Montgomery Sports Report March 2024

Whether it’s a sign of getting older or Purdue basketball getting better, the Boilermakers wrapped up their 13th Big Ten Conference championship in my lifetime with an 80-74 victory against Michigan State last Saturday night in Mackey Arena.
That total is half of the league-best 26 titles credited to Purdue since its first in 1911. Matt Painter’s fifth Big Ten regular season title puts him just one behind his mentor, Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Gene Keady. Ward “Piggy” Lambert won 11 between 1921 and 1940.
From Rick Mount in 1969 to Zach Edey, who is 66 points from eclipsing Mount’s seemingly untouchable career scoring record in 2024, there have been memorable stories from each of the 13 Big Ten championships.
1969
George King’s Boilermakers led the nation at 93 points a game on the way to a national runner-up finish against John Wooden, Lew Alcindor and the UCLA dynasty in the midst of winning 10 national championships in 12 years.
Mount accounted for more than a third of that production at 33.3 points a game during his junior season. Two other future pros, seniors Herman Gilliam and Billy Keller, averaged 15.8 and 13.3 points respectively.
Purdue won the Big Ten by four games over Illinois and Ohio State with a 13-1 record.
One Mount record that almost certainly will never be topped: most points combined by a backcourt combination. Mount scored 40 and Keller had 31 in a 120-76 victory against Indiana in the regular season finale at what was then Purdue Arena. The 120 points also remains a Purdue single-game record.
One other piece of trivia: King scored more points in his collegiate career than Mount. But King’s 2,535 points came in four seasons and 117 games at Morris Harvey College, now the University of Charleston.
1979
Imagine winning a Big Ten championship and being denied a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
That’s what happened to coach Lee Rose’s first Boilermaker squad, which claimed a three-way share with Michigan State and Iowa on the final day of the season.
The Big Ten was only allotted two bids in the 40-team NCAA field. The Spartans earned the automatic bid by beating Iowa twice and splitting with Purdue. Iowa earned the second berth by beating Purdue twice.
Purdue accepted a place in the National Invitation Tournament, where it would lose to Indiana in the championship game at Madison Square Garden.
1984
The Boilermakers were picked to finish ninth in the Big Ten, and Keady admitted years later he was worried about losing his job.
Purdue had gone 60-34 in Keady’s first three seasons, reaching the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 1983 and the NIT Final Four in 1981 and 1982. The pressure to win was probably more in Keady’s mind than in reality.
Had there been such a thing as “ESPN 30 for 30” in those days, the 1984 Boilermakers would have made a good story. A former walkon (the late Jim Rowinski) transforming his body and his game on his way to Big Ten Player of the Year honors. The rest of the starting lineup (Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year Ricky Hall, Steve Reid, Greg Eifert and Mark Atkinson) weren’t even given a second look by Indiana’s Bob Knight, already a two-time national championship coach.
But on Sunday, March 11, a CBS television audience watched Purdue win at Minnesota, 63-62. More than 1,000 fans welcomed the Boilermakers home at Purdue Airport later that evening. No matter that the NCAA, in its questionable wisdom, rewarded the Big Ten champs by sending them to Memphis to play the host Tigers, it was a season to be remembered.
“This has been a miracle season by a miracle bunch of guys,” Keady told Tom Kubat of the Lafayette Journal and Courier.
1987
The Boilermakers set a school record for victories in a season and clinched a share of the Big Ten title at Michigan State on the next-to-last game of the regular season.
But the celebration was short-lived. A 104-68 thumping at Michigan opened the door for Indiana to share the title and snare the No. 1 Midwest Region seed and a quasi-home first two games at Indianapolis. That launched the Hoosiers to Bob Knight’s third NCAA title.
Coming off the previous season’s screw job by the NCAA Tournament committee, sent to play LSU at Baton Rouge, Keady expected the Boilermakers to be punished. He was right as Purdue was handed a No. 3 seed and sent out East to Syracuse, where it lost in the second round to Florida.
“The kids had a great year tying for the Big Ten championship, but that’s not enough anymore,” Keady said.
1988
So high were the expectations for Purdue that former Indianapolis Star sportswriter Mark Monteith joined the program for a behind the scenes look that turned into the book “Passion Play.”
Reaching No. 2 in the Associated Press rankings, the Boilermakers crushed Minnesota on the final day of the regular season to wrap up an outright Big Ten title and the coveted NCAA tournament path of South Bend and Detroit.
Fairleigh Dickenson and Memphis were not even speed bumps at South Bend for Purdue, which had to feel good when Kansas State was up next in the Sweet 16. The Boilermakers had crushed the Wildcats 101-72 during the regular season. Keady’s first Elite Eight seemed a certainty.
But Purdue wasted a 10-0 start and uncharacteristic loss of poise, plus some shot making by future NBA All-Star Mitch Richmond, resulted in a 73-70 loss that rivals Virginia in the 2019 Elite Eight for the most painful in Boilermaker history.
1994
Here’s an example of Glenn Robinson’s greatness: Under 10 seconds to go at Michigan and the remnants of the Fab Five have a 94-93 lead. There was no doubt who would win the game or lose it for Purdue.
“I was taking the shot regardless,” Robinson said of the 10-footer that gave the Boilermakers a 95-94 victory and first place for good in the Big Ten with one game remaining. “If somebody else would have been open, I’m sorry but I felt this is my time.”
Robinson would follow his 37-point effort with 49 in his final game at Mackey Arena the following week, an easy victory against Illinois.
Weeks later, one victory away from an elusive Final Four, Robinson injures his back (when it happened is still disputed) and he was not close to his National Player of the Year form in a 69-60 loss to Duke.
1995
Without Robinson, the No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick by the Milwaukee Bucks, the Boilermakers won back-to-back outright Big Ten titles for the first time.
“It’s just a given that people aren’t going to expect a lot from us,” senior forward Cuonzo Martin said after the regular season finale, a 73-67 victory against Michigan. Purdue actually was one game better in the Big Ten standings (15-3) than the year before.
Purdue closed the regular season with an eight-game winning streak. The Boilermakers extended it to nine with a close call against Wisconsin-Green Bay, but a last-second basket lifted Memphis past Purdue in the second round.
1996
No one outside the Purdue locker room expected a third consecutive outright Big Ten championship, a feat not accomplished since Ohio State in 1960-62.
A “motley crew of misfits” as Journal and Courier sports editor Jim Lefko described a Boilermaker lineup that only had two starters – Brandon Brantley and Porter Roberts – remaining from the 1994 squad.
As commissioner Jim Delany put it during the post-game trophy ceremony, “Purdue put a man on the moon since (then).” Two in fact, Neil Armstrong and Eugene Cernan.
During the three-peat run, Purdue was 20-6 away from Mackey Arena in the Big Ten. Another close call in the NCAA tournament first round, this time against Western Carolina, was followed by a more athletic Georgia team sprinting past Purdue in the second round.
2010
Purdue overcame a 2-3 start in Big Ten play to earn a share of the championship thanks to closing league play with six consecutive road victories.
But this season will always be remembered for Robbie Hummel’s first torn ACL during a 59-58 victory at Minnesota on Feb. 24. The Boilermakers had achieved their highest Associated Press ranking (3rd) since 1994 and were being mentioned as a Final Four contender. Following Hummel’s injury, the NCAA dropped Purdue to a four seed, and the Boilermakers were eliminated by top-seeded Duke in the Sweet 16.
2017
Three seasons after finishing last in the Big Ten, the transformative recruiting class of Vincent Edwards, Isaac Haas, Dakota Mathias, P.J. Thompson and Jacquil Taylor helped Purdue break a tie with Indiana for the most regular season championships.
That fivesome was bolstered by the additions of 2017 Big Ten Player of the Year Caleb Swanigan, eventual Jerry West Award winner Carsen Edwards and Carmel’s Ryan Cline.
Fittingly, the Boilermakers surpassed the Hoosiers with an 86-75 victory on senior night in Mackey Arena.
2019
In hindsight, Purdue’s unexpected run toward the NCAA Elite Eight began on a cold January night in Madison, Wis.
Carsen Edwards scored 36 points and Grady Eifert hit the go-ahead free throws with 38.3 seconds left in an 84-80 overtime victory against the Badgers. Including that night, the Boilermakers went on to finish the regular season 14-2 and tie Michigan State for the Big Ten title.
2023
The loss of three starters, including NBA Draft lottery pick Jaden Ivey, created low expectations outside of West Lafayette.
What no one counted on was Zach Edey going from good to greatness and the freshman backcourt of Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer starting from Day 1. The trio propelled the Boilermakers to a Big Ten title by three games over Indiana and Northwestern.
2024
Third-ranked Purdue became the first Big Ten program since Ohio State in 2006 and 2007 to win back-to-back outright titles with Tuesday night’s 77-71 victory at No. 12 Illinois.
A win on Sunday’s senior day game with Wisconsin in Mackey Arena, the Boilermakers will set a school single-season record for Big Ten victories with 17. Purdue has gone 7-3 in conference road games in back-to-back seasons.
Making amends
It was probably just coincidence, but not 48 hours after soon-to-be two-time National Player of the Year Zach Edey posted this on his X (formerly Twitter) feed – “If Braden’s not on your All American ballot leave me off too please” – the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame corrected a major oversight.
After not being among the 10 semifinalists for the Bob Cousy Award, given to the nation’s best point guard, Purdue sophomore Braden Smith was among the five finalists announced Monday.
The other four are seniors, one of whom – Alabama’s Mark Sears – also was not among the semifinalists. The favorite may be Marquette’s Tyler Kolek. The other finalists are Connecticut’s Tristan Newton and Houston’s Jamal Shead.
Smith is the first finalist from Purdue in the Bob Cousy Award’s history. He entered Tuesday night’s game at Illinois as the only player in America averaging at least 13 points (13.1), 7 assists (7.1) and 5 rebounds (5.9) per game.
With six assists against the Fighting Illini, the Westfield graduate broke Purdue’s single-season record set by Bruce Parkinson (207) in 1974-75.
Smith currently ranks sixth in the country and second in the Big Ten in assists per game, while leading the league in assists during conference games only (7.5 APG).
Noteworthy
Purdue is the unanimous choice of ESPN college basketball writers to repeat as Big Ten Tournament champions. “Boilermakers center Zach Edey is not only the undeniable favorite in the Wooden Award race again, he’s also a better player — so much so that NBA prognosticators believe he can be a lottery pick in the draft this summer,” Myron Medcalf writes. “But this season’s Boilermakers are also more than Edey. They’re one of the top 3-point shooting squads in America (40.5%), unlike last season’s group that won the Big Ten tournament and earned a top seed in the NCAA tournament.” …
Matt Painter became the winningest coach against Naismith Hall of Famer Tom Izzo after Purdue’s 80-74 victory last Saturday night. Painter is now 17-16 against Izzo.
Give an assist to Edey for helping Painter go over .500 against Michigan State. In his last three games against the Spartans, Edey has averaged 34 points, 13.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists.
Kenny Thompson is the former sports editor for the Lafayette Journal & Courier and an award-winning journalist. He has covered Purdue athletics for many years.