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College basketball rankings: Purdue rebounds after Northwestern upset, races past Iowa for first Big Ten win – CBS Sports
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Purdue took its first loss of the season last Friday at Northwestern and cost itself the No. 1 ranking. On Monday night, the Boilermakers bounced back impressively and overwhelmed Iowa in an 87-68 victory inside Mackey Arena that pushed Matt Painter’s program to 8-1.
Zach Edey finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds.
“He’s difficult — but I think you have to give credit to the rest of the guys that are out there for them,” said Iowa coach Fran McCaffery. “They really executed tonight in terms of screening and cutting and ball movement, which makes it really hard if you’re trying to focus on him. Obviously, they’re not a one-man show at all. They have shooters. They have drivers. They have size. They stretch your defense in ways that make it very difficult.”
The 19-point victory over Iowa represented Purdue’s fourth win over a school currently ranked in the top 40 at KenPom.com. Nobody else has more than three such wins, which is among the reasons the Boilermakers are No. 2 in Tuesday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings, where undefeated Arizona remains No.1 for the fourth consecutive day.
Purdue shot 52.3% from the field against Iowa with Edey making nine of the 10 shots he attempted. The reigning CBS Sports National Player of the Year actually blocked more shots (3) than he missed (1) and remains on track to be the first back-to-back winner of the John R. Wooden Award since Virginia‘s Ralph Sampson took the honor in both 1982 and 1983.
“I just thought we were aggressive against their press,” said Painter. “When we got the ball out of our hands and had space, our guys really advanced it with the pass and dribbles. Our guys did a good job of being receivers and flashing.”
Up next for Purdue is Saturday’s meeting with Alabama in Toronto that will double as a homecoming game for Edey, the 7-foot-4 center who was born and raised in Canada’s largest city. After that, it’s a showdown with top-ranked Arizona in Indianapolis on Dec. 16.
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