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well, he needs to work harder then

I think UW would have made a deep run that season. They were really good.

Maybe not Gard's best, but I think playing the best going into the tourney.

In retrospect, having Howard Moore's car accident, not being able to start integrate Potter until right before Big Ten play, Alando Tucker manipulating things behind the scenes, and the Kobe King issue, it's actually fairly impressive that they were able to tread water.

That said, they were 13-10 overall and 6-6 in the Big Ten following a blowout loss in Minneapolis on February 5.  They didn't lose again.

Granted, their schedule certainly lightened up a TON too, but I think given all of those other factors, I think you can say the way that team ended the season was more indicative of their ability.

A few kind of interesting narratives based on the cancellation of the 2020 tournament as well.

Probably Turgeon and Gards best teams, didn't get a chance to play it out.  Indiana was likely in the tourney.  Would that have bought Archie another year?  For the talk of Painters lull earlier in the decade, it then gets forgotten that Purdue was nowhere near the tourney in 2020.

Purdue was on the edge of the bubble, though. They were 9-11 in conference that year, and above .500 overall. I recall thinking (and arguing here) at the time "I think 2 wins in the BTT might get them onto the right side of the bubble". I don't think it would have taken them winning the whole think to get the auto bid. 

So I wouldn't call that "nowhere near the tourney". They were likely on the wrong side of the bubble, but still with a decent shot to play their way in with a couple BTT wins. 

16-15 overall, tied for 10th in the Big Ten

FWIW, this is the what the ESPN Bubble Watch said going into the BTT

Looking at Purdue's schedule a week ago, most observers would have predicted that the Boilermakers would go 1-1 in games at Iowa and at home against Rutgers. That's exactly what occurred, it's just that the win came on the road against the Hawkeyes and the loss came at Mackey Arena to the Scarlet Knights. Anyway, 2-0 would have helped. Matt Painter's team will enter the Big Ten tournament with a 15-14 record, and history says that's not good enough. No team has earned an at-large bid with an overall win percentage under .533. Naturally, the committee may break new ground and give a bid to a team with a top-35 NET ranking and wins over Virginia, Michigan State and Wisconsin, to say nothing of the season sweep of Iowa. Still, asking the committee to do something unprecedented is risky.

Yeah, they certainly had work to do. The real question is how much. I think 2 wins might have done it.

A win on Thursday would have been over the #7 seed Ohio State team. A win on Friday (since MSU wasn't playing Thursday) could only come against the #2 seed Michigan State. 

Both of those would have been VERY quality wins. Then assuming chalk on the rest of their half of the bracket, a Saturday loss to #3 seed Maryland or even #6 seed PSU wouldn't be a bad loss. (If #11 IU or #14 Nebraska somehow won out to Saturday, Purdue would likely need to win that game as well).  

I think I was projecting that 18-16 with two strong wins and then an acceptable loss might have been enough. Yeah, 18-16 is only .529, but it would be one of the stronger rated .529 teams that the committee ever had to contemplate. I also think getting three wins and losing the BTTCG to finish 19-16 would have DEFINITELY been enough, especially if that win was over Maryland or #6 seed PSU. 

Not that I thought they would actually finish that well, but only that it wasn't unreasonable that they could get there, and that it might be enough. The path to getting in without winning the BTT existed in my opinion. 

Final B1G record 5-15.

• 7-11 was Matta's worst, in his last season, 2017.
• 1-15 was Jim O'Brien's worst, in his first season, 1998. None of O'Brien's other teams were worse than 6-10.

Worst season in 25 years and from a HC who, unlike Matta and O'Brien, has no notable accomplishments.

Now we wait to see if a big booster cares enough to divert from football player money. 

Final B1G record 5-15.

• 7-11 was Matta's worst, in his last season, 2017.
• 1-15 was Jim O'Brien's worst, in his first season, 1998. None of O'Brien's other teams were worse than 6-10.

Worst season in 25 years and from a HC who, unlike Matta and O'Brien, has no notable accomplishments.

O'Brien notably accomplished getting a show cause penalty and a bunch of wins vacated.