After losing in the play-in tournament for the third time in as many years, the 2024-2025 NBA season came to an end for the Bulls last night. I made it to the United Center for the first time in a decade last November to see Zach Edey and the Memphis Grizzlies take on the Bulls. Unfortunately, Edey didn’t play, but the Grizzlies still managed to pull out the victory.
2024-2025 Team Records
| Team | Won | Loss | Winning Pctg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Memphis Grizzlies | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Chicago Bulls | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
Purdue’s men’s basketball season came to an end last weekend, falling to Houston in the Sweet Sixteen. It was a strong showing, coming off their appearance in the title game last year and the loss of Zach Edey. Tickets were hard to come by this season, and the only game I was able to attend was in Iowa City, adding Carver-Hawkeye Arena to my collection.
2025 Team Records – Men
| Team | Won | Loss | Winning Pctg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purdue Boilermakers | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Iowa Hawkeyes | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
In a tournament that has been lacking any major upsets, it is fitting that the Final Four contains the four #1 seeds for just the second time ever. My bracket is officially toasted, so congratulations to whatever team winds up winning.
The Sweet Sixteen kicks off today following an opening weekend light on upsets and heavy on top seeds. Three of my Final Four picks are still intact, which is better than usual.
Things look good here in the South region, as I have a clean bracket heading into this weekend.
A few picked upsets that didn’t happen mar the bottom half of this region, but the top half, including my reginal champion, is clean.
The nation’s attention turns to the college hoops scene for the next few weeks as the NCAA tournament kicks off later today. I found myself joining a free pool at work this year, so while most of these selections have no ultimate bearing on my life, there is some personal pride on the line. Things are not looking good for me to attend any game should a certain school from West Lafayette manage to make another run this year. 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 two seeds heading to the Sweet Sixteen. Michigan State is my pick to advance to the Final Four, though that may be some inherent bias towards the Big Ten.
Old friend Mason Gillis shows up with top seed Duke, who I have heading to San Antonio for the Final Four.
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.
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 |
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.
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.
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 |