By Mark Buckets
As the college hoops season heats up - and the temperature in the great Midwest cools down - Drive and Dish will be taking it's act to game sites right up until the Final Four in San Antonio. The first stop on D&D's Winter Tour will be this Saturday, in West Lafayette, Indiana. Saturday's game will see a surging Purdue face a crumbling crew of Chiefs. With the help of an Apple Computer, my partner - the one and only Trashtalk Superstar - and I will provide a little taste of local flavor and fan reaction that make college basketball so entrenching. No, we won't be setting up camp in the campus armory - or be surrounded by adoring hoop heads for that matter - but we will do our best to capture a college basketball Saturday at Purdue and other locals.
Place: Mackey Arena
Campus: Purdue University
Opponent: Illinois
Tip Time: 2ET
And remember, this is a nationally televised game on ESPN. The student body should be out in force to remind Bruce Weber of what could have been.
Edit (1/17/08):
Trashtalk Superstar adds:
I think Illinois' road loss to Eric Gordon and Indiana did a pretty good job of reminding Bruce Weber of "what could have been" (Gordon had originally committed to play for Illinois). Although Mark Buckets is probably referring to the fact that, after almost twenty years as Purdue's top assistant, Bruce Weber could have been Gene Keady's successor at Purdue (had he not taken the Illinois job in 2003).
Nevertheless, it's my firm belief that it's possible to win a national championship at Illinois. And while Purdue is always a solid basketball school, I'm not sure that they'll ever win a national championship. As great as Gene Keady was, he never took a Purdue team to the Final Four. He got to a couple of Elite Eight's, but no Final Four.
Purdue is a program that will always be competitive in the Big Ten. But Illinois can be a national power. From 2000 to 2007, Illinois trailed only Duke as the program with the most wins in Division I college basketball. Over that period of time, the Illini went to an Elite Eight and to a Final Four.
And they fell five points shy of winning a national championship in 2005.
Illinois may be down now, but the program has the ability to compete at the highest level (at least in theory). But I'm just not sure that the same can be said of Purdue.
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4 comments:
screw Purdue and Illinois. they suck. so do there fans. i would be embarased to have a degreee from either of them schools. they suck ass!!! and there fans are inbred redneck idiots!!
Me Largey Poopey at Jake's
Hoosier Matt not know what he's talking about. Purdue is a GREAT school . . . for me to POOP ON!
Illanoy has never won anything. How can you actually say that the Illinoi$$$ Whining Illini will win a national championship? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard .... only a F.I.B. could say something so idiotic.
But maybe youre right. Maybe they will win a championship someday. I mean, Illanoy is the dirtiest program in the history of college sports, so maybe they can cheat and break rules and buy themselves another Final Four. Then they can cheat and buy the refs off to get to the championship game. And if somebody gets in their way, don't worry. The Illanoying Lying Cheaters will use the "street goons" that they have on their payroll to whack all the players from the other team.
I'd expect nothing less from the cheaters to the east. $$$ talks. So maybe you guys can buy your championship after all.
But only if they can keep their punk, thug, scum of the earth players out of jail. (But with all the $$$$ that Illanoy throws around, they probably can. I mean, Luther Head, Richard McBride, and Jamar Smith all stayed out of prison because the prosecutor wouldn't touch them. $$$$$$$).
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