These don't count

Since members of the BS staff cannot enter the contest, this doesn't count. But, I wanted to share a few stories of mine about brushes with Purdue athletes.

Back in the spring of '97, my finals week was pretty slow. I was a Senior Industrial Design major. Most of my projects were complete and I only had one final left...So I headed over to the Co-Rec to play some basketball.

Not surprisingly, the place was pretty empty, so I shot around on court one on the main level where most of the good players usually played...I usually wouldn't have been welcome to play there. After shooting around for a half hour or so, some other guys came onto the court and started shooting around- they had 9 players. So, they asked if I'd run with them...I obliged.

I met my team and looked at the opposition and noticed I was among 9 of Jim Colletto's players. Isaac Jones was the other guard on my team. Joe Hagins and others on the other team. My natural match-up was LB/RB, Lee Johnson. I say that very tongue and cheek... Johnson was at least 5 inches taller than me, 60 pounds heavier and just a touch more athletic.

Early in the game, I just fed Jones who seemed to hit everything. I guarded Johnson pretty well as he didn't want to post me up and my perimeter defense was pretty good back then. But on each of our possessions, Johnson would remind me I wasn't going to score.

After setting up Jones so many times, Johnson laid off me a bit. So I faked a pass over to him on the right wing, and hit a three with the space. Then it was my turn to let Johnson know I had scored...but, more than me, all of Johnson's football teammates reminded him of this as well. Needless to say, I didn't score again, but my team won.

From the silly to the ridiculous
Guarding Johnson was a challenge...but it wasn't physically-brutal- my next assignment was.

My intramural team played a team, and we weren't the most-physically-imposing bunch. Our bigs were all sub-6'2"...and none wanted to guard the other team's point-center. Sure, he wasn't a great basketball player, but he was a monster inside 10 feet.

Back then, I didn't back down to anybody on the basketball court, so I guarded the future Indianapolis Colt, Chukie Nwokori. On the drive, he bulled people over...while the intimidated Intramural refs didn't want to call charging on him. So, I started pressuring the ball at 90 feet. He didn't like that. So, he used his 100 pound weight, and one-foot height advantages by lowering his shoulder all the way down the court time and time again.

I fouled out of the game, got a tech called, nearly got into a fight with Chukie (woulda been a good move)...and our team lost.

Anonymous
I'm not going to name names in the next few quick stories- First, I ran into a former shooting guard at Taco Bell at 3:00am after taking a friend of mine to the emergency room. While my buddy had just gotten 20 stitches, he was in much better shape than Coach Keady's old guard.

-One semester, I took a class in which I was study partners with a Purdue cornerback. He assured me that he wouldn't be at Purdue too long- he'd be heading to the NFL as soon as the rules would allow. He ended up staying for the full four years...but eventually got to the league.

Your Turn
Send us your stories and photos...they might win you a copy of Drew Brees' book...or they might give you the chance to be famous on the greatest site in all of the land!!

Big Boilermaker Network

For those interested (and starving for a Boilermaker fix in these quiet months), tomorrow the Big Ten Network will air 24 hours of Boilermaker goodness.

"Five episodes of the Big Ten’s Greatest Games, featuring the Purdue football and men’s basketball teams, also are part of the day’s programming, including the 1991 double-overtime basketball victory over Michigan at 1 p.m. ET, the 1998 Alamo Bowl vs. No. 4 Kansas State at 4 p.m. ET and the 1999 football win vs. Notre Dame at 10 p.m. ET."

No word yet on which of Rick Trefzger's classic performances will be highlighted.

Fulfillment

Our Boilers had high expectations heaped upon them this year and honestly, much of that was warranted, but not all of it. Our Boilers have talent, but don't have depth that's needed in the meat grinder of the BT season, MSU did have that talent and depth...they won the regular season title.

But, 9 losses for this team was too many, and a lot of Boiler fans and some players (that I heard in interviews) expressed at the end of the regular season that there was still a lot of work to do before this season could be called a success. Part of the itinerary was check off this weekend in Indy as Purdue rolled through PSU, Illinois and finally beat aOSU for the crown.
In the process, the Ostrich was named tourney MVP...and the all-tourney team was dominated by Boilermakers- JJ, Smooge and the Ostrich were all on the all-tourney team. While the big three enjoyed the accolades, you simply can't discount this team's effort. Specifically, Chris Kramer's hard-nosed defense.

In fact, Kramer's defense might be what spelled doom for the Buckeyes this afternoon. With about 10:00 left, Kramer seemed to turn up the defensive pressure in the backcourt and as he did so, jump shots stopped falling and aOSU's Buford cooled off. While the defense made it difficult, the offense jumped on the back of Smooge, who scored 14 of his team-high 17 points in the second half. This was a good test of our Boilers' collective will as Purdue didn't shoot shoot as well, from behind the arc, the free throw line or elsewhere as the Bucks...but, they took care of the ball and had more blocked shots, steals and a lot more rebounds than their opponent.
And speaking of doing the little things, how about this line for R. Hummel- only 9 points...but he had 11 rebounds, 5ast, 2 blk and only one TO. Kramer had a similar game- 6pts (while going 4-4 from the stripe as Ms. Hill yapped in his ear), 4reb, 3ast, 4stl...and my man LewJack played quietly, but controlled the pace and had a 4:0 ast:TO ratio.

Here's the deal- our Boilers showed glimpses of how well they can play...but have yet to play a game in which the defense is complete and the offense is complete...or a game in which JJ, Smooge and Hummel are all really "on" for the entire contest...and I think they can and will play that type of game before the season ends. Plus, Hummel's back was amply-tested this weekend with three games in as many days and he was still smiling as the clock hit 0:00; a great sign indeed.
We'll talk a bit about what's next and how the tournament committe was clearly huffing paint in their office in downtown Nap...but until then, I'll do as Matty does and focus on the fact that you don't play the seed number, you play the team...and our Boilers have been tested and are ready to go-

They've faced stacks of blue chips in the form of Oklahoma, Duke, MSU and aOSU...they've faced hostile environments in Madison and East Lansing...they've faced intense defenses by Duke, MSU, Illinois and Wisconsin...and they've faced super-stars like Griffin, Henderson, Singler, Curry, Turner, Lucas and Pritchard (I kid, I kid)...and they're ready.

It's time to take the next step in a journey that hopefully has three more stops.

It's Time To Get Amped Up!

It's college football time and so I thought maybe today was a good day to get all the Boiler faithful charged up for this Saturday's opener against Toledo. Sure, many of these are from the good old days, but try to remember how when each of these happened -- no matter how good we were -- it still felt surreal to be on the winning side of these kinds of matchups. Good things could happen to the Boilers and we all began to believe again.

Enjoy.

Up first, one Drew Brees' earliest shining moments... the comeback in the 1998 Alamo Bowl:



Next, a terrific home win against Notre Dame as they lose in a painful way -- mismanaging the clock. Oh, Bob Davie, we miss you.



During the 2003 season, one of those great plays that just makes a quality opponent look overmatched -- #14 Purdue makes it 20-0 over #10 Iowa:



PSU at Purdue, 2003 -- Purdue tells JoPa to get off our lawn!



Still one of our favorite moments ever -- Taylor Stubblefield begins celebrating at our own 40. Classic and one of the only teams it's always okay to rub it in on:



And one of the best, one that never seems to get old... Brees to Morales, "Holy Toledo," Mike Doss blows coverage on a walk-on WR who almost drops the pass... I always point out to Boilerdowd when we reminisce about these days that Brees threw for well over 400 yards in this game and had 3 TDs and 4 -- FOUR! -- interceptions. Truly the essence of Drew the gunslinger:



Two days to go.