Familiar Faces Greet Purdue in Indy with Brandon Newman & Steve Lutz

There are 296 miles between Mackey Arena in West Lafayette to the E.A. Diddle Arena on the campus of Western Kentucky. Of those miles, 284 can be done on Interstate 65, and that makes sense given the strong connection Purdue and Western Kentucky have had for decades. Gene Keady came to Purdue from Western Kentucky after the 1979-80 season, and that drive has yielded 954 wins and 11 Big Ten championships for the Boilermaker program under his guidance and the guidance of his protege in Matt Painter.

With four more victories the program can finally achieve the one thing that has eluded it those four-plus decades since Keady moved up I-65: an appearance in the Final Four. On Friday that campaign begins again, and the familial connection with Western Kentucky will be in the background.

Former four-star commit Brandon Newman had an up and down career at Purdue, but he always had the support of the Purdue family. During the 2021-22 season he didn’t play in a game for nearly a month and didn’t score for nearly two months, but when he entered the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal against Penn State he got a raucous cheer from the Purdue fans in attendance.

That boost propelled him to an unexpected 12 point performance where he was 4 of 4 from the floor, scoring more points than he had scored in his previous two months of basketball. He was greeted to a standing ovation as he left the floor that night as he left the floor.

Fast forward two years. Brandon Newman and Purdue are back at Gainbridge Fieldhouse for the first and second rounds of the 2024 NCAA Tournament. They are not together this time, as Newman is in his first year as a grad transfer at Western Kentucky, who will take on Marquette, while Purdue is there for its own first round game against Grambling State. The support and family atmosphere is still there too.

“I’ve talked to a few guys from the team. I’ve talked to Fletcher (Loyer). I’ve talked to Mason (Gillis)," said Newman on Thursday during Western Kentucky’s press time. “I’ve also just been receiving a lot of love on Instagram and Twitter and stuff and how everybody is still cheering and they’ll be here for the game. They’ll be rooting for us and that is good to see.”

Newman is not the only familiar face for Purdue fans with Western Kentucky. Steve Lutz, a long time assistant for Matt Painter, is in his first season as head coach of the Hilltoppers.

“My hope is that the Boiler Nation will come and support Western Kentucky,” said Lutz. “Obviously you’ve got Brandon Newman on the roster. Gene Keady was the coach at Western Kentucky and we all love coach. Come on over at 2 o’clock, then stick around for 7:30 and hopefully both of us get wins.”

After starting 30 games in three seasons in West Lafayette Newman has started all 33 games for the Hilltoppers this season. He is averaging a career best 10.5 points per game and he helped them recover from a late seasons four-game losing streak to win the Conference USA Tournament and automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It is the first time in 11 years Western Kentucky has made the field, and Newman was essential in getting there. He had 15 points in the championship game and was named to the all-Tournament team. He also credits his experience at Purdue in helping them reach the NCAAs.

“I mean, first and foremost, I'm happy to be back," said Newman. "Obviously only a select number of teams get to be here and play in this tournament,” said Newman. “I'm just happy that Western Kentucky is one of those teams. The guys, they've pretty much just been taking everything in. If they have a question here or there about something, if I'm able to answer it, then I'll answer it.”

The theme of family is a big reason that Newman is playing this season for Lutz at Western Kentucky.

“Yeah, I think the relationships was a big thing for me,” said Newman. “Obviously playing under Steve Lutz at Purdue my first couple years and then going through the transfer portal, that was kind of a big thing for me, going somewhere where there's family or going somewhere where you have a relationship. So that was probably the most attractive thing to me.”

Lutz agreed with Newman. He was essential in Newman’s initial recruitment to Purdue, so when he chose to enter the transfer portal and Lutz moved from Texas A&M-Corpus Christi to Western Kentucky this season the two were able to reconnect.

The challenge ahead of Western Kentucky is steep. The Hilltoppers are a 15 seed taking on 2 seed Marquette, but Lutz credits Matt Painter with getting to this moment.

“The thing that I would tell you, and this is going to probably sound bad, but the thing that I would tell you about Matt and Coach McDermott and those guys is that they always have the big picture in mind, said Lutz. “So as I made a little bit more money, they gave me more advice on how to protect myself and my family and maybe how to structure a contract and those sorts of things”

“But they also talked a lot about how to manage yourself and to keep being you because there's a lot of people, unfortunately, as we ascend in whatever business, we get lost in who we are. I think that those guys have always been the same people. Like Matt Painter is still going to be on Saturday afternoon in his backyard watching the Cubs game and listening to Zac Brown or whatever, sitting out by the pool.”

Western Kentucky will take on Marquette at 2pm Friday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse, hopefully with a large Purdue contingent in attendance supporting Lutz and Newman.

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