Tag / Boiler Up!

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Looking For Redemption

By nearly every metric, these last four season of Purdue men’s basketball have been the most successful in program history. They’ve won back-to-back conference championships.  They’ve won 59 Big Ten games, setting a school record and tying the conference record.

The one metric where they have fallen short is in the NCAA tournament.  Heading into this year’s tournament, they have put together two first round exits, against 13-seed North Texas in 2021 and 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson last year, becoming just the second 1-seed to fall in the opening round.  In 2022, they advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, where they were felled by 15-seed St. Peter’s.

Purdue enters the tournament this week as the #1 seed in the Midwest region and look to have an achievable path to the Final Four.  But they are coming off of a rough Big Ten tournament, where they scored a season-low 67 points in their victory over Michigan State before losing to Wisconsin in the semi-finals.  While Zach Edey was able to get his, scoring 29 and 28 points respectively, Lance Jones was the only other Boilermaker to reach double digits in either game, scoring 10 against Michigan State.  The so-called supporting cast answered the bell all year, but if they disappear once again in the tournament, Purdue will once again be on the outside looking in and will have squandered their best chance in decades at making the Final Four, let alone winning a national championship.

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Collecting The Hardware

While Purdue begins their defense of the Big Ten Tournament title this afternoon, they’ve already started to collect some post-season hardware.  On Wednesday, the Sporting News announced that Zach Edey was their National Player of the Year for the second straight season, making him just the eighth repeat winner since the award began in 1943.  Edey swept the six National Player of the Year awards last year and is the favorite to do so again this year, a feat last accomplished by Bill Walton in 1972 and 1973.

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26 Rings

One week ago, Purdue defeated Michigan State to earn at least a share of their 26th Big Ten Conference championship, the most in conference history.  A road victory against Illinois on Tuesday gave them the title outright, the first time a Big Ten team has gone back-to-back in over a decade and the first time Purdue has won back-to-back titles since winning three in a row from 1994-1996.

Their 26 titles are the most amongst all Big Ten schools, followed by the squad in Bloomington, who own 22 championships.  The Boilermakers have won four of the last eight conference titles, dating back to 2017.  Matt Painter has five conference titles under his belt, one less than Gene Keady and tied for seventh in conference history.  With the season wrapping up tomorrow at home against Wisconsin, the team has little to prove next week in the conference tournament while preparing to avenge last year’s first round loss in the NCAA tournament.

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FB10: Week 1

A slow start to my now tenth year using a Fitbit to track my steps.  The week got off to a good start on Sunday, thanks to a trip down to West Lafayette to see the Purdue women’s basketball team take on our hated in-state rivals which left me 37 steps shy of 5400.  A quick trip to the grocery store on Monday put me 27 steps away from 4600.  Tuesday was easily the worst day of the week, finishing with just 2200 steps.  A nice bounce-back on Wednesday needed only 10 additional steps to reach 3800.  Another trip to the store after work on Thursday, to both shop and charge, pushed me to 4900 steps.  Friday saw a slight drop-off, going down to 4000 steps.  Saturday bounced back up a bit, finishing with 4200 steps.

Total steps: 29,189

Daily average: 4169.9

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Fitbit IX – Week 51

Sports and snow combine for what passes as a good week these days.  The week got off to a slow start on Sunday, needing 40 additional steps to make it to 3900.  Monday was even worse, finishing just over 3500 steps.  Tuesday bounced back a bit, beating Monday’s total by 11 steps.  Things improved greatly on Wednesday, as a trip to West Lafayette to see Purdue do battle against Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes led to 7500 steps, my first time hitting my daily goal in 2023.  Breakfast with Danny and a short walk on campus on Thursday left me with 5400 steps.  A snowstorm, and the requisite snow blowing that followed, put me a mere 14 steps away from 6700.  Falling temperatures on Saturday led to my worst day of the week, ending the day still 36 steps shy of 3400.

Total steps: 34,284

Daily average: 4897.7

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Fitbit IX – Week 50

2024 comes in with more of a whisper than a bang.  2023 came to an end on Sunday, and I managed 4200 steps on New Year’s Eve.  The new year got off to a slow start as I managed just 2900 steps on Monday.  Going back to work on Tuesday did not help much, as I went up to only 3000 steps.  Wednesday saw a slight improvement, coming 30 steps short of 3700.  A big drop on Thursday left me with only 1500 steps.  A day off of work followed by a Purdue basketball game on Friday turned in to the best day of the week, and my first day over goal in over a month, needing a mere 35 steps to reach 8800.  Despite a strong start to Saturday in West Lafayette before heading home, I ended the day still 37 steps away from 3400.

Total steps: 27,569

Daily average: 3938.4

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2023: The Year In Travel

As we ring in the new year, it’s time to take a look back at the trips out of Illinois that I took last year.  Things got off to a fast start, as I traveled down to Orlando on New Year’s Day to see Purdue take on LSU in the Citrus Bowl.  While the game did not go well at all, it was a good change of pace to get out of the cold weather.  I stayed the entire week, working remotely to kick off 2023 and enjoying the hotel pool.

My next trip out of state came in early February, when I picked up Danny and headed down to Bloomington, Indiana to see the #1 ranked Boilermakers take on their hated rivals.  Once again, things did not go well for the boys in gold and black, which led to a long drive back to West Lafayette.  The next day, the two schools did battle again, with the women taking the court at Mackey Arena, but the outcome was not any better.

A few weeks later, I returned to the Lafayette area to watch Danny’s band concert.  After lunch with him, his friends, and their parents, we headed over to the Long Center for the Performing Arts to take in his performance.  Thankfully, his section was first, so we were able to take our leave early and head back home.

I stayed home for a few months, until Danny finally cashed in his high school graduation trip, and, in mid-June, we headed west to Seattle.  We arrived on Friday morning and headed to Pike Place market for lunch before attending the White Sox and Mariners tilt that night at T-Mobile Park.  The next morning, we enjoyed breakfast at the hotel before heading back to the ballpark for another exciting game.  After an hour-plus wait for an Uber after the game, we rested a bit at the hotel before heading back out to see the Space Needle and enjoy a nice dinner.  On Sunday, we celebrated Father’s Day by flying home.

The start of college football season brought with it three consecutive weekend trips to West Lafayette to close out September.  The first saw Purdue do battle against Syracuse, falling 35-20.  I headed back down the following Thursday night thanks to a rare Friday night tilt.  After working remotely from the hotel, I headed over to campus where Purdue tried valiantly to end its losing streak against Wisconsin, but it was not to be.  The next morning, I met Danny for breakfast before heading home.  The following Saturday, I returned once more to see Purdue earn its first home victory of the year, defeating Illinois handedly.

In late October, I took my somewhat-annual quick trip to Boston to celebrate birthdays with Angelina.  I arrived on Saturday, headed over to her apartment in the afternoon, and then we went out to dinner in the North End.  The next morning, I was on a plane headed back home.

My final three trips of the year were all, once again, back to West Lafayette.  Purdue faced off against Minnesota two days before Danny’s birthday, so we had a post-victory dinner at his house.  Two weeks later, we headed down the day after Thanksgiving to prepare for his senior day against IU.  As part of the festivities, he got to conduct the band during the pre-game show and then hit the drum with the rest of the seniors during halftime.  The day concluded with a trip to the Olive Garden for a celebratory dinner.  My final trip of the year came just days before Christmas, when Danny and I headed to Mackey Arena to see the men’s basketball team hold court against Jacksonville.

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2024 Calendar

Now that Christmas has come and gone, we can unveil the cover to this year’s calendar gift, given annually to my mom and sister, and made up of pictures I have taken throughout the year.  I imagine I will be able to squeeze out one more version of this next year, but, with both Angelina and Danny graduating and Michael still mostly homebound, that will probably be it.  As in year’s past. the calendar was produced by the good folks at Shutterfly and we will unveil each month’s photo(s) on the first day of the month throughout 2024.

This year’s cover features Michael posing with his parents prior to his high school graduation this past June and Angelina and Danny posing with their Nana at the band tailgate prior to Danny’s Senior Day at the last Purdue football game of the year last month.

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Fitbit IX – Week 48

Week two of my annual end-of-year vacation kept me on the good side of the 30,000-step plateau for the second consecutive week.  Things got off to a slow start on Sunday, finishing with only 3500 steps.  Things improved on Monday, as I finished up above the 5100-step mark.  Things were slightly worse on Tuesday, falling down to 4500 steps.  Another drop on Wednesday put me down to 4000 steps.  A trip to West Lafayette on Thursday to see the Purdue men’s basketball team put the screws to Jacksonville led to my best total of the week, coming just 35 steps shy of 6800.  A trip into the city for shopping and lunch on Friday left me just over 3500 steps.  Another slow day on Saturday was just slightly worse, needing an additional 37 steps to get to 3500.

Total steps: 30,986

Daily average: 4426.6

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A Year Of Activities

For the first time in my 49 years, I managed to attend a ticketed event in every month of 2023. Let’s take a look back and see what I had going on this year.
The first quarter of the year is typically the quietest for me.  This year started strong, with a trip to Florida for the Citrus Bowl on January 2nd.  College basketball ruled the day in February, with my first trip to Bloomington, Indiana coming that first weekend.  The Big Ten Tournament rolled into the United Center in March, making me three for three to start out the year.

The second quarter brings the start of baseball season, which easily knocked out the next three months.  I added 19 games over these three months, which included the Orioles against the White Sox at Guaranteed Rate Field in April, the Mets battling the Cubs at Wrigley Field in May, and my first-ever visit to T-Mobile Park in June to see the White Sox play the Mariners. Continue reading →