Bucket Retained

The Boilermakers retained the Bucket with a senior-tastic 38-21 win down in Bloomington, in front of many Purdue fans and a smattering of IU students who got lost on their way to the cafeteria.

Joey “The Duke” Elliott went 20-29 with no picks, four TDs, and reached 3,000 passing yards for the season, Jaycen Taylor had 170 total yards and a key early TD, and Torri Williams had an INT, in just a few examples of Boilermaker seniors making it clear that they were not relinquishing the Bucket.

Winning on the road is never easy. Wait, was this a road game? Let me check my notes… ah, yeah, yeah it was.

It was simply terrific to see the seniors play like they did. As per usual, Purdue played well in the first half before the opposition began to gain some confidence. IU scored just before the half and Bill Lynch appeared to be ready to wet himself with excitement.

However, apparently the pasta and turkey meal usually served in Purdue locker rooms at halftime was accidentally served in the Hoosier clubhouse, as Al-Terek McBurse took the opening kick of the second half to the house. The 28-7 lead essentially put the game away, though IU showed a lot of heart by continuing to fight. I have to admit, I have a lot of respect for Ben Chappell – dude played hard and is pretty slippery for a big guy. This game did not look like the joke of a mismatch it’s been at other times, including last year. And that’s a good thing. Would anyone mind if Purdue and IU were playing for their 8th, 9th or 10th wins in these games?

The two programs finished with overall records only one game apart (5-7 for Purdue; 4-8 for IU), but Purdue’s 4-4 conference mark is something to be proud of (IU was 1-7). This season didn’t go perfectly, without a doubt – and we’ll have more on the season in the coming weeks – but it always feels good to see a Bucket win and, let’s be honest, 5-7 (4-4) is better than most of us expected heading into this season.

Purdue vs IU: For A Substantial Amount of Marbles

I thought about titling this post, "Purdue vs IU: Who Ya Got?" but really, if you're reading Boiled Sports, you're probably pulling for the Boilers. Or you're here to bash us. Which is fine. Bring it, bitches.

I kid, of course. We're all about the love here at BS. Unless we're pissed about something. Or feeling punchy. Or just feel like stirring the shit up. Okay, so we are proud and are definitely itching for a fight tonight.

We've stayed rather quiet today (especially Boilerdowd) and that's probably for a number of reasons. I mean, we're "due" for a loss, right? Purdue hasn't let up (at least not enough to lose) since early January. The Boilers are 12-1 in the Big Ten and up to a ranking of 14/15 in the nation. The many freshmen on the team are going to be beaten at some point, right? They're going to be outplayed. Outhustled. Painter is going to be outcoached. It has to happen at some point, right? I mean, it's only natural. Right? Or is it?

See, we (being typical Purdue fans) have been expecting some letdown losses and just general losses of focus basically, well, since Wofford slapped our boys around in December. After a decent but not overly-impressive non-conference schedule, it looked like the predictions were right: Purdue would be a solid team this year but definitely one of those "year or two away" kinds of teams. Big Ten success would probably have to wait.

But something clicked in these guys. Something got them focused and hustling and confident and... accurate. And Coach Painter kept them grounded... somehow. Maybe I'm saying this with such utter disbelief because whenever Purdue athletic teams have even gotten remotely good, the wheels have come flying off in catastrophic fashion.

Yet this team seems to be unaffected by the curse of letdowns. They are 4-0, if you can believe that, against top ten teams this season. Read that again. Can you even imagine the football team doing that? I mean, I think I'd poop my pants if they did.

Yet here we are. Of course, this doesn't mean they're going to win tonight. In fact, the odds are kind of against them, as I illustrated above. They're young, they're on the road... they're "due" for a loss, if you believe in that sort of thing. Oh, and IU is pretty damn good.

However, they can win if IU plays sloppy at all; if Kramer plays shutdown defense on Gordon; if the Hoosiers are at all distracted thinking about playing possibly their last game for Coach Sanctions; and if Coach Painter can keep the wheels on this one for 40 minutes.

No predictions here. I honestly believe it could go either way. No matter what, though, this season has turned into one hell of a ride. Thanks guys, we're really enjoying it.

Game on in less than an hour.

Is There A Game Tonight?

DJ White rests up for the Purdue-Indiana showdown.

Well, someone said there's a game tonight. Apparently, two schools in a basketball-mad state are meeting this evening in their only matchup of the year. In addition, the coach of one squad may be coaching his last game at that school because of repeated rules violations plus being a general liar when asked about it by his superiors and the governing body of his chosen profession.

The visitors start three freshmen, have won 11 in a row, are 4-0 against top ten teams and are 12-1 in Big Ten play. Each team is numbers 14 and 15 in the two polls -- one is ahead of the other in each. And in the Big Ten itself, they're only separated by a game and a half, although the winner of this game is effectively up by an automatic game the rest of the way because if the two were to end the season with the same conference record, the winner of this game would get the head-to-head tiebreaker.

The home team with the cheating coach is playing its third straight game against the top teams in the Big Ten. Fortuitously for them, each of those three has been at home. Seems perfectly fair to Kelvin Sampson.

Okay, why am I writing this like a Walt Whitman poem? The teams are Purdue and Indiana, two old-time rivals who haven't both been good at the same time in many a moon. Gene Keady and Bob Knight prowled these sidelines for years, and for the twenty years they overlapped in the conference their schools took 11 conference titles. (Incidentally, have you ever noticed that angry, demonstrative coaches "prowl" the sidelines; oddball, eccentric coachs "roam" the sidelines; and structured, controlled, military types "patrol" the sidelines?)

Purdue and IU are back at the top of the Big Ten. And tonight is their only scheduled matchup of the season. I'm sure we'll have more to share in terms of our pregame thoughts later on today. Or maybe we won't. We're not sure we want to acknowledge how badly we here at BS want to see a win tonight. Sure, we're greedy. But Matt Painter and this group of froshes have made us this way.

Boiler Up!

Weekend Sports Notes

Et Tu, NASCAR?
As sports continually are emasculated, it becomes less and less surprising that events become less about the sport and more about the spectacle and Disney-generated BS. We had the sheer, uncomfortable displeasure this weekend of getting to watch Chubby Checker lip sync "The Twist" prior to the Daytona 500...followed by Michael McDonald singing an adult contemporary pop song as NASCAR and racing legends alike awkwardly were forced to watch from the very same stage.


I've said it before, I'm not a NASCAR fan, but taking a gritty sport that was founded on the guts of bootleggers and making it into what we saw Sunday was sad. Hopefully crap like that causes fans to tune into Indy Racing this summer...That said, the race was pretty darned fun to watch and, as always, had a great finish. Sure, NASCAR takes "debris yellows" quite often to keep it interesting, but hey, sometimes you have to rig some eggs to make an omelette.

Nice Job, Big Blue
The University of Michigan's basketball team beat the 9-loss Ohio State Buckeyes Sunday by 10-points at Crisler Arena...And the students stormed the court.

Great job, UM students, you've just lost all of my respect.

IU v. Purdue Prediction
Alright, here's the deal. IU played out of their arses on Saturday v. MSU (thanks for nothing, Coach Izzo). Further, Sanctions acted like he was bi-polar after the contest going from tears to angry fist-pumping in just seconds. What's that tell me? That this IU team has the "us against the world" mentality that is needed to win big games. So how does this affect Tuesday night's big game? Not well for Purdue, I think.

I think IU might get the best of Purdue come tomorrow night...But their joy will be tempered as Sanctions will get "suspended indefinitely" once the investigation is concluded on Thursday. Dakich will take over as interim coach at that point...and Skiles will be hired once the McRobbie and co. are able to fire Sanctions outright later this spring.

I think the firing of Kelvin will take the wind out of the sails of the Hoosiers and Purdue will still win the BT title despite the loss in Bloomington. I hope I'm wrong about losing in Bloomington because it would by my favorite win of the year, but my gut says otherwise.

The Best Thing About Baseball
I like playoff baseball, but as you may know, I'm not a fan of the MLB game overall. There is one thing I love about baseball though that other sports don't seem to have, and that is the pranks that occur in the clubhouse. The Phillies played one of the best in recent memory this weekend: