The Purdue Boilermakers received devastating news on Thursday when they learned that Robbie Hummel will miss the rest of the season with a torn ACL.

Obviously losing Hummel’s 15.7 points per game is a major blow in itself, but there are other things that don’t necessarily jump off the stat sheet that I feel the Boilers will miss the most. These things I am referencing are his leadership and two years of NCAA tournament experience, his 87% free throw shooting, and his 2 to 1 assist to turnover ratio.

Losing one member of their big three (the other two being E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson) will likely end any hopes Purdue fans had of making the drive up to Indianapolis for the Final Four.

This team though should still by no means be looked upon as a squad that has no chance of making it past the first weekend of the tourney. The aforementioned inside outsi0de duo of Moore and Johnson gives the Boilermakers two of the better players the Big Ten has to offer. This team also plays hardnosed defense allowing only 61.1 points per game and shoots 74.2 percent from the foul line. These are two areas that loom large in March. I also look at Matt Painter as another reason this team will not be a quick out in the tournament. Painter who is now in his 5th season as head coach of the Boilermakers is 107-53 in his time in West Lafayette and has guided the Boilermakers to the big dance in each of his last three seasons. This guy can coach as exhibited by his time at Southern Illinois and now with Purdue and I just can’t see him letting his team completely fall apart because of this setback.

It will be interesting to see how the NCAA selection committee grades out the Boilers if they stumble in their last couple of games and or make a quick exit in the Big Ten tournament. There was talk of putting Purdue on that number one seed line with the likes of Kentucky, Syracuse, and Kansas before Hummel was lost for the year. Things now become much dicier and the committee will be placing the microscope on the Boilermakers so to speak as to how they play during this final stretch.

With that being said though I do think Matt Painter and his team will keep things together and make a run in March. They may not be running to the final four or even to a national title as some Boiler fans might have hoped but they still will be a tough out in the tournament. We will get our first look at the Boilermakers without Hummel tomorrow against #14 Michigan State at Mackey Arena.