One week short

As a diehard Duke and Oregon fan I have gotten to learn about and gain a lot of respect for the Purdue program in both football and basketball. Last night’s game was a classic and I have much respect for your team and your coach. If Purdue had won I would have been the first Duke fan to jump on the Purdue express and cheer your team onto the Final 4. I look forward to seeing your team play next year and I hope that Duke doesn’t have to face them again because I am sure the result would be different.

All are examples of what Purdue basketball and the university are about. True ambassadors for the school. I can’t say that I have been more sad and yet upbeat after a loss. Can basketball season start tomorrow? And when Purdue wins it all and visits the White House – LewJack can have a moment with the President about his “pity”. This year’s national championship game will be a “shoulda, woulda, coulda” moment for me.

This program has the momentum to be a tournament threat for the foreseeable future.

Considering our share of bad luck, this was certainly a great season.

 HOUSTON — Purdue will return to Reliant Stadium next year and play in the Final Four.

That’s my first prediction for the 2010-11 season.

I’m making it after having just watched the Boilermakers’ 2009-10 season end with a 70-57 loss to Duke. I’m making it because the tall guy with the black pants, blue shirt and slight limp walking around this place will lose that limp in the coming months, fully recover from ACL surgery and return in time for the start of practice. I’m making it because I don’t believe JaJuan Johnson will prematurely enter the NBA Draft, because I do believe the recruiting class will contribute, and because Matt Painter is a damn good coach who will figure out how to overcome the losses of Chris Kramer and Keaton Grant.

I’m making this prediction for all those reasons.

But mostly I’m making it because I want it to happen.

I want it to happen because it would be right if it did and wrong if it didn’t. I want it to happen because I don’t like seeing opportunities ripped away the way Purdue’s opportunity was ripped away. I want it to happen because I can’t imagine living life wondering what might’ve been. So I can’t imagine what it would be like for the Purdue juniors to leave college without a Final Four and be reduced to forever wondering what might’ve been if Robbie Hummel — otherwise known as the guy with the black pants, blue shirt and slight limp — hadn’t torn his ACL on Feb. 24.

“Things obviously would’ve been a little different,” Johnson said. “But we had to deal with the cards we were dealt.”

I wrote on Feb. 19 that Purdue was headed toward a one seed in the NCAA tournament, not because I’m a genius but because it was obvious. The Boilermakers had won eight straight and they were closing with a reasonable schedule that I figured they’d run through, perhaps without a loss. Meantime, I predicted (correctly predicted, I might add) that Villanova would fade. So the Wildcats were going to move down and the Boilermakers were going to move up, and though you can never assume how the NCAA tournament will unfold — we’ve learned that this month, right? — it was clear Purdue would be one of the four favorites to make the Final Four.

Then Hummel’s ACL snapped at Minnesota.

At that point, any realistic Final Four hopes were gone.

“It’s frustrating because Rob is such a special piece to that puzzle,” Painter said. “We weren’t going to plug in another Robbie Hummel.”

A little more than a month has passed since Hummel’s injury, long enough for him to have surgery, get off crutches, and limp around at Reliant Stadium. The Boilermakers managed to make the Sweet 16 in his absence, and that alone was an achievement. But they were greatly and obviously out-manned against Duke, mostly because they were down a man and Duke was not.

Duke’s Kyle Singler (24 points), Jon Scheyer (18 points) and Nolan Smith (15 points) combined for 57 points. Purdue’s Johnson (23 points) and E’Twaun Moore (18 points) combined for 41. So Duke’s top three outscored Purdue’s top three by 16 points. And do you know what Hummel averaged this season? Yep, 16 points.

“Tonight we didn’t have that third scorer,” Painter said. “That really hurt us.”

But what about next season?

With Johnson, Moore and a healthy Hummel?

With a splash of good luck to offset this season’s bad?

“We have to get physically tougher,” Painter said. “But I think we’ll have a good team.”

Good enough to make the Final Four, make things right, and, hopefully, make up for what could’ve been.

Glasses raised to the Boilers. Great effort from a great group of guys.

Look forward to the battles next season. A word of advice-stay patient as your group will need time to adjust to Kramer’s absence. Walton was a very similar player for us last year (not saying he was a better player or worse, just a central player) and it took a long time for State to adjust and for several players to fill the gap. No one player can just slide in and replace Kramer.

But Purdue should be one hell of a team again for sure.

Either Marcious or Carroll have to be ready next year to contribute and provide depth up front. That’s going to be the difference between an Elite 8 spot and a Final Four. Bade continued to just make dumb mistakes through out the year.

Optimistic on how DJ Byrd finished the year. Have to get more consistent from the PG position. Will be interested to see how the new, talented freshman blend into this team next year.

It was a helluva season….and you can’t help but wonder “what might have been…”

We gotta find a place for CK and Keaton to stay with the program. Any success we have going forward will be because of the foundation they’ve laid. There are rings to be earned next year and I hope the guys are rewarded properly.

Congratulations to your Boilermakers for making a great run in tournament. It’s a shame they couldn’t get past the Blue Devils, but it was fun watching Purdue defy its critics and make a run to the Sweet Sixteen.

This has been a great year! It has been fun to watch this team play some great basketball this season. I will really miss our seniors. They have given us so many memories in the past 4 years that we will be talking about for a long time. From Kramer’s freshman shot from his knees, last year’s broken nose, to the swim move against Tenn. there has not been a dull moment!

Did anyone see that the Blue Devil had “Purdont” on his hat during the game? Really suprised me and no one has talked about it so I’m thinking I imagined it. Can’t imagine either university being okay with a mascot bashing the other team.

Let’s face it, this season will forever be remembered as the year Hummel got hurt. Obviously things would have been different with him but i couldn’t be happier with the way the Boilers played and represented Purdue University in the tournament. They fought, scratched, and clawed there way to the Sweet 16 and had themselved in position to make it to the elite eight but just came up a little short. This season, to me, was still an enormous success. Purdue is now, once again, a Big Ten power that nobody wants to play. Thank you seniors. You guys laid it all out there. Led by CK, you guys will forever be remembered as the class that got Purdue basketball back. Thanks to you guys defense does live here and it always will.