It's also interesting that Painter has had one team seeded to get that far and two teams better than four seeds. And he's run into a lot of one seeds.
Yeah, and the year Purdue had Hummel, Johnson, and Moore as juniors, along with a senior Kramer to be the defensive stopper, they were at one point ranked #3 in the country. Then Hummel tore his ACL in February, and a team that would have likely fallen at worst to a 2 seed even if they'd lost a few games, but without Hummel they slipped to a 4.
Last year, Purdue was at one point also ranked #3 in the country, and although they hit a 3-game skid after that, remained a 2 seed in the tournament. But then Haas broke his elbow in the first game, and that was that.
2009: They had a 5 that reached the S16 (Hummel/Johnson/Moore as sophomores), and faced a 1.
2010: They had a 4 that should have been a 1 or 2, but Hummel was lost in late Feb and they still made the S16, losing to a 1.
2011: They had a 3 that got clobbered by #11 VCU in the round of 32. That was the missed opportunity... Had they beaten VCU they would have faced #10 FSU, which would have been a good opportunity to break through.
2017: As a 4, they ran into #1 Kansas in the S16. Played them close for 25 minutes, and then Kansas just went nuts.
2018: Had a 2, lost Haas to injury late in the round of 64. Beat #10 Butler to reach the S16, but then without Haas, lost to #3 TTU.
2011 was the best chance at the "broken bracket", but unfortunately part of the reason that bracket was broken was Purdue losing to VCU...