Win now, celebrate later for Boilermakers
DETROIT – The scene inside the Purdue basketball locker room Friday night told all you needed to know.
The Boilermakers had just moments earlier thumped a really good Gonzaga team by 12 points, advancing to its first Elite Eight in five years.
Stoically, every player not summoned to take part in the mandatory NCAA press conference, was leaning back in a folding chair waiting for the media gauntlet to arrive.
And along with it came NCAA officials toting a giant tournament bracket, the one you see on TV that players emphatically take the winning school and move it forward to the next round.
The massive cardboard piece was shuttled to multiple locations, finally finding a home near the back wall. Someone needed to take the Purdue placard and move it to the Elite Eight.
No one would volunteer, though many were quick to volunteer others.
Finally, freshman Myles Colvin casually walked to the board and gently stamped Purdue into the next round, crooked no less, then turned around and gave a double thumbs up with a halfhearted smile.
“It was tough all year,” sophomore guard Fletcher Loyer said. “Major credit to us for going and winning the Big Ten because this is what has been on our mind. When you’ve got a goal so deep in your mind that you’ve got to go do that, right now it’s now or never for us.”
Business as usual, Purdue coach Matt Painter said outside the locker room.
The pain of last year’s NCAA Tournament is still lingering and the Boilermakers know if they don’t at minimum get to the Final Four, everything they accomplished this season will be minimized.
“It’s (losing to Fairleigh Dickinson in 2023) still something you feel as a competitor and a coach and a player,” Painter said. “Now it’s process based. You’re happy you won, but you’re just kind of waiting to go back, eat, take a shower and get ready for the next game.”
It was prototypical Boiler ball that beat Gonzaga.
Braden Smith played the Bulldogs like a fiddle. Zach Edey dominated inside. Loyer hit timely baskets in the second half and Lance Jones did the same in the first half.
And everyone else, in Purdue fashion, did their jobs.
Camden Heide came off the bench to provide an alternative defensive look on Ryan Nembhard and chipped in five points.
Trey Kaufman-Renn established himself in the post to start the second half, scoring six straight points. And Ethan Morton, called upon to play just six seconds, fouled Nembhard twice at the end of the first half, then exited to a standing ovation as Gonzaga was unable to get off a good look before halftime.
“This is what we worked for all season,” Edey said. “We’re not going to lose ourselves because we’ve had some success. We know what type of team we are. We know how dangerous we are when we’re playing well. We’ve just got to stay with it and play like we know we can play.”
Now, Purdue (32-4) is one victory against Tennessee away from its first Final Four since 1980.
Maybe then, the Boilermakers will allow a little celebration.
Then again, maybe not.
“Yes, it’s great to win and move on, but that win didn’t mean anything,” redshirt senior Mason Gillis said. “Once we win the national championship, then we’ll be happy.”