NCAA Tournament Sleeper: Get on Your Glass Slipper, Purdue

All right all you Cinderella-seekers—hear me out.My Cinderella story in the NCAA Tournament this year will be the Purdue Boilermakers, a No. 6 seed in the West Bracket, straight out of the Big Ten after finishing second in the conference to Wisconsin.

The Boilermakers boasted an impressive 24-8 overall record with a conference record of 15-3. They had impressive wins over Clemson, Louisville, Wisconsin (twice), and Michigan State.

To me these wins stand out not only because when they beat these teams they were ranked, but also because these teams are now in the NCAA Tournament with them.

With any Cinderella story comes upsets, and Purdue will have to overcome UCLA, UConn, Xavier, and Duke to cut down the nets in the Finals.

The first challenge is Xavier, a team out of a weak A-10 conference that looked strong during the season.

To analyze the matchup, we look at the statistics of both teams:
Overall Record: Xavier 27-6 vs. Purdue 24-8
Conference Record: Xavier 14-2 vs. Purdue 15-3
Record Vs. Top 25: Xavier 2-1 vs. Purdue 4-3

Points Per Game: Xavier 75.33 vs. Purdue 68.72
Points Allowed Per Game: Xavier 62.33 vs. Purdue 61.19

Obviously these teams look almost equal on paper, and it is bound to be a great game. So for all you bracket-busters out there—believe in your team, because you never know which teams will pull out the W.