Gold and Black @ 30: Year 13--2002-03

Related links: Year 1: 1990-91 | Year 2: 1991-92 | Year 3: 1992-93 | Year 4: 1993-94 | Year 5: 1994-95 | Year 6: 1995-96 | Year 7: 1996-97 | Year 8: 1997-98 | Year 9: 1998-99 | Year 10: 1999-00 | Year 11: 2000-01 | Year 12: 2001-02

Gold and Black Illustrated is celebrating 30 years of publishing. Over the next few weeks, we will look at each publishing year, recalling the moments that took place in that particular year.

Note: Captions describing each cover are not available on mobile platforms.

After falling four-points of the Final Four three years earlier in the 2000 West Regional Final in Albuquerque, N.M., I wasn't sure Gene Keady would ever get back to the NCAA Tournament in his career.

And when the Boilermakers struggled down the stretch, winning just three of their last nine games before Selection Sunday in 2003, I still had my doubts. I remember a 54-42 loss to Michigan State in the first game of the Big Ten Tournament being recorded as one of the most anemic offensive performances of the Keady Era. It was the first day of our return to Iraq, but let's just say the American assault (not to make light of war) on Baghdad was a bit more accurate.

So, when Purdue's name was called to head to Birmingham, Ala., to face LSU in its NCAA tourney opener, I figured the Boilermakers had little to lose. But I also thought Purdue would be one-and-done.

Yet, Purdue had a nice lineup in 2002-03. Transfer forward Chris Booker was a welcome addition, averaging nearly 10 points and providing a good inside presence. The weekly discussion on Booker's eligibility was a hot topic, but not until the following season.

Purdue also had an All-Big Ten guard in Willie Deane. The Fort Wayne native pretty much came out of nowhere to make first team All-Big Ten. I remember the story of Deane and his father descending on Keady's office a couple years earlier wanting to transfer from Boston College. I am not sure Keady was all that aware of who Deane was, but Keady took him as a walk-on for the 2000-01 season.

Deane was brash, and at times had a temper. The story of Keady kicking Deane out of practice and Deane not being aware that NBA scouts were in Mackey Arena might have been urban legend or a bit exaggerated over the years, but probably didn't help him come draft time.

But Deane was the fastest Purdue player I ever saw with the basketball in hand from baseline to baseline...though I am sure you will get arguments from people that saw Brandon McKnight, Lewis Jackson and Carsen Edwards. Deane could run and was very strong.

It was Deane's 36-point effort at Michigan on the Wolverines' Senior Day that temporarily stopped the Boilermakers' skid and delivered Purdue to the 2003 NCAA Tournament. It was the most points by a Boilermaker since Glenn Robinson's 44 against Kansas in the NCAA Tournament nine-years earlier.

My two children were weened on Purdue basketball with the likes of Deane and David Teague (a freshman on the 2003 team). They loved their swagger as players, and make no mistake Teague and Deane had it.

But it was another unknown they also provided a lasting memory of 2003. Enter Melvin Buckley.

The freshman forward had one of the most, if not THE most, surprising performances in Purdue's NCAA history as he came off the bench to score 20 points in a surprising 80-56 win over LSU. Buckley averaging 1.8 points per game for the season.

It was Keady's last NCAA win, but it was impressive. And, the Boilermakers gave Texas all it could handle, before being eliminated two days later.

Another freshman that got my attention that year was quarterback Brandon Kirsch. He burst on the scene in the most difficult of situations after starter Kyle Orton had been knocked out (literally) late in the third quarter of the game in the contest played in Orton's home state. Kirsch was brash and he played like it, nearly leading Purdue to a win.

Little did we all know at the time what a talent, and lightning rod for fans, Kirsch would be over the next few years.

I couldn't pick just one for this publishing year. And here's why ...

In my humble opinion, our photographer Tom Campbell was as good as it gets in his ability to capture game action. And in consecutive weeks, he produced images that amaze me to the this day.

The picture of Michael Jenkins' game winning catch is suitable for framing for just about every Buckeye fan. But it captured just how close Jenkins might have been to dropping the ball as he caught it in his breadbasket and not with his hands. It also told the story of just how close the Boilermakers were to beating the No. 3 team in the nation and ruining OSU's season.

A week later, in 30-degree temperatures in Spartan Stadium, Campbell was able to use two different cameras on the same play to capture Kyle Orton's season-saving 40-yard strike to John Standeford. Fans remember the story that Orton had been on the bench in a parka trying to stay warm when Brandon Kirsch got dinged and had to come out of the game. Orton entered the contest with no notice, little to no warmup time and with Purdue having one shot left in its chamber to make the postseason. Instead of trying to get the eight yards necessary to earn a first down and move the chains on fourth down, Orton went for it all down the sideline to Standeford. And the rest was history, as Purdue held on for a 45-42 win to earn a bowl bid for the sixth-straight year under Tiller.

I remember Fox-59 (Indianapolis) sports anchor Eric Richey holding up that cover a week or so later on his late-night sports show show and singing Tom's praises for getting both images.

That cover, and that story, will always be a favorite of mine for all those reasons.

...The up-and-down nature of sports and why we like it so well. The 2002 Purdue football season couldn't have been more frustrating, as the Boilermakers lost six games by a total of 22 points. It very easily could have, if not should have, beaten the two teams in Iowa and Ohio State that finished the regular season undefeated and tied for the league title.

It was an amazingly frustrating year, but then it all came together starting with Orton coming cold off the bench (see above) at Michigan State ... to a rousing Bucket victory ... to a second-half surge against Washington in the Sun Bowl on New Year's Eve in El Paso, Texas. In that one, Purdue roared back from a 17-point deficit to end up with a comfortable win over Washington.

Yes, 2002 was as frustrating a season as one that Purdue has ever had. Yet, it was also one of its most interesting. And that makes it a reason to watch, if not live, college sports. And all the more reason to hope for its return sooner rather than later.

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