A look back: Run from nowhere
It's a little bit of a reach.
Comparing where the 2009 Boilermakers are now as to where the 1980 Boilermakers, Purdue's most recent Final Four team, were is not seamless.
But there are some parallels.
Purdue's 1980 team enter the season with high expectations. It returned all but one starter, Jerry Sichting, from the 1979 team that shared a Big Ten title with defending national champ Michigan State and Iowa.
It jumped as high as No. 8 in the rankings in the early despite a heartbreaking loss to Kentucky in December in the UKIT in Rupp Arena.
Much like the Duke game a couple months ago, Coach Lee Rose's squad had a much ballyhooed home matchup with No. 5 Syracuse in one of the NBC Sunday afternoon games. The Boilermaker blew a second half lead and committed oodles of turnovers in a loss to Jim Boeheim's (Roosevelt) Bouie and Louis (Orr) show.
The Boilermakers didn't suffer any catastrophic injuries in '80, but did go through a late-season slump where offense was a problem. First team All-American center Joe Barry Carroll had his 59-game consecutive string of double-figures scoring games snapped in a loss at Iowa when he was a paltry 1-of-13 from the field.
The offense really struggled so much so that one sportswriter gave Rose his own appraisal in a post-game press conference: "Coach, if I am ever sentenced to die by a firing squad, I want your players manning the rifles. The worst I would get is a shoulder wound."
Despite ranking ninth in the 10-team Big Ten in shooting, ninth in total offense, and last in free throw percentage, the Boilermakers clawed their way to the top of the league standings with Ohio State with an 8-4 record. With two games left on the 18-game schedule, Purdue trailed Ohio State and IU by one game. But the Boilermakers dropped out of the race by shooting 39 percent in a bitter home four-point loss to Ohio State in the final week of the season. To make matters worse, Indiana ended up walking off with the league crown.
"We knew we were better that our record," said starting point guard Brian Walker years later. "We just weren't showing it on the court."
Purdue finished out the regular season with an emotional Senior Day win over Michigan State. At the end of the game, Carroll toted out roses for his mother as he left the Mackey Arena court for the final time (in the regular season). It literally brought the house down with tears and cheers.
And the moment might have had some positive effect on the team.
"Joe was such a quiet guy, but to have that type of moment, I will never forget it," recalled Rose, who led the Boilermakers to 50 wins in two years in West Lafayette. "We were all in tears."
After being left out of the 40-team Big Dance a year earlier, due in part to the last year of a rule that no more than two teams could go to the Tournament from one conference, the Boilermakers made the 48-team field as a No. 6 seed.
And, because Purdue was a host site for the first and second rounds of the tournament, the Boilermakers got to play its first two games at home.
Purdue had to fight tooth and nail to beat LaSalle in the opener, but then strolled by Lou Carneseca's St. John's team. After beating the politically incorrect-named Redman at home Rose gave a memorable locker room speech. It was needed, because next up was No. 7-ranked Indiana.
"I will tell you one thing guys," the preacher-like Rose said. "We are going to get them next week in Lexington, We will beat Indiana."
And the game wasn't close as Purdue, a 10-point underdog, beat Bob Knight's Hoosiers by a 76-69 score. Knight, who trashed a couple of water coolers in frustration during a halftime locker room tirade, sat with his head in his hands for the entire second half.
Two days later, the Boilermakers rallied from a second-half deficit to beat Duke 68-60 and earn a trip to the Final Four in Indianapolis.
"Having to play in Indianapolis was a little bit of a letdown," said Walker. "You wouldn't think it would have been for us as players, but we were flatter than we should have been against UCLA."
The Boilermakers had their chances against the 8-seed Bruins, but could never get over the hump. Purdue battled back to a one-point deficit with over 90 seconds left, but Coach Larry Brown's Bruins made all the plays down the stretch to pull out the win. In the second-to-last consolation game in NCAA Tournament history, Purdue destroyed Iowa 75-58.
"This was a team that the nation felt came out of nowhere to make its NCAA run," Rose said. "But we were a pretty darn good team to start with."
The Boilermaker Nation hopes the 2008-09 Boilermakers end up with a similar fate.
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