Thank You, Seniors: Boilers Keep Bucket, 56-35

Congrats, men.

About a month ago, I, for one, was skeptical that the Boilers would win another game this year. I thought the tent had been folded up and put away neatly in the shed until next season. After the gut-wrencher loss to Ohio State, the Boilers failed to show up in Minneapolis and were downright embarrassed. After that game, Robert Marve -- when asked questions about his team -- just said, "You just gotta go out there and play, man." The undertone we heard was "Let's stop talking about this stuff and just go play better."

The Boilermakers struggled the next week vs Penn State at home, only further cementing their mediocre-at-best season status and likely Coach Hope's fate in front of mere hundreds at Ross-Ade. Many teams, including teams in positions like Purdue was in, would have truly folded it up at that point. As I said, I didn't think they'd necessarily win again.

It's a true testament to the players and especially the seniors that the Boilermakers have won three in a row to become bowl-eligible, culminating in today's guilty pleasure 56-35 win over the Hoosiers. I say guilty pleasure because that was not a "good" game in terms of good football teams playing good football, but it was fun. Shootouts often are and this one had huge swings of three touchdowns at a clip.

Robert Marve and Akeem Shavers had career days on Senior Day, with Marve passing for a 69% completion percentage (imagine how good it would have been if Purdue receivers weren't wearing cement gloves in the second quarter) on 20/29 passing, for a tidy 348 yards and four TDs.

The two-QB system even sort of "worked" today, as Rob Henry passed for a TD and rushed for one. ("See??!!" Gary Nord is shouting right now, before his percocet sandwich).

Shavers carved up the Hoosier defense for 225 total yards -- 126 on the ground and a TD and two catches for 99 yards and two TDs. He also had scoring runs of 71 and 58 yards called back on penalties. Mercy. Not a bad last game in Ross-Ade. Too bad more fans weren't on hand to see it.

Other notable performances included Frankie Williams' impressive interception of Cameron Coffman's long downfield pass and on the other side of the field, junior Stephen Houston rushed for 158 yards and three TDs. The guy was hard to stop.

Speaking of IU, I know the knock on their D all season has been their porous run stopping, but their secondary is positively dreadful as well. I'd love to crow about Purdue rolling up all these points (and I will) but that secondary can't stop anybody. It's not like it was laserlike touchdown passes threading needles all day. The Boilers caught passes in the flat or even at the line of scrimmage (Gary Bush from Henry comes to mind) and then just ran through, around and over the IU defenders. One guy who got particularly worked over was #37, Mark Murphy, a safety for the Hoosiers. 

On Brandon Cottom's 14 yard TD for the first Boiler score, he kind of ran right past Murphy, who made a weak arm-tackle attempt and wound up splayed out on the field watching Cottom rumble into the end zone. And then on Akeem Shavers' 73 yard TD catch-and-run (his first of three straight in the final 10:40 of the game), Murphy had a clear line on Shavers and should certainly have been able to take down the smaller running back. Then Shavers grabbed Murphy by the face and threw up to the ground and this happened:

Mark Murphy (37) is thinking "My girlfriend saw that."

What I don't get is how this team stayed with some of the teams they stayed with this year. I think the fact that Kevin Wilson cobbled a 4-7 season out of these guys (remember, an improvement from one win last year) really is quite an accomplishment. Everyone seems to agree they're going in the right direction, including me, but he has got to get some defenders in there (or a coach who can coach these guys up) who can stop...something. Pass, run, whatever. Because that defense was abominable. (No, I'm not saying Purdue's is phenomenal, before you say something about that.)

Another guy I should mention here is Cody Webster since punters rarely get coverage. This guy has been more of an asset than I think people realize. Cody averages over 45 yards per punt today, notching 275 yards on six kicks. He's only a junior, so next year this will be an asset again and he'll be kicking on Sundays in two years. Good for him.

Crosby Wright, another favorite here at BS, had a game himself. Despite Crosby having two big penalties that resulted in huge gains being brought back (we had to bust your balls, Crosby), Wright had a manly catch and run while carrying IU defenders for over 15 yards in the third quarter. It looked like he dragged three defenders into the end zone but was ruled down a the 1 and Rob Henry punched it in. Crosby had three catches for 81 yards, his best yardage output of the season. Unfortunately, he never made it into the end zone this season, but caught balls in every game but two. 

Boilermaker

Back on Robert Marve, I don't think we can say enough about this guy. I know he's had a troubled past in some ways but if you believe in second chances and that young guys sometimes make poor decisions and then straighten themselves out, then you should also love this guy. There are few examples in recent Purdue history of guys who just wanted to be a Boilermaker and be out on that field with his teammates more than Robert Marve. Much like Rob Hummel, this is a guy who could lament his spot in life and his three ACL injuries and how things just have not worked out for him they way they could have, but then you see his dad during the game saying that Robert is so "blessed" to be a Boilermaker and you can see how happy the whole family is that he's playing football in the black and gold. If you're like us, it just makes you proud of him. And thankful to him, because those are the guys we love to see in Purdue uniforms.

As for his play on the field, we also couldn't be happier that he had his career day on Senior Day. But the play many of us will surely remember for a while was after he threw a hard luck interception that rattled around among a few players and was snagged by junior cornerback, Greg Heban of the Hoosiers. Heban took off the other way and had the running head start on Marve, who was closer to the center of the field while Heban was streaking down the hashmarks. Marve turned on the jets and reminded us all that he's still one of the best athletes on the Purdue roster. Marve took the correct angle and -- on a torn ACL, remember -- caught Heban and, as I said to b-dowd after the game, made a tackle with better form than many of Purdue's defensive players of the past five years. Now that's a guy who wants to play football for the Boilers. How many QBs would have shown that hustle? And don't tell me many, because we've all seen guys coast out of the frame and give up on the play. The tackle occurred 70 yards after the interception. It still resulted in an IU TD, but that's not the point here. Robert Marve made us proud during his time at Purdue, especially this season. Marve-lous, indeed. Thank you, Robert.

*             *             *

As we mentioned on Friday, we heard from a number of sources within the athletic department that Coach Hope is done. While we've always liked him as a person, we've never felt he was a very good coach. We've tried to stay off the "Fire Hope!" bandwagon as we never like to call for a guy's job and we don't know what good it does. Plus, he has been the coach, so until he isn't, we always felt we should do our best to stay objective and not personal. However, Danny Hope has made it personal in recent weeks, referring to those who question this team and how it could possibly have looked so bad as "losers" and people of "low character."

Today, as the game ended, he was seen on the field with his wife who was already in tears. I suppose it's a nice thing that the Hopes enjoyed their time in West Lafayette so much that they're upset that it's ending. Of course, it could also be that they're projecting a bit and blaming everyone else for the fact that Danny is likely on the way out. Sally Hope even started the postgame presser, as per Gold and Black, by lecturing the press who "couldn't wait" for Purdue to lose. Give me a break. That's just poor form. The media in West Lafayette is far from being like a rabid dog.

This kind of embarrasses me as a Purdue fan.

Hope said that it was an "extremely successful season" because they came back from the 3-6 start, and was also put up on his players shoulders. That's nice and all, but let's not celebrate a coach who went 22-27 too much, okay?

It's worth repeating that we would have liked to see this season, with this schedule and this roster of talent, play out under better coaching. There were many times when we found ourselves wondering what things would have been like with Marve in there or better play calling. How different is this season if Marve stays in the game to start the second half against Notre Dame? How about if Purdue is able to get one more first down and run out the clock against Ohio State? Every season has its "what ifs," of course, but some of the ones this year could have significantly altered the trajectory of the football program. Naturally, we'll never know. What we do know, though, is that the Hope/Nord approach has not worked for the past four years.


That said, we hope the seniors get a nice destination for the bowl game and come to play. Crosby Wright was quoted after the game as saying the following:

"I don't know how to describe it. It's tremendous. It's incredible. It's the best feeling of my life. Me and my fellow seniors, we've got one final game to play as Purdue Boilermakers." 

Those are the quotes that are fun to hear. Yes, we wish it was a more meaningful bowl game, but regardless of where it is, we'll be watching and pulling for these guys.

That will never change. We hope other things do, though.  

Purdue-Indiana Predicto: There's a Fire in the Duraflame Factory Edition

It's Oaken Bucket time, folks. And no matter how lousy a season you've had as a Purdue or IU fan, this game always means something -- and that's not hyperbole. These teams, these schools, these fans... they do not like one another. It's not manufactured, it's not forced, it's not even good-natured and friendly. It's dislike.

I've posted this before from a couple years back, but Tom Rinaldi -- more known for his tear-jerking nonsense set to soft piano music usually -- penned a pretty awesome minute on rivalries:


And lest you think this game isn't as important to the players as it is to the rest of us -- as sometimes sports hype can turn out to reveal -- here is a smattering of awesome pictures:

Are you sufficiently hyped? Are you amped because no matter how much of a sh-tshow this season has been at times, Saturday is different? We hope so, because it is different. Sure, there have been some disappointments this year and there's plenty to talk about there. But for Saturday, that can get put aside. For Saturday, we're Boilermakers and they're Loosiers.

Let's see what others at BS think.

J sez:

The careening, chugging, smoking, creaking mess of a season comes back to Ross-Ade for the annual Old Oaken Bucket game this Saturday as the improving Hoosiers come to town. Let's start with the fact that this is not your...uncle's IU team. Kevin Wilson does have them improving and competing more often, so don't expect a 2004 (63-24) or 2008 (62-10), as fun as that would be.

It would actually be fun -- I won't lie -- if a bowl game was on the line for both teams. IU is out of contention but looked like they had a shot for a while there. I guess the most fun would be Purdue being one win away from the divsion title, but let's not get carrr-ay-zee!

We are confident due to multiple reliable sources that Hope is gone so it's not really worth going into the whole, if he loses, he'll be 2-2 vs IU and under .500 in three of his four seasons at Purdue. Let's just say unless he can somehow get Purdue into a BCS game by beating IU, he's going to be shown the door following the season. So let's hope the team wants to send him off on a high note, with his first in-season, three-game winning streak at Purdue.

The Boilers should have enough to beat IU, though I don't think any of us would be shocked if IU came to play and took it to Purdue. What will happen? Hell, I have no idea at this point.

But I want that Bucket. It's ours.

Purdue 34
Indiana 33


zlionsfan sez:

That school down south is not known for football. It is the school that once thought Lee Corso and Gerry DiNardo could coach. Their all-time record is nearly 200 wins below .500. There are a few of you reading this who were not alive the last time they won a bowl game. The last time they went to back-to-back bowls, I was a recent graduate of Purdue, so right around the invention of the steam engine. They are the only current Big Ten school who has not scored a touchdown in a Rose Bowl. (Between 1915 and 1945, the teams that would eventually become the Pacific-8 and of course now the Pacific-12 played a team specifically not from the Big Ten. Nebraska lost to Stanford 21-13 in the 1941 Rose Bowl.)

Their starting QB is out for the year. Their pass defense strongly resembles the BS crew. And yet they put up 34 points on Ohio State when the game was relatively close, then added 15 more at the end to nearly pull off a stunning comeback against a team that, sadly, still hasn't lost. They beat the same sad-sack teams that Purdue did, stand at 2-5 in conference play just like the Boilers, and would like nothing more than to knock Purdue out of a bowl, borrow the Bucket for a year, and finish a four-game improvement that would be the best since Bill Mallory's second year, 1985.

It's still early to tell, but it does look like Kevin Wilson has Indiana on the right track, one that does not involve rotating quarterbacks. Fortunately for the West Lafayette faithful, there are still plenty of issues in Bloomington for Wilson to solve (see virtually every other game this season for examples). Even Vegas is confident that the Bucket will remain in its rightful place ... or at least that a significant percentage of people can be induced to bet that way.

As for me ... aside from the fact that I would never ever bet on a Bucket game ever, I just don't see Purdue as having a significant advantage here. Yes, Indiana's defense is horrible. Yes, if momentum can be maintained from game to game, Purdue should have it, coming off two road wins (against the two most expensive coaches in the conference, based on salary per win). But it's still the same guy calling the shots on the sidelines, the same guy calling plays, the same guy rotating quarterbacks like Isiah Thomas rotated players ... the same coach who may actually be on the hot seat now.

As mentioned here before, by all accounts, Danny Hope is a good guy. He's just overmatched at this level. His players are no doubt aware of his status, and would love to send him out on a winning note if they knew he was going to be fired. Emotion means a lot at this level, even in a rivalry game, where emotions already run high. As much as Purdue has struggled this year, as much as Indiana has improved, I think the Boilers are going to give Hope one last gift before he moves on to his next position. Pack your suitcase and start looking for hotel rooms in Texas, folks.

Purdue 47
Indiana 36

Boilerdowd sez:

Mercy.

Statistically, these two teams are pretty lousy.  And the thing that pundits and sports sages say wins championships is completely non-existent for both squads: Defense.

That said, it seems there's a pretty easy path to victory for the good guys on Senior day tomorrow: Run the ball.

If Hope and Nord decide to run, run and run some more, the Boilers should be able to eat a ton of clock, keep IU's pass-happy offense off the field and move the ball with relative ease.  IU allows over 33 points/game, 454 yds/game and 235 of those are rushing yards...no one in the B1G allows close to that many yard rushing.

Bolden is one of the many guys who deserves to go out a winner.

So as much as I'd love to see Marve and Henry rain fire from the sky, I'd love to see Shavers, Hunt, Bolden and Cottom all put in work out of the backfield.

Defensively, if Purdue can put pressure on IU's quarterback, good things can and will happen.  While Wilson is more than willing to put the ball in the air 40 or 50 times/game, his young QBs struggle to get into rhythm, for some reason, when they're on their back.  If KK Short has a loud Senior Day, Purdue wins.  Errant throws will put the ball up for grabs for Johnson and Allen who should get fat on a late Thanksgiving feast.

Right now, a cloud of uncertainty hovers over the program. We've heard from three different, reliable sources that Burke has already made his decision on Hope's status, regardless of what the scoreboard says at the end of Saturday afternoon...ticket sales and apathy among the people that fund the program has forced his hand, it seems.

IU is seeking to play spoiler...a role that they've played in pretty recent history in this, one of the best rivalries in college football.  But Hope's squad should be well-aware of all that's at stake- a bowl birth, even a lesser bowl, is better than none at all. Plus, these guys want to see their teammates' and possibly their coach's last game at Ross-Ade end in their favor.

Leave no doubt, gentlemen.

Purdue 42
Indian 27

Boilers Rescue Bucket, 33-25

For those rooting for Danny Hope to be fired, today went about as poorly as you could have wanted. Not only did the Boilers win (and if you were cheering against your Boilers, shame on you), but they looked shaky along the way... probably further cementing the feelings of those who doubt where this program is heading.

But let's make no mistake here. No matter how rocky things have been this season, the year has ended with a victory, the Boilers have the Bucket back, they beat a ranked team this season, and they're likely headed to a bowl game. As we've said, if at the beginning of the season someone offered you 6-6, you'd have said "Hell, yeah." Well, you should have anyway.

6-6 is nothing spectacular -- we understand that. But it is a step in the right direction and it's the team's best record in four years. It's progress, no matter how small it may feel. Is it the kind of progress we want, expect and deserve? Well, that can be debated.

As for this game, it was a little unnerving, to say the least. Indiana seemed to have no trouble running their elaborate* (*Not elaborate at all) running plays, gashing the Boilers for over 200 yards on the ground. The Hoosiers held leads of 7-0, 14-7 and 17-10 before Purdue finally was able to begin putting some space between them, and the space was provided by Carson Wiggs. We've been looking for Carson to lead this team to victory all season and he has officially delivered. Four FGs, two of which were over 40 yards, made a huge difference as the Boilers worked their way to a 23-17 halftime lead. After Carson's 48 yarder just before half, he celebrated with the donkey balls gesture, which Coach Hope appeared to love -- or at least the camera cuts suggested as much. But knowing what we know about Coach Hope, I'm sure he did indeed love it.

After a back and forth first half, things calmed considerably in the second half. Perhaps fatigue was a factor -- a sign of two bad teams? Regardless, the Boilers did manage to continue to roll up yards and wound up with more than 500, including almost 300 on the ground.

Speaking of the ground game, Ralph Bolden went down with what appeared to be a knee injury in the third quarter and as of this writing, I haven't seen any updates. Not a good thing to have happen to a guy who missed all of last year with an ACL injury. The bright side of things was that Akeem Hunt came in and averaged a tidy ten yards a carry in rushing for a cool Benjamin (100) in relief.

Purdue continued with the two-QB "system," as Caleb TerBush again started but was relieved by Robert Marve once the Boilermakers were behind in the game. Marve's play was fairly nondescript before he took himself out of the game late in the second quarter. I have not yet seen an update on the reasoning for this, but one wonders if it has anything to do with lingering effects from the shots he took last week at home against Iowa.

Caleb played a solid, if unspectacular, game, going 16/25 for 192 and a TD. He didn't hurt the Boilers with any picks or fumbles and that's worth noting. In fact, the only turnover of the game was an INT hauled in by Josh Johnson with just over four minutes left, the Hoosiers down eight and driving. Thank you for that, Josh Johnson.

The team did not look particularly sharp in this one, but I do attribute some of that to IU just simply being amped to play. When I saw the footage of all the seniors coming onto the field and carrying the Bucket, I did get a little nervous -- especially when I saw how hyped they all were when the game began. This game was all they had left, it was their bowl game and they were ready to play. All these young players getting minutes should bode well for Coach Wilson in the future. This team will improve, there is no doubt. Look no further than sophomore Stephen Houston, ran seven times for 129 yards -- a nifty 18.4 yard average.

But on this day, the forces of good were simply too much for the crimson and cream fellows, and the Bucket has been rescued and now is back home, comfy and warm in its bed in West Lafayette.

It matters.

-------------------------------

Separately, the Boilers now get to speculate on what bowl they will be invited to. One assumes they will know shortly where they're invited to go. A representative was on hand from the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl and he seemed very excited about the prospect of getting the Boilers to Detroit.

"You want teams that are bowl hungry and Purdue is excited about being in a bowl again," he said. "It's only a gas tank away to go to a bowl for anybody in the Mid-American Conference or the Big Ten, so the proximity is really important."

Indeed, airplanes are hard to find.

If anyone of the Big Ten's ten bowl-eligible teams is going to get left out in the cold, I would have to think it's Illinois, who started the year 6-0 and has not won since. Purdue alumni travel fairly well and Purdue fans really appreciate bowls, so I think they'll get snatched up somewhere, especially with the Big Ten expected to send two teams to BCS bowls. The extra month of practice should help the team, but as I said at the beginning, for those hoping for the demise of Danny Hope, it's looking like you should get used to him in West Lafayette.

Purdue-IU: The Bucket Predicto

We could make jokes (I know, hard to imagine) pretending this game doesn't mean anything. We could take the tact that clueless IU basketball fans frequently take and imply that our opponent is "jealous" of us. We could pretend that IU is nothing more than a 1-10 speedbump on Purdue's way to their first bowl since 2007. However, we won't do any of that because, no matter what, this game has meaning. It is rivalry.



It's the Bucket game. To anyone who went to Purdue or IU, you need say no more. It's not a forced rivalry like USC-ND; it's not a mandated rivalry like Purdue-Iowa. It's a lifelong, historical distaste for one another that is not fake, forced, or overstated. We do not like them. They do not like us. And I think we're all pretty much fine with that.

That's our fricking bucket and we'll take it back now.

The predicto starts now.

You Can Crack IU's Nuts For Half-Price

You, too, can teabag IU.

It's Oaken Bucket week and some lonely purchasing manager at Hobby Lobby is in deep doo-doo. Reader Anna sent in this photo, taken at a Lafayette Hobby Lobby a week before Thanksgiving. 

So I guess either Hobby Lobby has more IU nutcrackers than they could possibly hope to sell...OR they expect Purdue to slaughter IU on Saturday and want to move them as fast as possible...OR they realized that they're in fricking Lafayette. 

Either way, what better way to spend the holidays than saying "Eat DEEZ NUTS, IU!" every time you put one in this guy's chopper.

Indiana Bulldogs Banking on Better Mascot Recognition

It's since been corrected, but Scout.com had up a college football preview for IU that seemingly announced a mascot change for the cream and crimson:


That's right, your Indiana Bulldogs! No word yet on whether Butler is pissed about this.

(Thanks to reader Gregg Z for the heads up.)

More Glassy-Eyed Ideas

Fred Glass is just a fountain of ideas to improve the IU football experience. Eventually, one assumes, somewhere on his list is "better players" and "a coach." But give him time -- he'll get there.

For now, though, ideas abound to make things more fun. Like letting fans keep footballs and hoping drunken students are more likely to attend night games. (Hey, it's harder to see empty seats at night, too, am I right?)

From the article:

The school’s “Kicks for Keeps” program will allow fans to keep footballs when extra points and field goals go into the stands.

“We’re not going to put up a big net that catches a football,” Glass said.

“Much to my business’ offices chagrin, we are going to have a lot of these footballs go into the stands and be caught and taken home. We might have to trade them out because the kickers rub the ball and do all types of stuff that I don’t really understand,

Because when it comes to rubbing balls, Fred Glass doesn't get those kickers.

but they will get a real IU-regulation football.

"IU-regulation" footballs are footballs that are only used between the 40s.

That will cost us a little money, but I think that’s the kind of connection that help get people to come to games and be lifelong fans.”

Unless the Boilermakers are in town and rolling up 62 points again. Oh, wait, Fred's got a plan for that: copy Wrigley Field.

“We want to try to create a Wrigley Field-kind of buzz that real Hoosier fans throw it back,” he said. “So if Minnesota gets lucky and kicks a field goal late in the game, hopefully the culture will be to throw that ball back on the field.”

And if Purdue scores eight or nine touchdowns, you'll have a rash of torn rotator cuffs from the fans repeatedly hurling footballs.... probably directed at Bill Lynch's skull.

In addition, night games!

“We are trying to be fan-friendly for our students. (For) college students, noon can be a tough rally point for them,” he said.

"As is having to root for IU football," Glass did not go on to say.

“And I’ve heard feedback positively from people with young children. There are so many Saturday activities, soccer, youth football, they feel it will enable them to come to games more.”

Oh, Fred. Eternally optimistic. People give any reason they can to avoid Hoosier football -- you hear "activities."

Hear that, citizens of Bloomington? You're running out of excuses. Your kid doesn't have a soccer game at 8 PM, does he? Get your ass out to Memorial Stadium. We've got 2,000 seats for you to spread out in.

(Thanks to reader Patrick G for the heads-up.)

BS Capsule Previews: Indiana Hoosiers

Over the next few weeks, we'll be providing a quick-hit, uninformed, uneducated, poorly-researched capsule preview of each Big Ten football team (you know, kind of like typical reporters). Why spend time bringing in guests who actually know something about these other schools when we can just make knee-jerk comments and predictions, with heavy bias based on our love of Boilermaker sports? Enjoy.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Indiana Hoosiers

Last year: 3-9 Overall, 1-7 Big Ten
Vs. Boilermakers: Lost 62-10

There are some rose-colored glasses out there if you dig deep enough, but the general consensus is that IU is the only team in the league worse than our Boilermakers. But of course Bill Lynch has to be optimistic – this is probably his last season (fairly or unfairly) to prove himself. If the Hoosiers have a mediocre-to-poor year, he might be gone. If they get embarrassed in the Bucket Game again this year, regardless of the rest of the season, then you have to think it’s a certainty. They’ll put up with some losing at IU – but crushing Bucket Game losses have been the end for other coaches.

IU moved Kellen Lewis out to WR and then moved him even further out… to off the team. We applaud the program making tough choices but he was their lone bright spot. To think they can compete without him when they barely competed WITH him is something of a stretch. And looking at their schedule, well, it could get ugly.

Sept. 3 EASTERN KENTUCKY
Sept. 12 WESTERN MICHIGAN
Sept. 19 at Akron
Sept. 26 at Michigan
Oct. 3 OHIO STATE (media guide picture day)
Oct. 10 at Virginia
Oct. 17 ILLINOIS
Oct. 24 at Northwestern
Oct. 31 at Iowa
Nov. 7 WISCONSIN
Nov. 14 at Penn State
Nov. 21 PURDUE

I’m not saying this will happen, but is it unreasonable to say that IU could go 0-12? Again, I don’t think they will go winless. But some of their best chances for wins (Akron, Michigan)are on the road. Give our hated rivals this much: they don’t have a plate full o’ cupcakes here. So what do we think?

Best case: 7-5. The Hoosiers could realistically start strong and reel off a 4-0 start, especially if they win their first two home games. They’ve got virtually no chance against OSU or @PSU, but their other games could honestly go any direction.

Worst case: 0-12. As mentioned, Indiana could theoretically lose any of these games. There’s isn’t a slam-dunk gimme on here. Which, again, is admirable, actually.

Our prediction: 3-9. If the team falters out of the gate, it’ll be a long season. If they start strong, their hope and optimism will keep them in a lot of games. But it’s hard to imagine a team that was pretty bad last year and got monumentally crushed by a lousy Purdue team would be able to lose their best player and somehow improve.