Kenny Thompson

Media reports indicate the Big Ten Conference’s top officials will meet sometime this month to work out plans for football schedules in 2024 and beyond. It’s not going to be as simple as plugging in new members USC and UCLA alongside Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Northwestern and Wisconsin in the West while shifting Purdue to…

It’s time to issue mid-term grades for Big Ten Conference basketball. Entering the season, Indiana and Illinois were supposed to be teacher’s pets. The Hoosiers’ Trayce Jackson-Davis was the odds-on favorite for Big Ten Player of the Year honors. A funny thing, though, happened on the way to the awards ceremony. The team generally picked…

My old colleague at the Lafayette Journal and Courier, Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame sportswriter Jeff Washburn, liked to say winning in college football and basketball is all about the “Jimmys and Joes, not the Xs and Os.” It’s difficult to argue that premise. Just look at the familiar names that seem to make the…

Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packers coach whose name is on the trophy that goes to the Super Bowl championship team, once said that success comes before work only in the dictionary. Larry Bird did not become a legend at Indiana State and for the Boston Celtics on just talent alone. “I don’t know…

Time will tell if the grass is greener (or in Kentucky’s case, bluegrass) on the other side of the Ohio River for Jeff Brohm. Brohm’s 36-34 record that Purdue fans celebrated after the 9-39 Darrell Hazell era will get him fired at Louisville, his alma mater. And that’s the risk Brohm is taking with his…

History says Purdue will not come close to upsetting No. 2 Michigan on Saturday night at the Big Ten Championship Game. Since the Big Ten went to the East-West divisional format in 2014, the East winners are 8-0 with an average margin of victory of 35-15. As noted Saturday night by Gerry DiNardo on the…

Purdue guard Braden Smith earned the first of what could be several Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors Monday for his role in the 75-70 victory against Marquette in the Gavitt Games. The Westfield graduate and reigning Indiana Mr. Basketball scored a co-team-high 20 points to go with three assists and two rebounds. Smith…

Purdue football lost its second legend in 2022 when Hall of Fame defensive tackle Dave Butz died Nov. 4 at the age of 72. Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Len Dawson passed away on Aug. 24 at the age of 87. Butz is the third former Boilermaker great to die in 2022. Basketball All-American…

Just how dominant has Ohio State football been in Big Ten Conference play since 2000? The Buckeyes have won 11 league championships or an average of one title every other season. Perhaps just as sweet to Ohio State fans, the Buckeyes are 17-4 against that team from up north, also known as Michigan. Even with…

Matt Painter likes to talk about wanting his Purdue basketball teams to get old and stay old. That’s been easier said than done for his football counterpart. In fact, Jeff Brohm’s 2019 Boilermakers had nine scholarship seniors on the roster. Five of them (future Cincinnati Bengals linebacker Markus Bailey, starting quarterback Elijah Sindelar, defensive tackle…