Purdue Moves Up In Complex SI Power Rankings

The Boiling Point: Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn moved Purdue up to No. 7 in his power rankings that don’t just factor in recent wins and losses, but many more complex criteria.

When Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn dives into college basketball power rankings, he dives in. These aren’t your everyday rankings. Winn’s dissecting home-and-away efficiency to split hairs at this late stage of the season. He’s also dabbling in a host of other topics.

Purdue checks in at No. 7, up from 10. And with the Boilers, Winn developed an “exceeding expectations” model, which measures the jump between a team’s preseason projection in “Basketball Prospectus”and its current ranking on kenpom.com.

To see the breakdown keep reading.

Here’s what Winn’s formula yielded when looking at coaches of current Top 10 teams.

"1. Matt Painter, Purdue (+19 jump, from 24-5)2. Dave Rose, BYU (+15 jump, from 22-7)2. Steve Fisher, San Diego State (+15 jump, from 26-11)4. Rick Barnes, Texas (+13 jump, from 17-4)( * The BP projections are compiled by Ken Pomeroy, and were adjusted before the book’s release to take Robbie Hummel’s injury into account. That’s why the Boilers started at No. 20.)"

Topping Winn’s rankings is Pittsburgh, who tops the Big East in home-and-away efficiency.