First Look: Purdue and the 2025 Big Ten Tournament

After 20 conference games, the top 15 teams, including Purdue, will descend on Indianapolis to kick off postseason play. For the first time, not every Big Ten team will appear in the conference tournament. The bottom three teams, Nebraska, Penn State and Washington, will stay home.

For just the second time in 11 years, Purdue did not earn the double-bye. The only other year Purdue didn’t earn the double-bye? 2020, when the conference tournament was canceled after the opening day due to COVID-19 concerns. Purdue entered Friday night needing a win or a Maryland loss to Northwestern to get the automatic advancement to Friday. Alas, neither went Purdue’s way.

Purdue will look to win four games in four days to win its third Big Ten Tournament crown. The Boilermakers previously took home titles in 2009 in Indianapolis and 2023 in Chicago.

The quest to do so begins late Thursday night, as Purdue will face the winner of Wednesday’s matchup between USC and Rutgers. The two met in late February, when the Scarlet Knights raced past Southern Cal in a 95-85 victory in Piscataway. The Trojans closed the season on a poor stretch, losing six of their final seven contests, capped by a 27-point drubbing by rival UCLA on Saturday night.

On the flipside, Rutgers closed a disappointing season on a high note, winning three of its final five, with one of the losses coming at the buzzer in Ann Arbor. Relying on two phenomenal freshmen didn’t pan out the way Rutgers hoped, but they showed the ability to put up points in bunches late in the year.

Purdue went 3-0 against its potential Thursday foes, winning each game by 18 or more points. Despite making just four of 24 three-point attempts, the Boilermakers cruised past Rutgers in Piscataway. In last week’s return matchup, Purdue flipped the script, draining 18 threes while hitting the century mark in a 100-71 annihilation.

Meanwhile, in the first Big Ten meeting between Purdue and USC, the Boilermakers rolled to a 90-72 win. The Trojans did not have leading scorer Desmond Claude for that matchup, but freshman Wesley Yates filled the void by pouring in 30 points. Regardless of who takes Wednesday’s nightcap, Purdue will take the floor as a heavy favorite in front of what figures to be a pro-Purdue crowd inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

Should the Boilermakers move on, a third matchup with Michigan lies ahead. Purdue used a fast start to accelerate a 27-point blowout victory in a highly-anticipated showdown. In the rematch, Purdue led for nearly 35 of 40 minutes, but Trey Kaufman-Renn and Caleb Furst each fouled out. Braden Smith’s late-game heroics from deep weren’t enough, as Michigan prevailed 75-73.

Both Purdue and Michigan finished the season on a sour note. The loss in Ann Arbor kicked off a 2-5 stretch of seven games to close the regular season for Purdue, while Michigan lost four of its final six games. The two victories came narrowly, as the Maize and Blue survived a 49-46 slugfest at Nebraska and needed a buzzer-beating three to defeat Rutgers in Ann Arbor.

If Purdue goes on a run, it could see Maryland for the first time in 2025. The lone meeting came in early December, where Braden Smith’s big second half fueled Purdue to a come-from-behind win inside Mackey Arena. Maryland finished on fire, winning seven of its final eight games and putting itself in position for a top-four seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Or, Illinois certainly possesses the firepower to make noise in the Circle City. Since losing by 43 points to Duke, the largest margin of defeat in school history, Illinois has won three consecutive games, including Friday’s comeback win in Champaign over the Boilermakers.

Purdue, too, will play to better position itself for seeding in the Big Dance. Most current projections place the Boilermakers as a four-seed, but it can ill-afford a bad loss on Thursday night. Could a run to Sunday’s championship game nudge Purdue to the three-line? It feels possible, though many other variables will factor into the selection committee’s final verdict.

If nothing else, Purdue hopes to regain momentum after an uneasy end to the regular season. While Michigan State rolled to win the regular season championship by three games, it’s far from a foregone conclusion that Tom Izzo’s squad will do the same in Indianapolis. The top seed has only won 10 of the 26 Big Ten Tournaments, which first began in 1998, and six of the last eight have seen someone besides the one seed leave victorious.

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