Michigan at Purdue – As good as college basketball gets

It doesn’t get much better than this.

A four game winning streak has Purdue back in the top-ten, and a season long stretch of domination has Michigan as the #1 team in the country.

Which means on Tuesday night, #7 Purdue will play host to #1 Michigan in a showcase of two of the best teams in the country with national title aspirations.

In a lot of ways this is the perfect basketball matchup on paper.

Purdue has been through long stretches of this season, the best offensive team in the country led by the best point guard in the country who is working towards becoming the most prolific assist man in college basketball history.

Michigan has the best defense in the country. It also might have the best offense.

Michigan has struggled early in a few recent games. It has responded like a horror movie monster in the second half. There is not a lead Michigan can’t capsize right now. There isn’t a deficit it cant turn into a blowout.

Michigan a multi-headed hydra of tall, talented interior players led by do everything Yaxel Lendeborg.

Matt Painter, not as prone to fictional exagerration, still sounded like a coach preparing to take on a titan of a team.

“Obviously when you’re dealing with an elite offense, an elite defense,” Painter said in his presser the day before the game when asked about the magnitude of the game and team his Boilers were about to face. “But also a team that can play multiple ways.”

Michigan is a team that lacks weaknesses, and it has a whole lot of superlatives and height.

“They have speed. They have athleticism,” Painter would add. “Their skill level. Great rebounding team. Best defensive in the country.”

Michigan has lost just once this season. It has a two game lead in the Big Ten on Purdue, Nebraska, and Illinois.

Painter admitted Purdue had to win this game if it wanted a chance at another Big Ten title because he didn’t see any way that this Michigan team would lose four games in conference.

Purdue will not be able to control its fate outright. This will be the only regular season matchup with the Michigan. It will get to play host to the Wolverines even though Purdue hasn’t quite had the same magic at Mackey Arena this season. It got trolliped by Iowa State earlier in the year at home and has struggled recently against teams that don’t have Purdue’s talent or experience.

But that will all be forgotten if Purdue can add a second loss to Michigan on Tuesday.

Purdue has spent the season at two extremes: an experienced, title favorite world eater and a disappointing, flawed team that didn’t deserve its ranking.

Now it settles in the middle as the #7 team in the country after two of its best road wins of the season including taking down previous #7 Nebraska last week in one of its best rebounding performances.

Painter is hoping for a similar result on Tuesday.

“If you can’t handle them on the glass and you cant handle them in transition,” Painter said before pausing for a few second, the daunting task ahead of his team and any team that has to take on this Michigan team seems to settle in the pause. “There’s not much hope for you.”

But hope will live in Mackey on Tuesday night as a senior led Purdue team finds itself with its backs against the wall. Purdue’s first goal of the season was to give this senior class led by Trey Kaufman-Renn, Fletcher Loyer, and Braden Smith its third Big Ten Championship in four seasons.

With a win against a Michigan team that has looked like the best team in the country most of the season, Purdue can reclaim its place at the top of the college basketball landscape after a three-game slide that pushed them all the way back to #12 in the polls.

It’s the best offense versus the best defense. It’s the team that was the best on paper to start the season to who has been the best on the court during the season. It’s a team put together in the off season versus the team that has stayed together for four seasons.

It’s a game between two teams that might have the best chance to break the Big Ten’s national title drought in quite some time.

It’s college basketball at its finest.