top of the CBS Sports Top 25 And 1
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Purdue has an opportunity Tuesday night to add a third signature victory to its resume when the Boilermakers host Florida State inside Mackey Arena. Nothing is guaranteed, of course. But the odds of Matt Painter’s program remaining undefeated increased Monday when it was announced that FSU will be without three rotation players, among them starting point guard RayQuan Evans and starting center Tanor Ngom.
Evans’ situation is the saddest.
He’ll be attending the funeral of his 27-year-old brother, Tye Oldelk Lafrainier, who died of leukemia earlier this month and left behind a 6-year-old son.
“Our thoughts are with RayQuan as he goes through this period of grieving with his family,” said Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton.
Evans is expected back in time for Saturday’s ACC opener against Syracuse — but the Seminoles will likely be without Ngom a little longer. The 7-foot-2 senior is dealing with a right knee strain that is expected to keep him sidelined for a few weeks. So Florida State won’t be whole for a while. That’s the bad news. But the good news is that the Seminoles are so deep and balanced — 11 players are averaging double-digits in minutes played per game, six players are averaging between 12.5 points and 7.2 points per game — that they’ll likely be fine once this game at Purdue is in the rearview mirror.
Purdue fans will be rooting hard Tuesday night for both their team and Ohio State considering the Buckeyes are hosting top-ranked Duke as part of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. As I noted in Monday morning’s Top 25 And 1, if Purdue handles Florida State, and Duke loses at Ohio State, Purdue — which is No. 3 in Tuesday morning’s updated Top 25 And 1 — will jump both Duke and Gonzaga and move to No. 1 in Wednesday morning’s Top 25 And 1 thanks to a resume that would then feature three wins over top-50 KenPom teams. If things go down that way, the Boilermakers would then be only a win over Iowa in Friday’s Big Ten opener away from moving to No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 poll next week for the first time in school history.
