Andy Katz, ESPN.com's humorless, always-puffy-and-sweaty-looking college basketball writer reportedly referred to Purdue a "a glorified mid-major" last week.
Well, that glorified mid-major has climbed into the ESPN.com Power 16, a meaningless ranking that doesn't even mirror the real rankings. So what does this mean? About the same as a nerf vibrator. (I'll let your women explain that to you, guys.)
The Power 16 is voted on by a dozen ESPN bball "experts," and Purdue is currently 13th. But how did each of them vote? That's my favorite part. Let's take a look.
Jay Bilas has us at 11, two behind MSU (who we just beat) and one ahead of IU, who we haven't played with but are ahead of in the standings.
Hubert Davis does not have us in his top 16. Dirty Tar Heel. He does have MSU at #9. Okay.
Pat Forde ranks us 15th and has no other Big Ten teams in his Power 16. He has Drake, however, at number 9. Do with that what you will.
Fran Fraschilla and Andy Glockner both have Purdue at 12.
Doug Gottleib puts us at 16 and he, too, has no respect for the Big Ten since we're the only team he ranked. Also puts Drake ahead of us. Mmmmm, Drakes.
The aforementioned sweaty fratboy (Katz) lists us at 11, with Wisconsin the only other Big Ten team in his mix at 15.
Joe Lunardi, of whom we've expressed opinions on before, has us at a respectable 12, two ahead of his other Big Tenner, Wisco.
Dana O'Neil -- whom I'm not familiar with (male or female? you make the call!) -- has us all the way up at #9. NINE! Wow.
Reggie Rankin, from Scouts, Inc., does not rank Purdue in his Power 16, but does mail in Wisco at 11, IU at 13 and MSU at 15. Definitely some love for the Big Ten, but kind of uneducated love. Kind of like doing a Kinesiology major. (Another one you'll have to think about.)
Mark Schlabach, one of my favorite punching bags, shows some love, putting MSU at 10, Purdue at 13 and Wisco at 14.
And then, wrapping things up, is Dickie V. He doesn't think Purdue is shit. He does, however, like IU, State and Wisco, ranking them at 12, 14, and 15, respectively.
It's interesting to me to see these voters be all over the map. They can't even agree on the top teams, with Kansas being as high as #1 (Hubert) and as low as #6 (Rankin).
That's all. I have no way to end this post. Just sharing. How's your day going?