Purdue Boilermakers men's head basketball coach Matt Painter must be terrified of Northwestern's Boo Buie.
After scoring 26 points in Northwestern's 64-58 upset of then-No. 1 Purdue on Super Bowl Sunday, he poured in another 31 to go with nine assists and no turnovers in Friday night's 92-88 overtime win over the once again top-ranked Boilermakers.
THEY'RE STORMING THE COURT IN EVANSTON ‼️
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) December 2, 2023
NORTHWESTERN KNOCKS OFF NO. 1 PURDUE @NUMensBball pic.twitter.com/zF3HiRnlCE
After losing 11 straight matchups with Purdue heading into last season's upset, Wildcats head coach Chris Collins has Northwestern on its first winning streak against Matt Painter's squad since 2013-14. It's also just the seventh time since 2010-11 that a team has taken down the AP No. 1 team in consecutive seasons.
Northwestern guard Boo Buie dropped 31 points to lead the Cats to an upset win over No. 1 Purdue pic.twitter.com/4mDQeoqOJU
— B/R Hoops (@brhoops) December 2, 2023
"We came in and knew exactly what we wanted to do," Buie told Andy Katz after the win.
"It came down to the coaches harping on us all week, they did a really good job preparing us. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, we just gave it everything we had and came away with a win."
Purdue (7-1, 0-1 Big Ten) is the second No. 1 team to fall this season after then-No. 4 Marquette knocked off Kansas at the Maui Invitational. It's also Northwestern's (6-1, 1-0 BIG Ten) first top-25 win of the young season — it won't be their last.
"We knew it wasn't going to be easy. We came out here and gave everything we had and we were able to come away with the win." ️@TheAndyKatz talked with Boo Buie after @NUMensBball pulled off a thrilling upset over the No. 1 Boilermakers ️ pic.twitter.com/fD8UTdAlWD
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) December 2, 2023
The Wildcats won 23 games last year en route to a third-place Big Ten finish in 2022 and a second-ever appearance in the NCAA Tournament. Collins' roster also has the increasingly rare advantage of four returning players from last season in his starting lineup; with Buie playing his fifth season in Evanston and fellow senior Ty Berry adding 21 points of his own in the latest win over Purdue.
It looks like Collins has taken advantage of the transfer portal as well with the addition of Ryan Langborg, who garnered national attention during Princeton's Cinderella run to the Sweet Sixteen last year and hit four three-pointers vs. Purdue.
Northwestern is a team with experience beating good teams both in the regular and post-season, so don't be surprised to see the Wildcats making noise in March once again.
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