Purdue coach Gene Keady knows what it feels like to arrive at a second-round game as a favored top seed, then lose a stunner. It happened to his Boilermakers in the NCAA tournament last season.
Keady also knows it will take much more than a precedent for eighth-seeded Purdue to beat top-ranked and top-seeded Kansas in a second-round game here Saturday. The Boilermakers of 1996 were good; the Jayhawks of 1997 could go down in history.
“It would be the upset of the season probably,” Keady acknowledged . . . though that was before 15th-seeded Coppin State spilled No. 2 seed South Carolina in a first-round East Regional game.
Purdue (18-11) and Kansas (33-1) get under way in The Pyramid at 1:25 p.m. No. 12 College of Charleston (29-2) and No. 4 Arizona (20-9) meet afterward.
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To beat Kansas, Purdue somehow has to contain Jayhawks big men Raef LaFrentz and Scot Pollard. That is a lot to ask of Boilermakers center Brad Miller.
“You’re talking about two of the best players in the nation, so it will be quite a chore,” Keady said.