Quiet Ol' Purdue Making A Lot of Noise
By Kyle Koster
It’s easy to sleep on Purdue. It’s easy to forget about Matt Painter. A person visiting West Lafayette would be wise to bring an alarm clock. There is no bustle of action, no feverish rush hour, no great crush of excitement. Painter’s record is not gushed over the way it is with some of his contemporaries.
So it makes sense how the Boilermakers basketball program has flown under the national radar, both in recent years and before. Steady, effective, but otherwise non-spectacular engineering isn’t appreciated in its own time. Only in retrospect.
Purdue knows how to build. It always has. This year, the school notched its 24th regular season Big Ten title, the most in conference history. It’s a stat that takes many aback.
The Carsen Edwardsera has seen the program reach the Sweet 16 three consecutive years. It is now in the Elite 8 for the first time since 2000 after surviving a ferocious Tennessee comeback. The first Final Four since 1980 is in sight. Beating Virginia is a tough proposition, but definitely doable.
Whether people noticed or not, Purdue has become an elite program. The postseasons success speaks for itself. This season, Painter has crafted a masterpiece. He lost four senior leaders: Vincent Edwards, Dakota Mathias, Isaac Haas, and P.J. Thompson. His team stumbled to a 6-5 start. But he found a way to rally the club.
Sharpshooter Ryan Cline, who dropped a career-high 27 against the Volunteers, stepped up. So did Grady Eifert, the Platonic Ideal of a Glue Guy. Carsen kept on firing with no conscience. Matt Haarms, the floppy-haired giant from Amsterdam, has been an anchor down low.
This is not the sexiest team. They just get the damn job done. Painter has effectively built a track and his teams know how to follow it. Right now that’s resulted in a powerful freight train, racing through brackets hopefully en route to fruitful new lands.
It’s time to wake up and enjoy the ride. And the engineer.