Purdue Chokes ... Home State Blues

    It happened last night. 

    The Purdue Boilermaker's talented young men's basketball lost in overtime last night, pretty late; I watched most of it, as I watched most of the first day of this year's Madness in the first round, first day. 

I am a basketball fan, alas. I am also from Indiana. Things are trying to rectify themselves now in my home state, a place that is known for appreciating and even revering this sport of quite a few masses. I like the sport for a few reasons. I like how many men, women, boys, and girls find and outlet in  it and a chance to surge and succeed. It is not too violent, and does not require too much money. It is a sport that favors the tall and the quick, but many can participate and use it to get ahead, to gain good results in life.

     North Texas did that last night against the favored Boilers. It happened in Indianapolis. The Green were mean, they had more upperclassmen by far. And the Purdue guys that my Indiana Hoosiers have not beaten since 2016, lost again to twice this year, during the worldwide pandemic.

   Ohio State, another Big Ten team that my Hoosiers cannot beat, was the bigger upset last night. I had them for the Final Four, as did a few others (seeded second), and I had Purdue with a big upset over Baylor. Baylor and Gonzaga are two of the biggest picks this month. They play later today, Saturday.

    So, the state of Indiana is hosting the whole tourney and the teams from the state are now shut out.

    My Hoosiers fired their fourth year coach, Archie Miller. We are in search mode for the fifth time since firing Bob Knight in the fall of 2000. Purdue likes Painter, despite last night, he is doing well. Notre Dame struggled this year despite signs of life a few times, not enough.

    Indiana State has hired a new coach, a team that took fire once in 1979, while other Indiana schools at the division one level are not that good: Valparaiso, IPFW (Fort Wayne), Ball State, IUPUI (ooh-wee pooh-ee),  and Evansville. Mighty Indiana is not that mighty, especially after last night. 

   The Hoosier state has to improve. The state of college basketball is good, there are about 357 top level schools in almost all the states except Alaska. Scholarships and better educations and futures are going out

   Meanwhile, the Midwest is still playing strong in a few quadrants, with a few Big Ten teams remaining, which I hold my hopes for, even past the Buckeyes. Wisconsin crushed North Carolina, that was nice. Kentucky and Duke were already eliminated, that is a bonus for me. UCLA plays my BYU Cougars tonight, which is part of the overall historic race for supremacy; the Bruins won their 11th all time in 1995. Since then Kentucky has reached 8, North Carolina is at 6 or so, and Duke is at 5 all time since 1991. Those blue bloods, all teams with blue in their colors, plus Kansas and Villanova (also blue), and Connecticut, are adding multiple championships since IU plateaued  at the five stars and banners that they achieved way back in 1987, to this date my favorite year of sports, because of that IU men's team winning the whole enchilada and my favorite baseball player peaking that summer. 

   Purdue has a super good team the following season, 1988, and between my Purdue friends Patrick and Jason, I was hoping that the Boilers could win it back then. But they choked to a decent Kansas State and an amazing ______ ________ . He went on to a great pro career.

   Purdue has put up some good teams since, good enough to best IU too much for my liking, but can never go too far in the Dance. I wish that they would win, as good as they have produced! Other Big Ten teams have flirted with the championship, but only bringing home the rings in 1989 and 2000, Michigan and Michigan State, respectively. Michigan has had some great teams, Wisconsin a few, Michigan State and Ohio State have both made their Final Fours. Illinois flirted heavily back in 2005, only to be bested by a North Carolina squad with a Bloomington kid, Sean May.

Here's hoping 2021 can go the way of the Big Ten, despite Purdue and Ohio State going down so early. We have a few more teams to go. Iowa? Illinois? Wisconsin? Rutgers? 

Maryland? It could happen, everyone has a shot.

Just not the Indiana boys in the tourney of Hoosierland.