College basketball rankings: Purdue, Alabama clash in top-10 showdown
We’ve had seven top-25 matchups already this season, four of which featured two teams both ranked in the top 15 of the Associated Press poll. But Thursday night will deliver the first top-10 showdown of this season when Purdue plays at Alabama in a game scheduled to tip at 7 p.m. ET.
Purdue is ranked No. 1 in Thursday morning’s updated CBS Sports Top 25 And 1 daily college basketball rankings. Alabama is No. 9. So the Boilermakers are the higher-ranked team — both here and in the AP poll. But they’re still listed as 3.5-point underdogs against the Crimson Tide, largely because the game will be played in front of a capacity crowd inside Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa.
“It’s gonna be a tough game,” said Purdue’s Matt Painter, the five-time Big Ten Coach of the Year. “We’re looking forward to it.”
Among the other things Purdue is looking forward to is the return of Trey Kaufman-Renn. The preseason All-American missed the Boilermakers’ first two games with what’s been described as a hip pointer and back soreness. But Kaufman-Renn is expected to be in uniform and available when Purdue attempts to upset Alabama on the road the same way Alabama just upset St. John’s on the road. The 6-foot-9 forward averaged 20.1 points, 6.5 rebounds and 2.2 assists in 30.8 minutes per contest last season, getting 26 points and eight boards in November’s 87-78 victory over Alabama.
“He is a big part of the core of our team,” Painter said.