Basketball Recap - CBI Elite Eight: Santa Clara 86 - Purdue 83

3,629 fans and a few diehard internet streamers saw the end of the worst Boilermaker basketball season since 2006.  For those that were able to see it, the game was unlike any Purdue fans had seen this year and had one of the wildest finishes imaginable.  Santa Clara hit what seemed to be a dozen "daggers", yet somehow the Boilers had two shots to tie it at the end of the game.

Kevin Foster was dominant - probably since he was twice as tall as any Purdue defender

Admittedly, I didn't find the stream until nearly halftime (I listened to the radio feed before that), as I had no interest in paying $10 for a shoddy feed.  If I HAD paid?  This post would have been written 4 days from now, because I would have spent an entire week trying to get my money back. More on this in a bit...

Purdue seemed to take control at the half after a really slow start with 4 turnovers and only 2 points at the first tv timeout.  Threes were not falling for the Boilers, but they did close the half on an 18-7 run.

The second half was a different story.  Broncos guard Kevin Foster put on a show for the ages as he scored 29 of his 35 points in the second half, including several shots with Boilermakers all over him.  Purdue couldn't keep up despite a career-high 27 points from Ronnie Johnson and 22 from brother Terone (while taking combined 43 shots!), and found itself down 10 with 1:55 to go.

That's when things started to get interesting.  A layup, steal, and another layup by Ronnie Johnson put the Boilers within 6.  An immediate foul led to two Santa Clara free throws, but was followed up by a 3-point play by Marcius.  Purdue was intent on extending the game, but the Broncos kept making their free throws.  Down 7 with 1:20 left, Ronnie Johnson got yet another layup.  A steal by Byrd then led to Ronnie's 4th layup in 45 seconds - this one with a foul.  All the sudden, Purdue was down 2 with a minute to play and no longer had to foul!

A great defensive possession brought the shot clock down under 10, when none other than Kevin Foster hit a fade away three with Terone Johnson in his face.  Foster had just beaten the Boilermakers.  Or so everyone had thought.  After a wild possession with an offensive rebound, Terone hit a miracle runner in the lane and got the foul as well.  19 seconds left and down 2, Santa Clara was ready to inbound the ball.  What happened next?  Hell if I know.  Now seems like the perfect time to rant against BTDN...

BTDN collected $10 from several people on Monday who wanted to watch this game.  In return, BTDN tapped into the scoreboard video and Purdue radio feeds.  The fact that these were synced up was pretty cool, however the video feed was awful.  Camera angles appeared to be chosen by third graders, resulting in numerous missed plays.  But the absolute worst was at the point of the game I just left off at.  19 seconds, big inbounds pass.  All the sudden, the words "MAKE SOME NOISE!!!" and "LOUDER" come flashing across the screen, completely obscuring anything that was happening on the court.  This means "viewers" were stuck with Cliz describing the huge steal the Boilers got at this point.  And they were ALSO stuck with the description of the shot Purdue missed after that steal.  Embarrassing...if I had paid for this and missed the two biggest plays of the game, I would be demanding my money back.

After the missed shot, Santa Clara made two more free throws which appeared to ice the game once again.  This gave the Boilers an opportunity to try their full court football pass play, which amazingly worked to perfection. 4 seconds remained, and Purdue was down two.   Kevin Foster finally missed a free throw and DJ Byrd threw a perfect pass to a streaking Terone Johnson.  Somehow, Terone got a normal-looking three pointer off to tie the game from just behind the arc.  It just missed.  Had that shot gone, it would've capped one of the craziest finishes Purdue has ever been a part of.

Santa Clara went on to beat Wright State last night and gets at least 2 more games against George Mason.  Meanwhile, the Boilers bow out of the tourney getting only 2 games out of the deal.  A disappointing end to a disappointing season - we'll have more over the next couple of weeks.

Basketball Preview: Purdue vs. Santa Clara - CBI MADNESS - March 25th - 7:00pm - BTDN (ugh)

After winning their first game in the CBI, the Boilers have saved a little face (unlike the only other big conference team in the tournament).  Now it's time to win the whole enchilada, I suppose.  The next step is beating Santa Clara tonight.

Why Purdue Will Win
By now you know everything about this Purdue team, which still means you probably have no idea if they'll win or lose, so join the club, and we won't rehash it all again here.  Though it costs the athletic department $50,000, Purdue has home court advantage, which hopefully is the real edge in this game if the fans and Paint Crew bother to show up.  After the Western Illinois game, I thought the attendance would surely get better if the team played well (since Santa Clara is actually decent, too), but with the blizzard that I hear is currently hitting the midwest (yes, I'm rubbing it in that I'm surrounded by palm trees), I'm not too confident anyone will be there.  If you go, be loud! Purdue is probably taking a loss on this game for your benefit!

Why Santa Clara Will Win
Santa Clara is a much better team than Western Illinois, and this game should be much closer.  If the Boilers start as poorly as they did last week, Santa Clara may end up building an insurmountable lead.  The Broncos have only one notable win on the season (and only one against an NCAA Tournament team), beating St. Louis on the road in the second game of the season.  Of course we all saw how overrated St. Louis was this weekend. Santa Clara averages over 75 points per game with the vast majority coming from their guards, including senior star Kevin Foster who averages over 18 points per contest.  The only inside scoring presence for the Broncos is senior forward Marc Trasolini, and he averages more points than Terone Johnson, and at 6-9, he could be s difficult matchup because Santa Clara also starts a 7-footer in Robert Garrett.  With adequate size, good guard play, and strong senior leadership, this seems like it could be quite a difficult matchup for the Boilers.

Santa Clara also features sophomore point guard Brandon Clark, who is their fifth leading scorer.  Clark is from East Chicago and went to Merrillville HS, so he may have a breakout game playing against Purdue.  Clark had offers from Harvard and Bucknell and while Illinois and Nebraska checked him out, he didn't have any major program offers.  Guys like that always seem to play with an extra edge when back on their turf.


The best thing to come out of Santa Clara
(Kurt Rambis, you can be a distant second)

One thing you absolutely need to know before the game
It sounds like the CBI heard all our gripes about AXS TV, so the game won't be broadcast there.  But we should be careful what we wish for.  Instead the game is going to be on te Big Ten Digital Network.  As Sir Charles would say, "That's just turrrible."  Apparently a lot of fans could see the game for free on AXS, despite it's horrible production value, and now those same fans have to pay the Big Ten more money to watch it online.  Fans like me that have no access to AXS (see what I did there?) now have an option to watch the game.  Although finding an illegal streaming website was at least a free option last game (and let me watch the pleasant second half, after missing the dreadful first half against Western Illinois).

If you remember from earlier this season, we are not fans of the broadcast capabilities of the BTDN.  Seriously, why isn't this game on the main Big Ten Network?  Instead they'll be showing a couple installments of "Big Ten's Greatest Games."  That's right.  They think more people will watch an old rebroadcast basketball game than a tournament game featuring the 7th place* team in the conference?  Whatever.


Our Picks - We like to think we're better than Vegas. So throughout the season, we'll be "betting" a whole dollar amount versus the spread. For this game we are betting whatever the heck we want. The spread for this game is Purdue by 6.5.


Erik's Bet: $64 (8 squared in honor of being in the "elite eight")
Erik's Pick: Purdue 65 - Santa Clara 63

Kirk's Bet: $99 (the percent chance I will lose in all my bracket competitions, after winning them all last year)
Kirk's Pick: Purdue 69 - Santa Clara 68

Standings:
Erik +424 (25-10 Against The Spread)
Kirk -52 (15-20 Against The Spread)

Boiler Up!

Basketball Recap - CBI First Round: Purdue 81 - Western Illinois 67

In what was supposed to be one of the lowest scoring games in NCAA and surely CBI history, Purdue and Western Illinois shocked the world (or at least the 5,000 people watching the game in person or on tv) by putting up a combined 148 points.

The Leathernecks, missing their top 2 players put a scare in Purdue early by starting on fire from the field, scoring 32 points in the first 14 minutes of the game.  In that time period, bench player Don McAvoy III did his best "Roy 'Tin Cup' McAvoy after 11 strokes" impression and drained everything for a quick 10 points.  Meanwhile, Remy Roberts-Burnett had 11 as both players were already above their season average.  Luckily the Leathernecks went cold allowing the Boilermakers to take the lead by halftime - a lead Purdue wouldn't give up.

Purdue had gone 1 for 4 in the first half from 3-point range, but went a blistering 6 for 7 in the second half to really take control.  Byrd hit three in the first 8 minutes and the ONLY missed 3-pointer happened in the last minute from Jacob Lawson (!). 

Both teams put up some shocking numbers considering both typically try to slow the game down. Western Illinois played two games this year in which neither team scored 40 points (WITH their two best players!).  Clearly, 50% shooting and 67 points was an anomaly.  However, thank goodness the Boilermakers were on fire, as this had the potential of being an embarrassing loss - Purdue shot 59% from the field, 64% from three-point range, and 92% from the free throw line.   If the Boilermakers can put up that sort of effort on the offensive end for the rest of the tourney, Purdue will be your 2013 CBI champs.

No love for Dru Anthrop's excellent game in this post, so here's a picture of one of his four assists

Next up is Santa Clara, which is NOT on AXS tv.  AXS's graphics and announcers made it feel like it was a high school game on public access tv (how many ways can you botch Sandi Marcius' name?), but at least it was free to many fans around the country.  Unfortunately, the next game is on BTDN, meaning you have to pay to watch it.  We'll let you know more in our preview, but if you're in the area, you might as well spend your money getting a ticket to the game.  Santa Clara's a good team and it should be a good basketball game.

Boiler Up!

Basketball Preview: Purdue vs. Western Illinois - CBI MADNESS - March 20th - 7:00pm - Some channel you don't get (AXS TV)

Who is excited for some CBI Tournament basketball?!  OK, calm down Morgan Burke and return to your seat.  As for me, this game is a lose-lose, and here are all the reasons why:

1. Trying to turn games against teams like Western Illinois, Santa Clara, Bryant, and North Dakota State into something meaningful makes my brain hurt.
2. If Purdue loses on Wednesday, it's pretty embarrassing.
3. Actually, it's embarrassing just to be in this tournament.  Of course I'm glad the Boilers didn't have an even worse record, but prolonging a disappointing season isn't particularly fun.
4. Honestly though, anything short of winning this entire thing (or possibly losing to Texas in the final) is a reason to hang your head.
5. The majority of Purdue's fanbase will be unable to watch the game on TV.  What the heck is an AXS?  You know it's a pathetic excuse for a post-season tournament when it's barely being broadcast.
6. Because I'm irrationally loyal and either addicted or masochistic, I was planning to watch the game.  In fact, I was scheduled to do the recap, but I can't and had to switch duties with Erik.  I'm in the majority that doesn't have AXS.TV.NET.COM.PARAGUAY even though my current residence has every other HD channel imaginable.

The only positive reason for this game is to get a little more experience for the young Boilers.  I suppose extra game time can't hurt...unless the play and result are so demoralizing that they cause a nine month hangover.  But can it honestly get any worse than losing to Nebraska in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament?

The Little Caesar's Pizza Bowl of NCAA basketball

So get fired up for the Leathernecks vs. the Boilermakers - those nicknames just scream intensity!

Why Purdue Will Win
Western Illinois isn't very good, having not beaten or really even played a quality opponent all season (hey, they beat Yale though, whoohoo!).  They will be missing their top two scorers for this game after senior guard Ceola Clark suffered a knee injury against North Dakota State.  Forward Terell Parks, who was named Defensive Player of the Year in the Summit League, suffered a foot injury and has missed the team's last four games.  Both those guys were first team all-conference, so look for the Leathernecks to struggle without them.  Western also has no real size to compete with Hammons or Marcius, so expect big nights from the big men.  The game is also at Mackey, so the Boilers have that home crowd advantage going for them, assuming anyone shows up.

Why Western Illinois Will Win
Because they care about this game and entire tournament more than Purdue?  That's all I got.

One thing you absolutely need to know before the game Things I learned on Wikipedia: Western Illinois is in Macomb, Illinois, which is closer to both Iowa and Missouri than any relevant city or town in Illinois.  Western has some notable alumni playing in the NFL, but by far their most prestigious alumnus is political consultant Mary Matalin.  She holds the Guinness World Record for most days legally married to a snake/Gollum/Skeletor/an alien wearing human skin as a poor disguise (you choose which one, it's still quite a record).

Definitely a face even uglier than IU's coach

Our Picks - We like to think we're better than Vegas. So throughout the season, we'll be "betting" a whole dollar amount versus the spread.  For this game we decided to bet the number of nicknames we could name for teams that made the NCAA Tournament.  Erik is apparently a savant.  The spread for this game is Purdue by 12.


Erik's Bet: $61
Erik's Pick: Purdue 64 - Western Illinois 41

Kirk's Bet: $52
Kirk's Pick: Purdue 67 - Western Illinois 53

Standings:
Erik +363 (24-10 Against The Spread)
Kirk -104 (14-20 Against The Spread)

 

Boiler Up!

Basketball Recap: Nebraska 57 - Purdue 55

Well, it's nearly two days later and I'm still sick to my stomach.  It's not that I didn't see it coming, I just figured Nebraska would blow it late since they've had trouble holding leads all year.  For anyone who watched Iowa's collapse last night, or saw the same Nebraska team in the second half against OSU - that's what I expected.

And really, the Cornhuskers DID fall apart down the stretch.  With 12:30 to go in the game, Nebraska held on to an 8 point lead and had 45 points.   Over the next 8 minutes and 45 seconds, the Cornhuskers scored a total of 3 points and STILL HELD THE LEAD! Yes, with 3:45 to go, they still led 48-47.  Nebraska scored 12 points total in the last 12 1/2 minutes (a 38-point pace over an entire game) and snuck out of the United Center with an ugly 57-55 win.

I'm pretty sure every player and fan felt like this after the game

Give Nebraska credit though as they capitalized on the one thing they do well: taking care of the ball.  You may recall the Cornhuskers only had 2 turnovers in the first meeting between these 2 teams which is why it was a close game despite Purdue winning the FG% battle 45% to 33%.  Sure enough in the rematch, Nebraska shot 45% and didn't give the Boilers any easy baskets on turnovers (6 TO's on Thursday).  Add that to the fact that Brandon Ubel was missing in the original matchup, and the Boilers HAD to play better than they did in Lincoln to pull this one off.

They didn't.  Anthony Johnson reverted to the AJ prior to the Minnesota game, DJ Byrd missed his first 6 three pointers, and Terone fought foul trouble and couldn't get his floater to drop.  But the most aggravating and disappointing part of the game was free throws.  Purdue went 3 for 10 in the second half from the line and went 2 for 7 in the last 6 minutes.  Not the formula you need to pull off a comeback.

Yet the Boilers STILL had chances to send this game into overtime.  First off, with 34 seconds to go, Ray Gallegos missed a free throw to keep the lead at 2.  The Boilers did a great job of boxing out...and then didn't grab the ball!  Three Boilers watched the ball hit the ground and let Gold and Black killer Shavon Shields come from outside the arc to nab a killer offensive rebound.  The Cornhuskers then missed another free throw, giving Purdue yet ANOTHER chance.  With 15 seconds left and down 3, AJ Hammons got the ball in the post and made one the best passes I've seen him make - to a WIDE OPEN Ronnie Johnson.  Ronnie had surprisingly been shooting jump shots fairly well and put up a good looking 3-pointer (on tv, it looked like it was going in).  It clanged off the rim, but Byrd was there with the put back to keep Purdue alive.

Another foul sent the Cornhuskers back to the line.  Nebraska missed only 5 free throws all game, yet 4 of them came within the last minute.  The 4th gave the Boilers one last possession to either tie or win it.  Terone ended up with 2 separate floaters sandwiched around an offensive rebound, but couldn't get either of them to fall.  They were tough shots for sure, but after his unbelievable Michigan game, fans have come to expect him to hit those shots.  Nebraska had really tightened up and overtime would have heavily favored Purdue.  Instead, the Cornhuskers got their first ever Big Ten Tourney win and got to finally face someone other than Purdue in the tournament.

It wouldn't be a recap of mine without mentioning the refs.  Ted Valentine AND Ed Hightower both refereed this one and amazingly I didn't feel like the officiating was that bad.  Interestingly enough there were only 14 fouls called on each team, yet 2 players fouled out and 3 others had 4 fouls apiece.  5 players had 79% of the foul calls...very strange.

AJ Hammons had no fouls in the game.  That makes it difficult to explain this picture.

Give Nebraska coach Tim Miles a lot of credit...he doesn't have a great team.  However, his defensive schemes dared Purdue to take the 3 and pretty much looked to shut down the floaters that the Boilermakers have become known for.  A frustrating loss for sure, but Purdue needed to hit outside shots.  They didn't, Shavon Shields hit everything, and that was the ball game.

What's next for this team?  Is anything next?  Matt Painter said prior to the game that the Boilers would accept a bid to the College Basketball Invitational if invited.  Of course, that was expecting the fans to still be geared up after a fantastic end to the season and an assumed tough loss to Ohio State.  I mentioned in the comments of Kirk's preview that this was the reason the Nebraska game was the most important game of the season.  A win, and I bet the Boilers get 9,500 fans into Mackey for a small tournament game.  With the loss, however, I'd be surprised to see more than 5,000 people there.  Remember, these games aren't included in season tickets, so fans have to want to go.  A sour-tasting loss to Nebraska is not the way to get Boilermaker fans excited about paying more money to see this team and Purdue (and the CBI) may not find it financially beneficial to play these games.  We'll find out more on Sunday night or Monday morning.

Meanwhile, I'm hoping for a CBI bid.  I'd love to see these guys get as much playing time as possible, even if they're sometimes painful to watch.  Most CBI games will be televised on a random HD channel called AXS TV.   I've never heard of this channel, but amazingly I get it.  And if you have HD, you probably get it too, as you can find it on satellite, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and at least 30 different tv providers around the country.  I found mine on AT&T Uverse right by TBS and TNT - I'm guessing they get less than a penny per subscriber, but at least that means us out-of-towners might get watch some more games.

We'll have much more if this truly is the last game, but in the meantime, it's my duty and obligation to point out that I have completely dominated this season against the spread and against Kirk - potentially finishing above 70% for the season!  Just don't ask me to pick the winners, as my Big Ten Tourney predictions were just awful.

Standings:
Erik +363 (24-10 Against The Spread)
Kirk -104 (14-20 Against The Spread)

Basketball Preview: Purdue vs. Nebraska - Big Ten Tournament - March 14th - 6:30pm - ESPN2

It's time for the Big Ten Tournament.  You already know who's going to win every single game if you read this smart guy's predictions (and not those of this questionable prognosticator), but I'll give a brief preview for this game anyway.

Why Purdue Will Win
If they play like the same Boilermaker team that showed up in the last three games, Purdue will win handily.  They say it's tough to beat a team three times in the same season, so maybe the Boilers are lucky they only faced Nebraska once this regular season.  That game saw the good guys win by nine points on the road, so history is in Purdue's favor, too.

Why Nebraska Will Win
The Huskers aren't ending the regular season on any kind of hot streak, but they have played some good teams tough, namely a nine point loss to MSU and a seven point loss at Illinois.  They also beat Minnesota for a marquee win a week ago, but now we know that isn't so special.  However, when they lost to Purdue earlier this season, Nebraska was missing senior Brandon Ubel, the teams third-leading scorer and leading rebounder.  Maybe he'll be the difference.

1996, the last year Nebraska won anything relevant (the NIT)
This team featured three NBA players: Erick Strickland, Mikki Moore, and Tyronn Lue!

One thing you absolutely need to know before the game
There isn't a hidden storyline here.  We all know that if Purdue has any chance of making the NIT, the need to win this game.  Heck, they may even need to win it to get invited to the silly CBI.  That means that if the Boilers lose, the season is over.  Let's not end on the note of losing a game we're strongly favored to win, but it's also scary that the Boilers could easily get caught looking past Nebraska to the Buckeyes waiting in the wings.

Our Picks - We like to think we're better than Vegas. So throughout the season, we'll be "betting" a whole dollar amount versus the spread.  For the post-season games, we are each allowed to bet any value that is a sum of two jersey numbers from the current team's roster.  Once we select a player's number, we can't use it again.  The spread for this game is Purdue by 5.5.


Erik's Bet: $35, going with the seniors: DJ Byrd (21) and Dru Anthrop (14)
Erik's Pick: Purdue 61 - Nebraska 58

Kirk's Bet: $105, taking the most he can get to gain ground on Erik: Sandi Marcius (55) and Travis Carroll (50)
Kirk's Pick: Purdue 67 - Nebraska 60.

Standings:
Erik +328 (23-10 Against The Spread)
Kirk +1 (14-19 Against The Spread)

Boiler Up!

2013 Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament Predictions - Part 2

It's been a long time since Purdue has been in this situation - win 4 games in 4 days, or watch the NCAA Tourney from home.  But with Purdue playing as well as they've played all year and putting themselves in the easier half of the bracket, who knows what will happen?  Oh, that's right...I do.  Unlike your second favorite GoBoilers.net contributor's picks from yesterday, I actually know how the Big Ten Tourney is going to pan out.  So save yourself the time from watching the games and just read on...

Thursday games:

#8 Illinois vs. #9 Minnesota - 12pm - BTN
I thought Kirk's recap of the Minnesota game was excellent, but he failed to mention one aspect of the game that was simply excruciating...listening to Eric Collins tell everyone 122 times that Purdue would be facing Minnesota in this game.  Meanwhile, if you read our preview, you knew that it was very likely that Purdue would end up the 7 seed.  Mr. Collins, you were wrong.  But Mr. Kirk, you're right.  Illinois wins this game in a blowout.

#5 Michigan vs. #12 Penn State - 2:30pm - BTN
Yeah yeah, I know Penn State's played them tough and beat them in Happy Valley.  It's not going to happen.  Michigan wins another blowout, leaving the early session fans upset that "we left work for this???"

#7 Purdue vs. #10 Nebraska - 6:30pm - ESPN2
This will be the only good game of the day, but "good" is only being used in the fact that it'll be a close one.  After playing 3 great games in 7 days, Purdue is rusty with over 5 full days of rest and just barely squeaks this one out.

#6 Iowa vs. #11 Northwestern - 9pm - ESPN2
The crowd will be behind Northwestern and Iowa's been iffy on the road, but Iowa wins an ugly one.


Friday games:

#1 Indiana vs. #8 Illinois - 12pm - ESPN
This should be a good game as I expect Illinois to put up a good fight.  However, Indiana is just too good right now to lose this one.

#4 Wisconsin vs. #5 Michigan - 2:30pm - ESPN
Finally around 4:30 pm on Friday, I will finally take the lead over Kirk.  Sure Michigan has been struggling a bit.  But Wisconsin is REALLY struggling.  Michigan by 15.

#2 Ohio State vs. #7 Purdue - 6:30pm - BTN
Amazingly, Purdue CAN still make the NIT if they lose this one.  The NIT got rid of the .500 rule a couple of years back, even though they've never picked a team with more losses than wins.  Luckily for Purdue, they don't need to worry about being the first as DeShaun Thomas goes 4 for 23, AJ Hammons goes off against Ohio State's weak bigs, and the Boilers pull off the upset of the tournament.  There, I've written my preview AND recap for this one.

#3 Michigan State vs. #6 Iowa - 9pm - BTN
Quick - name the last ranked team Iowa's beat this year.  Time's up.  If you answered none, you're correct.  It'll be "none" after this game as well. Iowa's 6-seed is the result of a kind Big Ten schedule in which they avoided playing two games against Michigan State, Ohio State, Michigan, and Illinois.  The Spartans win easily.

Saturday games:

#1 Indiana vs. #5 Michigan - 1:40pm - CBS
It's payback time for Michigan. Tom Crean's ridiculous angry outburst after beating the Wolverines in the season finale has Michigan ready for this one.  So Crean cuts down the nets after losing the conference clinching game, yet he berates an opposing coach after clinching it?  One wonders if he'll hang a banner in the United Center after biting the dust against Michigan.

#7 Purdue vs. #3 Michigan State - 4:15pm - CBS
The Spartans get caught looking ahead towards the Wolverines in the finals and get smoked in the first half by a ridiculously hot DJ Byrd.  Michigan State comes back and cuts it to one with 3 minutes left, but Terone Johnson hits a couple of huge floaters and brother Ronnie goes 4 for 4 from the line in the last 2 minutes to seal the game for Purdue.

Sunday championship:

#5 Michigan vs. #7 Purdue - 3:30pm - CBS
Saturday night blends into Sunday morning as Purdue fans pull an all-nighter trying to figure out what their tourney seed could be if they actually won this thing (spoiler alert - while they would be more accurately slotted as a 11 or 12, the committee doesn't DARE put them that high because it would royally mess up their play-in games at the 12-seed.  Instead, Purdue would be an underrated 13-seed against Arizona, Oklahoma St, Kansas St, or Marquette.  I still like those matchups - especially Arizona.).  Unfortunately, Boilermaker fans and yours truly fail to remember that Purdue played one of its best games of the season and still lost at home to the Wolverines.  Trey Burke's drive and dish kills Purdue for the third straight game and Michigan wins a close one despite the refs being mandated to help the Boilers win for the good of the Big Ten.  Unfortunately, a gut-wrenching loss for Purdue leads to a first-round NIT exit at the hands of Middle Tennessee State. 

Despite the loss on Sunday, we have quite a weekend in store for us.  Enjoy!