March Madness picks: In men's NCAA Tournament, it's Purdue, that's who

Michigan ended the Big Ten’s national-title drought in football. Purdue will put a stop to the conference’s much longer drought in men’s basketball.

Pass that damn baton already, 2000 Michigan State Spartans. The Boilermakers finally are ready to receive it and give the Big Ten a championship double-dip that’ll engrave the early months of 2024 in league annals forever.

Wait, though, this is Purdue we’re talking about. Purdue, which last went to the Final Four in 1980, when Lee Rose was ending his brief time as coach. Since then, over four-plus decades, truly outstanding coaches Gene Keady and then Matt Painter have tried over and over but failed to match the feat. The Boilermakers were knocked out by 13th-seeded North Texas and 15th-seeded St. Peters in 2021 and 2022, respectively. And in 2023 — goodness, how it still must hurt — they became the second No. 1 seed to go down against a 16. It was Fairleigh Dickinson, like anyone could forget.

Painter has been as far as the Elite Eight once, in 2019. Do I really want to throw my hat in with the Black and Gold?

Look, it’s just plain time to right some past wrongs and do better — and the Big Ten’s first team in nearly a half-century to top the regular-season standings by at least three games in back-to-back years is just plain up to the task.

And you might have heard by now, but Painter has 7-4, 300-pound Zach Edey, the best college player of his time. The superstar Edey, the Big Ten’s most dominant player since Glenn Robinson, could not be more driven to prove all the naysayers wrong. And there are very many naysayers, some because the Boilermakers have fallen short so often but also others who simply don’t want to root for a center so big and so consistently great, it almost seems unfair.

“I’ve never seen somebody so good get so much [expletive] for no reason,” Painter said. “It blows my mind.”

Stay classy, people. Edey is a 21-year-old who never signed up to be a giant. Now he has up to six more games to win over millions of fans of the most unfailingly entertaining tournament in American sports. Maybe he’ll do just that. Maybe basketball fans will stop moaning like babies about how the refs officiate Edey’s games.

And maybe they won’t. (Indeed, take that bet if you can.) Either way, a black-and-gold giant will jump around with strips of confetti in his hair in the end.

EAST

• First-round winners: UConn, Florida Atlantic, San Diego State, Auburn, BYU, Illinois, Drake, Iowa State.
• Second round: UConn, San Diego State, Illinois, Iowa State.
• Sweet 16: UConn, Iowa State.
• Elite Eight: UConn.
  

WEST

• First-round winners: North Carolina (over Wagner), Michigan State, Grand Canyon, Charleston, New Mexico, Baylor, Nevada, Arizona.
• Second round: Michigan State, Charleston, Baylor, Nevada.
• Sweet 16: Michigan State, Baylor.
• Elite Eight: Baylor.

SOUTH

• First-round winners: Houston, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, Duke, Texas Tech, Kentucky, Florida (over Boise State), Marquette.
• Second round: Houston, Wisconsin, Texas Tech, Florida.
• Sweet 16: Houston, Florida.
• Elite Eight: Houston.

MIDWEST

• First-round winners: Purdue (over Montana State), TCU, McNeese State, Kansas, South Carolina, Creighton, Colorado State, Tennessee.
• Second round: Purdue, Kansas, Creighton, Colorado State.
• Sweet 16: Purdue, Creighton.
• Elite Eight: Purdue.

FINAL FOUR

UConn over Baylor, Purdue over Houston.