Category / Basketball

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Gathering Some Hardware On The Hardwood

For the third consecutive year, the Big Ten’s Men’s Basketball Player of the Year calls Mackey Arena home.  Braden Smith took home the honor on Tuesday, thanks to a season averaging 16.3 points, 8.8 assists and 2.3 steals per game.  He became just the fourth player in Division I history to have at least 500 points, 270 assists, 140 rebounds and 70 steals in a single season.  Along the way, he scored his 1000th career point, his 500th career rebound, and broke the school record for career assists.

After Zach Edey won the award the previous two years, Purdue becomes the first school to have three straight Big Ten Players of the Year.  This is the seventh time overall that a Boilermaker has won the award.

 

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College Basketball Tipoff

Fresh off of an appearance in the championship game of last year’s NCAA tournament, the Purdue men’s basketball team kicks off the 2024-2025 regular season tomorrow night.  With Danny out of school and an expanded Big Ten limiting how often each team visits the other schools in the conference, it may be a while before I attend another regular season game.  So, with the 128th season in school history about to get underway, let’s take a look at the results of the now 24 men’s college basketball games I have attended in my lifetime. You’d think it would be more, since I was a big fan and we had a great team while I was in school, but for some reason I only made it to two games while enrolled in college. The other 22 have been post-graduation, having added four games last year, two at Mackey and two in Detroit for the NCAA tournament.  Anyway, without further ado, here are the standings for those 24 games.

All-Time Team Records – Men

Team Won Loss Winning Pctg
North Texas Mean Green 1 0 1.000
Indiana Hoosiers 1 0 1.000
Virginia Commonwealth Rams 1 0 1.000
Butler Bulldogs 1 0 1.000
Purdue Boilermakers 16 7 0.696
Northwestern Wildcats 2 3 0.400
Illinois Fighting Illini 2 4 0.333
Gonzaga Bulldogs 0 1 0.000
Houston Cougars 0 1 0.000
Iowa State Cyclones 0 1 0.000
Jacksonville Dolphins 0 1 0.000
Middle Tennessee Blue Raiders 0 1 0.000
Ohio State Buckeyes 0 1 0.000
Penn State Nittany Lions 0 1 0.000
Tennessee Volunteers 0 1 0.000
Vermont Catamounts 0 1 0.000
Long Beach State 49ers 0 1 0.000
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Walking In Memphis

With the ninth pick in the 2024 NBA draft, the Memphis Grizzlies selected Zach Edey, the two-time National Player of the Year from Purdue.  While this may have been a stretch according to many so-called draft experts, the Grizzlies were determined to get a center and they saw Edey as the best option on the board.  We will have to wait and see how Edey’s game translates to today’s NBA.

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Post Mortem – Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty

NBA legend Jerry West, who passed away earlier this week at age 86, objected to his portrayal in Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, saying it was “cruel” and “deliberately false.”  Which is totally how the Jerry West played by Jason Clarke in the show would have reacted.

The Showtime era of Lakers basketball, led by Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and coach Pat Riley, featured an up-tempo offense and resulted in five NBA championships and four additional Finals appearances.  Winning Time, with a changed name because its home network of HBO competed against Showtime, dramatized the early days of the era, starting with the drafting of Johnson and the first championship won during his rookie season of 1979-1980.  A second season, covering the next four NBA campaigns, aired starting in August of 2023.

With Kareem retiring in 1989 and Pat Riley stepping down as coach the following year, the Showtime era came to a close in 1991, following a Finals loss to Michael Jordan and the Bulls and Magic Johnson retiring after testing positive for HIV later that year.  Winning Time came to an end in September of 2023, when HBO announced it was cancelling the series after just two seasons.

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2023-2024 Final Standings

Purdue’s season of redemption came one win short, falling to UCONN last night in the national championship game.  It was the best tournament showing by a Purdue team since 1969, their last appearance in the championship game.  Thanks to my donations to the John Purdue Club, I was able to score tickets to two home games, my first visits to Mackey for men’s basketball since 2015.  I then was able to attend the Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight games in Detroit, adding Little Caesars Arena to my stadium collection.

2023-2024 Team Records – Men

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Purdue Boilermakers 4 0 1.000
Tennessee Volunteers 0 1 0.000
Jacksonville Dolphins 0 1 0.000
Illinois Fighting Illini 0 1 0.000
Gonzaga Bulldogs 0 1 0.000

On the women’s side, I made it to two Big Ten battles, seeing Caitlin Clark in person for the first time while enjoying Danny’s performances with the band.

2023-2024 Team Records – Women

Team Name Won Loss Winning Pctg
Iowa Hawkeyes 1 0 1.000
Indiana Hoosiers 1 0 1.000
Purdue Boilermakers 0 2 0.000
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40 Minutes To Glory

The Purdue redemption tour continued last night in Glendale, AZ, as the Boilermakers, competing in their first Final Four since 1980, defeated North Carolina State 63-50.  They advance to the championship game for the first time since 1969, facing UCONN tomorrow night, as the Huskies attempt to go back-to-back.

Win or lose, this iteration of Purdue basketball will be lacing it up for the final time.  Here’s hoping they go out with a bang,

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Hope Springs Eternal

Only four teams remain standing following a tournament filled with minor upsets.  My bracket is busted and my Final Four predictions, save one, are completely toast.  But, how about that one.  Purdue finds itself in the Final Four for just the third time ever and the first time since 1980, so the hope remains alive for this weekend.  Purdue faces 11-seed NC State tonight, and wouldn’t losing to a double-digit seed be a way to go out after these last three years, with defending champion UCONN and Alabama in the other game.  The winners face off on Monday for the national championship.

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Finally, Heading To The Final Four

For the first time since 1980, the Purdue Boilermakers are headed to the Final Four.  This afternoon’s victory over Tennessee in the Elite Eight showdown at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit gives Purdue its first regional championship in the men’s NCAA tournament in 44 years.  The team will battle NC State Saturday in Phoenix for their shot to advance to the championship game.

What a weekend in Detroit!  Seeing a Sweet Sixteen victory against Gonzaga on Friday followed by today’s win against Tennessee, both teams that we had already defeated this year during non-conference play, was exhilarating and. to be honest, a little nerve racking.  Here’s looking forward to an exciting weekend as the school looks for its first basketball championship since the women’s team won it all in 1999.

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How Sweet (16) It Is

The Sweet Sixteen kicks off today following an opening weekend with upsets galore that played havoc with my bracket, although my entire Final Four is still intact, which is better than some.

Things look pretty decent here.  Auburn’s loss to Yale knocked me for a bit of a loop, but, aside from that, things are fairly clean, with three of the four teams heading into this weekend still alive.

Things are slightly worse on this side of the bracket, with just two of the four teams I picked playing this weekend.  While Nebraska did me dirty, I correctly picked that Wisconsin had peaked after beating Purdue in the Big Ten Tournament two weeks ago.

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It’s Time To Dance

The nation’s attention turns to the college hoops scene for the next few weeks as the NCAA tournament kicks off later today.  I’m not in any pools this year, so most of these selections have no ultimate bearing on my life, aside from personal pride.  I do have the potential to purchase tickets for future rounds should a certain school from West Lafayette manage to get out of their own way and not embarrass themselves this weekend.  So, without further ado, let’s take a look at this year’s selections.

My selections here are mostly chalk, with a couple early upsets but with the top four seeds heading to the Sweet Sixteen.  Iowa State is my pick to advance to the Final Four.

Fun fact: the first men’s college basketball game I ever attended was Purdue versus Houston at Market Square Arena back in 1993.  Both teams are once again top seeds in this tournament.  I’m hoping Nebraska continues to pull off upsets against teams they have no business beating.  In the end, though, I have Marquette going on to Phoenix.

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