WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — Purdue received an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament on Selection Sunday.
The Boilermakers are the fourth seed in the Midwest Region and will face High Point in the first round in Providence on Thursday.
"We have a lot of confidence in ourselves," said senior forward Caleb Furst. "We'd be remiss not to go into every game expecting and planning on winning."
"You want to be on edge," added head coach Matt Painter. "You can't forget, because the season gets long, this is what you work for, to compete at this level, in this tournament, and have fun with it."
After starting 11-2 in Big Ten play, Purdue stumbled down the stretch, losing six of their last nine games. Michigan eliminated the Boilers in the quarterfinal round of the conference tournament.
Purdue is looking to build off last year's historic run in the NCAA Tournament. The school reached the Final Four for the first time since 1980 and the national title game for the first time since 1969.
That run to the championship game snapped a three-year stretch of the Boilermakers losing to a double-digit seed in March Madness.
"For us," continued Painter, "in terms of our respect for our opponent, it's gonna be about as high as it can be, cause we understand that there's great players everywhere."
The Boilermakers are led by the Big Ten Player of the Year Braden Smith. The junior guard is averaging 16.1 points, 4.6 rebounds and 8.7 assists per game.
Junior forward Trey Kaufman-Renn leads the team in scoring with 20.2 points per game.