ROSEMONT, Ill. - One of Purdue basketball’s biggest supporters during last season’s Final Four run spent the past quarter century as one of its biggest nemeses.

Michigan State’s Tom Izzo had tired of his identity as the last Big Ten coach to win a national championship. Each year, the Spartans’ 2000 run drifts farther back into history. Izzo said he rooted hard to pass the torch to Boilermakers coach Matt Painter.

“I’m calling, ‘Matt, Matt, you’ve got to win this game,’” Izzo said last week at Big Ten Media Day. “I don’t want to be the last man standing.”

Purdue fell one game short of letting Izzo off the hook. It has, though, acquired another identity — one Michigan State held for long stretches of the past 25 years. Painter’s program has taken over as the standard-bearer in this rugged, sprawling conference.

The latest evidence came in Purdue’s status as the preseason Big Ten favorite in multiple rankings, including our comprehensive USA Today Network poll. The Boilermakers received 20 of a possible 33 first-place votes. No other team received more than seven.

In truth, the list of legitimate contenders for the championship seems fairly crowded in early October. When, where and how often teams play each other might be the final determining factor in the championship.

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While Painter likes his team, he openly admits the Boilermakers are still figuring out exactly how everything will fit together in the post-Zach Edey era. Last week, he said no one has separated yet from the cluster of talent behind returning starters Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn. There is no way to replicate Edey’s 25 points, 12 rebounds and will-crushing presence under the basket every night.

Painter remains graciously dismissive of preseason recognition. Better to be No. 1 than not, but also better to forget the poll as soon as it comes out. On multiple occasions at media day, he openly balked at the notion there is any way to rank these teams — many of which are constructed with transfers and freshmen — a month before Halloween.

Many voters probably agree. But they also essentially said they don’t know how Purdue will be good, they simply know it will.

“He's won every year since I've been in the league,” Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell said. “They've been as good a program and he’s as good a coach as there is in the country.”

Former Gene Keady assistant and Illinois and Kansas State coach Bruce Weber, speaking on a Big Ten Network panel Thursday, said he would rank Purdue No. 1 going into the season. He based his stance partially on what he saw when he visited a Boilermakers practice over the summer.

He sees the potential holes. What does it mean for the offense when opponents do not need to routinely double team Edey? What happens as Kaufman-Renn transitions from “a guy to the guy,” and teams defend him accordingly.

Yet Weber also came away impressed by what he graded as improved defense, and a quicker, more athletic team. Freshman guard Gicarri Harris played especially well that day. Daniel Jacobsen, Edey’s successor in the 7-4 stratosphere, has “got some bounce.”

And other aspects of the program have not changed at all.

"Matt's a really good coach,” Weber said. “I think people just think he's going to do a good job and figure it out — which, I'm sure he will.”

Maybe voters saw three returning starters — including preseason Player of the Year Braden Smith — and gave Purdue benefit of the doubt over teams relying more heavily on new pieces.

They did not extend that benefit of the doubt throughout their ballots, though. As Weber pointed out, the two teams with the most returning minutes — Northwestern and Penn State — ranked 16^th and 17^th in the poll.

Painter, whose team has lost to Chris Collins’ Wildcats in each of the past two seasons, scoffed at Northwestern’s ranking in particular. Purdue overcame those losses to win the league both years, with very different final acts.

Last year, the Boilermakers came to media day resolved to wipe away the ignominy of their first-round loss as an NCAA tournament No. 1 seed. They spent the next several months testifying how that loss gave them the edge to make a long-overdue Final Four run.

“But now, winning softens you,” Painter said. “So, can we keep that edge and then try to keep in front of us to try to win three Big Ten championships in a row? That's what first and foremost we’ll try to do, because it comes before the NCAA tournament.

“And if you can do that, or compete to be in that position, then you're going to put yourself in a good spot.”

In Big Ten observers’ eyes, Purdue has earned the benefit of the doubt that it can pull it all together again.

Follow IndyStar Purdue Insider Nathan Baird on X at @nwbaird.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue basketball still Big Ten favorite even without Zach Edey