With two weekends left of regular season play Purdue is in good shape to make the Big Ten Tournament, but the easy part is over. Purdue got through a run of Rutgers-Illinois-Northwestern (three of the bottom five teams in the standings) with a 5-4 record, but it lost two of the three series. As things stand right now, Purdue is in 7th place in the Big Ten at 10-8, two games ahead of both Michigan State and Northwestern who are tied for the 8th and final tournament spot.
Northwestern has the critical tiebreaker, however.