Nothing like IU-Purdue

I will go to my grave touting the IU-Purdue rivalry as second to none.

Sure, there is Michigan-Ohio State, Duke-North Carolina, Notre Dame-USC, Auburn-Alabama, Cubs-Cardinals, Bears-Packers, the list goes on and on.

But lets be real, the aforementioned are one-sport rivalries. Not IU-Purdue.

These two universities have an incredibly fierce unmatched rivalry. They play for the Old Oaken Bucket in football, Barn Burner Trophy in women’s basketball and the Monon Spike in volleyball.

As for men’s basketball, it doesn’t have a traveling trophy … after all it doesn’t need one.

Tonight Indiana and Purdue meet on the hardwood for the 218^th time. They’ve been clashing every year since 1901.

Yes, bragging rights will be at stake and a whole lot more.

The Boilermakers enter tonight’s clash ranked No. 2 in the country with a sparkling 15-2 overall record, while the 12-5 Hoosiers are unranked.

It’s a battle for second place in the Big Ten as both teams are 4-2 in conference play.

Currently Purdue sits at the No. 1 overall seed in mock NCAA Tournament brackets.

IU, on the other hand, is on the outside looking in when it comes to the Big Dance.

Speaking of the NCAA Tournament, it can’t get here soon enough for Purdue, which will be trying to make amends for last year’s humiliating first-round loss to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson.

Over the last three seasons, the Boilermakers have enjoyed regular-season success never before witnessed not only in West Lafayette, but in the Big Ten.

Purdue has been ranked No. 1 in the country for each of the past three seasons, a feat no Big Ten team has ever achieved during a three-year span.

For the defending Big Ten champions, tonight’s game in Bloomington is vital. Purdue currently sits two games back of first-place Wisconsin in the league standings.

As far as the Hoosiers are concerned, this also is a must-win type game. Why? Because they need a huge victory over a highly ranked team if they are to entertain any thoughts of being one of the 68 teams picked on Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament.

IU is always tough at home, very tough, even though head coach Mike Woodson has had to mold a team featuring 10 newcomers this season.

Earlier this season the Hoosiers showed Kansas how tough it is to play at Assembly Hall. In fact, IU should’ve beaten the Jayhawks. However, KU rallied late to leave with a hard-fought win.

Winning on the road in the Big Ten is never easy and it’s not this season.

As good as Purdue has been beating ranked teams like Marquette, Gonzaga, Arizona, Tennessee and Illinois – all ranked 11^th or higher at the time the Boilermakers played them – it has struggled in true road games.

Purdue’s lone road win of the season came against Maryland when the Terps’ students were still on Christmas break. Both Northwestern and Nebraska defeated the top-ranked Boilermakers, the latter doing so last week by double digits.

Last season’s 29-6 Purdue team did finish better than .500 in Big Ten road games at 6-3, but needed last-second shots to nip Ohio State and Michigan State.

This year the Boilermakers have been receiving a mental makeover after what happened to them in the ’23 NCAA Tournament. No question Purdue’s mental tenacity will be put to the test in this year’s one-and-done format that makes the NCAA Tournament the best sporting event there is.

Matt Painter’s team needs to get mentally tougher.

Purdue left Evanston and Lincoln with many once again questioning such how mentality tough it is.

Tonight the Boilermakers get a shot at taking a big step in developing the kind of mental toughness required to get to a Final Four and possibly win a national championship.

Purdue hasn’t been to a Final Four since 1980 and would love nothing better than to end that drought and become the second team ever to lose to a 16-seed and turn around and win the national title the very next season following in Virginia’s footsteps.

Tonight it has an opportunity to show the nation that this year’s team is different than last year’s and not going to go down the same path as three of the last four Purdue teams have, losing to double-digit seeds in the NCAA Tournament.

The losses to Northwestern and Nebraska have caused critics to say the Boilermakers are flawed.

Every team is flawed right?

But are they different than a year ago?

Only March will provide that answer, but a win tonight would certainly help.

Even though the Vegas oddsmakers list the Boilermakers as a 9-10-point favorite it won’t be easy. That’s for sure. It never is in Bloomington.

No, IU isn’t the IU of old. Heck, it’s not even the IU of last year and not many thought it would be after it lost Trayce Jackson-Davis and Jalen Hood-Schifino to the NBA.

Those two were a big reason the Hoosiers swept Purdue last season. In fact, IU has won three of the last four meetings in the rivalry, all coming by single digits.

One thing is certain, Assembly Hall will be nuts tonight. It’s IU’s Super Bowl and Game 7 all in one.

If you’ve never been to an IU-Purdue game, it’s hard to explain just how electric an atmosphere it is and how deafening the noise is. No other rivalry achieves the decibel level that will be generated tonight in Assembly Hall.

The closest I can come to describing just how loud it actually will be would be to have you stand close to a jumbo jet on a runway while its engines were running.

To help prepare for such a raucous environment, Purdue even piped in crowd noise during practice yesterday. Have you ever heard that done for a college BASKETBALL practice? That’s common for Purdue to do when prepping for its annual trip to Bloomington.

Yes, you see there’s nothing quite like IU versus Purdue.

So get ready for what’s sure to be the battle of all battles in Assembly Hall.

It’s going to be epic. It usually is.

Special thanks to Plumlee Dentistry in Plymouth for helping us bring you Indiana High School Athletics like no one else and for being the proud sponsor of the Plumlee Radio Booth, our on-location broadcast site at games. Please give their website a visit by going to https://plumleedentistry.com/

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