Doomsday?

As we prepare for the long weekend Purdue faces a critical day today. The baseball team finds itself in a must-win situation after yesterday's 9-1 loss to Indiana in the Big Ten Tournament. It is also decision day for one Robert Marve.

First, there is baseball. Simply put, Big Ten co-pitcher of the year Eric Arnett handcuffed Purdue yesterday in a 9-1 loss. Purdue had just four hits against Arnett and got their only run after he left the game in the 8^th. By then, Purdue was down 9-0 thanks to a five run 5th inning. Four errors certainly didn't help matters, either.

Purdue now faces Michigan State in an elimination game today at noon on the Big Ten Network. Should Purdue win that game, they would play again at noon on Friday against the lowest losing seed of today's two winner's bracket games. I'll sort all of that out later, provided we can actually win a game today.

The circus comes to town today

In bigger news, today is the day we finally find an answer on the Robert Marve circus. ESPNEWS stated yesterday that Marve will officially announce his decision live at 3:30 on College Football LIVE at 3:30 today.

I pointed out a number of red flags the other day about Marve, but to me, this is just one more. The fact he is milking the media and going on a national show live to announce his decision (after accomplishing very little on the field) shows me he is all about his ego instead of the team. How is this different from Jimmy Montana's announcement when he decided to come to Notre Dame? Neither had accomplished anything noteworthy at the time. Should we really be that excited to get a guy another team is happy to get rid of?

ESPN seems to think Purdue will be his choice, but they also gloss over the rumors of academic issues at the end of the article. I still am not a real big fan of this, but if Purdue is Marve's destination I will get behind him as long as he follows the rules and gets his head on straight. I just don't like that his dad and high school coach would be coming along to "offer guidance". At some point Marve is going to have to separate himself from these characters and become his own person. From everything I have seen we would be better off if we get Robert Marve and Robert Marve alone without Eugene coming along. At least after today the saga will be over and we won't have to really worry about it until the 2010 season. Even then, Marve would have to beat out Caleb TerBush, Rob Henry Najee Tyler, possibly a returning Justin Siller, and any other new recruit we get this year. The competition will be good for sure.

Since he would be our first commitment for the 2010 recruiting class it could open the door to a number of other high profile names. Coach Hope has made a number of offers in recent days, but no one has accepted yet. The Boiled Sports guys, in a new feature today, talked about Hope's recruiting philosophy a little in their first ever podcast. I am still taking a wait and see approach, as we haven't landed any big names just yet.

(This video does have offensive language as a disclaimer) Marve wasn't a member of the 7th Floor Crew, but any excuse to play this hilarious song is a good one.