Purdue Seniors Shine in Final Home Game
By KEITH CARRELL
@BoilerColts
ISL Purdue Writer
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — It was a beautiful February afternoon (sunshine was a welcome sight after endless days of rain and the banks of the Wabash below water) Sunday as fans walked into Mackey Arena to watch the Purdue senior class suit up for their final home game. This wasn’t just any senior class though, this was a special group that helped turn the program around. The year before they stepped foot on campus, Purdue basketball finished dead last in the Big Ten; in the years since, Purdue has finished no worse than third and won the title outright last season. While Purdue fell short of their goal to repeat as Big Ten champions, they were just one game behind the eventual winner (Michigan State), tied with Ohio State for second place. But to wrap the season, the squad first had to take care of one minor task, defeat Minnesota in front of another sold out crowd, and win they did – 84-60.
Vincent Edwards returned for his first game after sitting out the prior two contests with a sprained ankle, but it wasn’t just Edwards that needed to knock the rust off, both squads got out to a bit of a sluggish start. It took over two minutes before Minnesota’s Nate Mason finally made the scoreboard operator hit the plus sign and it took nearly four minutes before Purdue made their first field goal. Michael Hurt was at the top of the key being defended by Carsen Edwards and attempted to pass, but Edwards deflected the ball toward Purdue’s goal and was off to the races. You could feel Purdue fans begin to anticipate a thunderous dunk (Edwards had just dunked three times from the left at Illinois), but coming from the right side he simply laid it in and got back on defense.
Minnesota continued to struggle through the midway point of the opening stanza while Purdue began to find its shooting touch; first from Dakota Mathias, then from Isaac Haas, then Matt Haarms (including a perfectly executed pick and roll where Mathias found a cutting Haarms wide open for a turn and dunk), C. Edwards, Nojel Eastern, and finally Mathias capped the run with a three. With the barrage of scoring coming from seemingly every player, Purdue found themselves up 24-to-eight (including a 10-0 run) in just nine minutes and blue skies ahead; that is, if Purdue didn’t have a fondness for giving up double-digit leads.
Jordan Murphy got the Golden Gophers back in the scoring column with a three, but Haas immediately responded with a layup on the other end. Over the next two and a half minutes, Minnesota scored ten straight to narrow the gap to five, 26-21. Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter had seen enough and called a timeout in an attempt to temper Minnesota’s momentum. C. Edwards took the cue and attacked the basket, first missing, but he gathered his own miss and sank a reverse layup. Edwards and both bigs contributed to the Purdue cause to push the lead back to ten and then eight after Mason hit a short jumper just before the halftime buzzer sounded.
Wedding season is fast approaching. What better way to celebrate the couple than with a personal touch of a handmade, crocheted name? That and more available at my Etsy shop: https://t.co/Giiukbazxz pic.twitter.com/zyOx8i2Ngq
— Betty’s Heritage (@BettysHeritage) February 19, 2018
Coming out of the break, the Boilers were on fire from behind the arc. C. Edwards got things rolling, then Mathias, and then V. Edwards each hit a three on consecutive possessions to push the advantage to 14; the trey from V. Edwards was his first made field goal of the game (he missed all five attempts in the first half). But the Boilers weren’t done yet, Mathias continued to stay hot hitting everything he threw up as he hit three more triples to score nine of Purdue’s next eleven (Haarms had a layup) to stretch the lead to 25, 61-36; those points were part of 14 unanswered for Purdue. The final senior to get into the scoring column was P.J. Thompson as he took the torch from Mathias to connect on a three, his first attempt of the game. With that run and just over ten minutes remaining, the game was virtually over and Purdue coasted home, stretching the lead to as many as 31.
With four and a half minutes remaining, Ryan Cline fouled Mason and Painter signaled over to the bench to send Eastern, Haarms, C. Edwards, and Grady Eifert to the scorer’s table to relieve the seniors for their final time at home; they came in together and they rode off together. As Haas, V. Edwards, Mathias, and Thompson walked toward the bench, they stopped to be congratulated and embraced briefly by the coaches. It may be most fitting that Mathias has earned the Midwest Cowboy moniker for his hot shooting, because he rode off into the sunset after making seven of his nine three point attempts in his final home game.
If this doesn’t give you the chills, well, we don’t know what to say.
This quartet turned around @BoilerBall, won a #B1G title and just registered win No. 💯. pic.twitter.com/OoulYSfvm6
— Purdue On BTN (@PurdueOnBTN) February 25, 2018
In the classiest of moves, Painter then signaled over for Jacquil Taylor to check in at the next dead ball; a nod to Taylor who entered Purdue in the same recruiting class, but had to redshirt due to injury. With all of the recent negative news about the NCAA and potentially dirty programs, this display of gratitude and acknowledgement is exactly what Purdue fans pride themselves on and have come to expect and appreciate.
Almost immediately after Taylor had checked in, fans began to get antsy for, house favorite, Tommy Luce to join the action. Painter obliged and Luce checked in with almost two minutes remaining. Wasting no time, Luce quickly stole the ball from Murphy and flew (at least as much as a 5’10” walk-on can fly) coast to coast to attempt a layup, but was fouled by Gaston Diedhiou. Luce split the pair before committing a turnover on the ensuing possession. Not to be discouraged, though, Luce found Taylor cutting along the baseline for a slam dunk to cap the scoring off for Purdue.
Following the game, easels, tables, frames, and more were set up in preparation for senior night festivities. Nearly everyone that attended the game stuck around to honor the hard work this class had put in and show their appreciation. In succession, each member had a brief montage of highlights played, were introduced with their families as they walked onto the court where they shook Painter’s hand before he provided the mothers with flowers and fathers with a Purdue hat and finally the players were presented with a framed, gold-colored jersey donning their individual number. With emotions running high, Haas let it go and began to cry as the crowd cheered and applauded ever louder when his jersey was unveiled.
Each player then took a turn with the microphone for a brief speech, largely filled with thanks to various members of the staff, fans, alumni, donors, friends, and family.
Edwards spoke first, “These guys up here (the other seniors), we’ve been like a family for a really long time… these guys have been with me through thick and thin; they’ve shown me what it’s like to be a professional.”
Edwards then handed the microphone over to Haas who mentioned, “I love every one of those guys over there,” as he pointed to the bench where the underclassmen sat, “I love every one!” Haas wrapped up his speech by showing his appreciation of the fans support of his sister, who struggles with a severe case of epilepsy, “I want to thank everybody in the community for helping my sister.” Haas began to weep again as he’s always been a champion of his sister and has oftentimes spoke about playing basketball for her. Edwards walked over and consoled the big guy with an hug, wrapping his head in his arm, as he whispered something into his ear.
After resettling himself, Mathias and Thompson walked over as the seniors hugged one another, sharing an embrace in the moment of all they had achieved together. Mathias took the mic and garnered a chuckle from the crowd when he quipped, “It must be a little dusty in here or something.” As Mathis was going through his list of thanks, he made sure to single out, former teammate, Rapheal Davis who was back in attendance with many of the prior basketball family. “(Davis) is like a brother to me. He taught all of us the ropes.”
Thompson spoke next and spent some time thanking those that helped him through his time at Purdue. He eloquently spoke of how he was raised and taught to put others first, to be a better person. As he was showing his appreciation of the staff, he mentioned, “To be a really good program, you need everyone.” He also reminded fans that although he goes by P.J. his given name is LaSalle Thompson IV and that his great grandfather (the original LaSalle) had passed away just a few months prior. Thompson shared a story of how proud his great grandfather had been and that before he had passed Thompson presented him with a replica Big Ten Championship ring. His great grandfather had tried to take his wedding ring off “after 70 years of marriage” and replace it with the replica ring. The most ironic ending of Thompson’s speach came as the efficient point guard began to speak of Painter, “Coach Painter, I can’t see you, but I want to thank you…” the crowd began to laugh as Painter was standing not ten feet away behind Thompson. Thompson caught on and turned around as Painter signaled a passing the ball gesture to the guard. Thompson continued, “A point guard telling me to see the floor” and more laughter rained down.
Painter spoke last and began, “I think it’s pretty easy to see after this how we’ve been so successful with these four seniors.” As he was speaking, he interjected himself to say, “I do know this, if I pass away next week, I want P.J. (Thompson) speaking at my funeral,” and the crowd responded with laughter yet again. Painter concluded by saying, “Their best basketball is ahead of them” to remind everyone that this team still has the potential to do great things not only in the Big Ten Tournament, but also in the NCAA Tournament.
“With senior night being here now and post season coming right up. I think a lot of our guys understand this is the last time we’re going to ride together on probably one of the best teams we’re going to play on and I think we’re on the right track. I can’t wait to see where we go from here.” – Haas
The seniors are not done yet, but will leave West Lafayette having left the program much better than they found it and picked up numerous accolades along the way. The victory over Minnesota, was the 100th win of their careers (100-35) and following the victory at Illinois, the class is also able to say they have won in every Big Ten arena (coming into the season they had not won at Michigan, Iowa, or Illinois).
Purdue will next play in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Friday night as the three seed (Ohio State won at Purdue to earn the tie breaker) and will likely face Indiana (or the Minnesota/Rutgers winner if they were to upset Indiana Thursday) in the final game of the night, roughly 25 minutes after the Ohio State game concludes. There is still quite a bit at stake, but earning a 26-5 record along with a number of quality wins puts the Boilers in position for a high seed in the NCAA Tournament (the further they go in the Big Ten Tournament the better – thanks Mr. Obvious) and still have an outside chance at netting a number one seed.
Next up:
Purdue travels to New York City for the Big Ten Tournament in Madison Square Garden with their first game being Friday, 3/2, at approximately 9 pm on BTN.
Quick Hits:
Mathias was presented with his 1,000 point scorer basketball prior to senior night festivities kicking off in earnest… During a break in the first half, Erin Hass (Isaac’s sister) joined her parents as she was presented with a certificate and showed the service dog she had gotten from a GoFundMe campaign with large support from the Purdue community… Future Purdue player (2019 class), Isaiah Thompson, joined his brother (P.J.) and parents on the court as part of senior night… During pre-game player introductions, the Purdue roster was shuffled to announce sophomore Carsen Edwards first and conclude with the four seniors… Purdue altered the projections on Mackey’s roof from Purdue logos to the number of each of the four seniors… The Boilermakers had a fond appreciation of the ball having a 16:five assist to turnover ratio while also blocking nine shots and getting nine steals… Minnesota had 13 turnovers and only six assists… C. Edwards continues to stuff the stat sheet (his 14th consecutive game scoring in double figures), he had 18 points, seven assists, four rebounds, three steals, and two blocks Sunday… All four seniors contributed in the contest: Mathias (25 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists, two blocks, two steals, no turnovers), Haas (13 points, four rebounds, one block), V. Edwards (10 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 block, no turnovers), and Thompson (3 points, 1 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal)… The seniors especially contributed to the big second half push, scoring 34 of Purdue’s 47 points… Purdue outrebounded Minnesota, 33-32… Minnesota’s Murphy had a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds… As a team, Purdue went 12-25 behind the arc… Purdue fans helped to set a season attendance record for Mackey Arena.
