Hummel’s absence lowers Boilers to No. 4 seed

WEST LAFAYETTE – Maybe the seed was a surprise.
But when Purdue popped up as a No. 4 in the South Regional on Sunday, it was done.
It didn’t matter that coach Matt Painter said the team’s résumé says the Boilers are a No. 2 or No. 3.
It didn’t matter that Purdue was still the No. 6 team in the country when the brackets were announced.
It didn’t matter that the Boilermakers lost only five games all season and shared a Big Ten Conference title.
Purdue is what the NCAA tournament committee decided it is: A No. 4 seed playing No. 13 seed Siena (27-6) 2:30 p.m. Friday in Spokane, Wash.
“It’s the highest we’ve ever been since I’ve been here,” senior Chris Kramer said. “You’ve just got to be excited. We gave the selection committee – we didn’t play as well as we wanted to in that (Big Ten) semifinal game. So we have to take it for what it’s worth and just be excited to get a chance to play again and to be in the NCAA field.”
The Boilermakers (27-5) lost by 27 points to Minnesota in the Big Ten tournament, and they are without star forward Robbie Hummel for the rest of the season. Those were factors, NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Committee chairman Dan Guerrero said.
“(The committee) had the benefit of seeing several games after Robbie went down. On the basis of the evaluation of Purdue’s performance, we obviously felt that they weren’t the same team without him,” Guerrero said. “In order to have integrity in the bracket and make sure we were honest to everyone in the field, Purdue did slip. There’s no question about that. I think everyone knows that Purdue is a fantastic team, especially with him in there. The seed obviously was impacted negatively by the fact he went out. They would have been, in my opinion, much higher than that.”
Still, Purdue’s seed was its highest since 1998 when it was a No. 2 seed.
And Painter and his players said they’d use the seed this season as motivation.
There’s no other way to handle it.
“We have to show people why we’re in,” said point guard Lewis Jackson, who expects to play in the tournament despite leaving the Minnesota game with a leg injury. “We still want respect. There are great teams like Cincinnati that didn’t make it. Being comfortable just because you made it, that doesn’t get you far in the tournament. But wanting to come out and prove to people that you belong with the nation’s best is what gets you far, and I think that’s what this team does.”
The first chance to earn that respect is against Siena.
Painter and players met with reporters only an hour after the bracket was released, so they didn’t know much about the Saints.
Four Siena players average at least 13 points per game, led by Alex Franklin’s 16.3 per game. Forward Ryan Rossiter’s 11.1 rebounds per game top the team, and point guard Ronald Moore averages 7.8 assists. Siena won the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference regular season and tournament.
But Purdue’s focus is on playing better.
“We’ve got to definitely come up and step our game up for the tournament,” junior E’Twaun Moore said. “Every team is going to be eager to play and they’re trying to play for the championship, too. We’ve got to get us ready and make the teams have a difficult time against us.”
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