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.
The Purdue Boilermakers, kick off their 2024 gridiron campaign today, starting a new era of Big Ten football with new member Oregon coming to town in October, for just their third visit to Ross-Ade Stadium. Now that Danny has graduated, my game attendance is likely to trickle back down to the once every couple of years pace I was on before he matriculated after attending an all-time high five games last fall. That said, it’s time to take a look at the results of the now 32 college football games I have attended since the 1993 season, covering six different stadiums in a whopping three states, including one bowl game.
All-Time Team Records
| University | Won | Loss | Winning Pctg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Syracuse Orange | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Penn State Nittany Lions | 2 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Ohio State Buckeyes | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Wisconsin Badgers | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Louisiana State Tigers | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 4 | 1 | 0.800 |
| Purdue Boilermakers | 19 | 11 | 0.633 |
| Northern Illinois Huskies | 1 | 1 | 0.500 |
| Illinois Fighting Illini Continue reading → |
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.
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.
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.
My alma mater, the Purdue Boilermakers, kick off their 2023 gridiron campaign today, starting a new era with new coach Ryan Walters hoping to continue the momentum that led the team to the Big Ten Championship game last December. With Danny entering his final year in the marching band and the family having season tickets for the first time, I’m sure to make it back to campus for more than my usual allotment of games this year after tying my career high with three games last year. With that, it’s time to take a look at the results of the now 27 college football games I have attended since the 1993 season, covering six different stadiums in a whopping three states, including one bowl game.
All-Time Team Records
| Expr1000 | Won | Loss | Winning Pctg |
|---|---|---|---|
| Penn State Nittany Lions | 2 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Ohio State Buckeyes | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Louisiana State Tigers | 1 | 0 | 1.000 |
| Notre Dame Fighting Irish | 4 | 1 | 0.800 |
| Purdue Boilermakers | 16 | 9 | 0.640 |
| Northern Illinois Huskies | 1 | 1 | 0.500 |
| Illinois Fighting Illini | 2 | 6 | 0.250 |
| Western Michigan Broncos | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Northwestern Wildcats | 0 | 3 | 0.000 |
| North Carolina State Wolfpack | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Michigan State Spartans | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Michigan Wolverines | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
| Indiana Hoosiers | 0 | 2 | 0.000 |
| Florida Atlantic Owls | 0 | 1 | 0.000 |
The Sweet Sixteen kicks off today following an opening weekend with upsets galore, completely wrecking my bracket. Half of my Final Four was wiped out, including my champion. Ugh.
This region is a wreck, with only one team remaining in the Sweet Sixteen, and that team I had losing in this round, so this one was a dud.
Things look much better on this side of the bracket, as the only Sweet Sixteen team I had that didn’t make it is IU and, honestly, I’m ok with that.
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 happen to have a hotel room booked for Houston for Final Four weekend just in case, so fingers crossed. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at this year’s selections.
Alabama enters the tournament under a cloud of scandal, as their star player was recently involved in the murder of a young woman. Because of that, I have second seed Arizona going to the Final Four.
Fun fact: the first college basketball game I ever attended was Purdue versus Houston at Market Square Arena back in 1993. Both teams are top seeds in this tournament. It pains me to have Indiana going as far as I do, but they were a formidable opponent this year, so I see them giving the field a run for their money. In the end, though, I have Xavier going on to Houston.
We finish off the 2022 calendar with a shot of Michael posing with the World’s Largest Drum at the All-American Marching Band’s practice prior to the upset of Michigan State last fall.