Elite Eight games are just different. They feel different than anything with the exception of a championship game. Coaches, players, and teams are judged based on getting to the Final Four and winning the championship. Two years ago Purdue broke through to the Final Four, and ultimately to the national championship game, for the first time since 1980. They lost in the title game, but it meant so much to the program and to the fans to make it to the Final Four. Elite Eight games mean wins result in history.
When you see a coach’s profile when he retires sure it will talk about conference championships but they will also show how many Final Fours they made it to along with if they won any national championships. Elite Eight games are just different.
John Wooden Memorial Player of the Game (JWMPOTG): Oscar Cluff earns it here for me. He was Purdue’s leading scorer with 14 points and he also grabbed 10 rebounds. He played 39 minutes for the Boilermakers tonight.
Games like this are a blur. You have a hard time remembering specifics about how much someone scored or how many rebounds someone had, at least I do. What I remember are moments or players who stepped up. In the first half for the Boilermakers a bunch of names jumped out to me. Braden Smith had 11 points on 3-6 from three while also grabbing 4 rebounds and dishing out 3 assists. For awhile in the half he was the only Boilermaker who was hitting shots. Then there’s Oscar Cluff. Big O played all 20 minutes in the first half and scored 5 points while grabbing 4 rebounds. He was incredible out there. Then there’s Gicarri Harris who was 2-2 from three and incredible on defense with 2 steals. How could I leave out Daniel Jacobsen though? The seldom used big man come in after Trey Kaufman-Renn found himself in foul trouble, played 7 minutes (tied for the most of anyone off the bench in the first half) and while he didn’t score or get a rebound he was active on defense and had a block (I could have sworn he had more than one). It was his best 7 minutes perhaps all season.
Purdue went from down 19-12 to up 38-31 at halftime. Purdue did (nearly) everything right in the first half. They shot 7-14 from three with four different players hitting at least one three. They outrebounded the Arizona Wildcats by 20-15 and took advantage of nearly every opportunity. The one issue that Purdue had was turnovers. They tallied 6 in the first half including at least 3 that were unforced and at least 2 that came after Purdue either got a rebound after an Arizona miss or forced and Arizona turnover. Regardless of that, Purdue found a way to keep the pressure on the Wildcats and go into halftime with a 38-31 lead on a team that had not trailed at all during their prior three games of March Madness. Purdue had 8 offensive rebounds in this one compared with just 4 for the Wildcats who came into this game with rebounding as one of their big strengths.
The second half was the worst possible outcome for the Boilermakers. Not only did TKR get his third foul within 39 seconds to start the half, Smith went down with an apparent ankle injury, and the 7 point Purdue lead was gone in 4:09. It was a whole new game and none of it went right for Purdue. They were cold from the floor, they hit just one three point shot in the entire second half a Loyer three in garbage time that didn’t matter (Purdue was 1-8 in the half), and allowed Arizona to get into the lane and do whatever they wanted including getting to the free throw line time after time. Make no mistake, the officials did Purdue no favors, but Purdue put themselves in this position by shooting 9-28 from the field in the second half. The offense was stagnant and the defense was a half step slow. The dream of playing in Indianapolis would not come to fruition as we watched one of the most incredible group of seniors walk off the court for the final time today with a double digit loss to a very good Arizona team. As Matt Painter often says, the other team has a say in the outcome as well, and Arizona imposed their will in the second half. It was crushing to see them end their season this way but unfortunately it’s how every team but one’s season ends.
Shea Serrano is one of my favorite authors. In his recent book “Expensive Basketball” he wrote about ghost stories in sports and the way he described them is apt right now as we try to soak in this loss and how to process it while quoting Two For the Money:
“Hey…I’m still…here…I’m still breathing. I’m still alive” That’s why Ghost Stories are expensive, too. They’re proof of a sports life lived; proof of a moment earned; proof that something was waged, and risked, and lost. And your memory of them afterward is proof that, despite the agony, and the emotion and the pain, nothing was truly taken. To the contrary: something was given. And given enough tie, even the worst sports memories age themselves into cool battle scars.“
That’s why these things matter. That’s why I’ll still be a Purdue fan. This sucks. We’ve got no choice but to sit in it. But I’ll be a Purdue fan forever and one day, I hope soon, when Purdue returns to the Final Four and wins the whole thing, it will mean more to me, it will mean more to you, and I’ll remember this moment when Purdue fell short, and the other moments too, and it will mean so much more. I hate that it had to end this way, but I’ll never forget this team and I’ll never forget sharing this season with all of you.
