Leading OFF
Purdue is finally going to Final Four; everyone’s crying
DETROIT – Black-and-gold confetti is swirling around the Purdue men’s basketball team, and coach Matt Painter is crying. Fifth-year senior forward Mason Gillis is cradling the Midwest Regional championship trophy to his chest, watching NCAA Tournament officials carry a ladder to the basket, and he’s crying. All-American Zach Edey, who has just scored 40 points to lead Purdue past Tennessee 72-66 and into the 2024 Final Four, is running over to the Boilermakers family section to bearhug his mother, Julia.
And Julia Edey’s crying. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb’s on the court. Looks like he’s been crying. Text messages are bombarding my phone, from Purdue women’s basketball coach Katie Gearlds and a handful of men’s coaches who have competed with Matt Painter over the years, and it seems likely they’ve been crying. Make no mistake, the coaching community wanted this moment for Purdue, and for Matt Painter. Coaches would’ve been just as happy had it come for Painter’s mentor, the equally beloved Gene Keady, but it wasn’t to be.
But there he is on the court with the rest of the Boilermakers, Gene Keady. He’s standing next to Painter, near the ladder, watching Purdue point guard Braden Smith climb that stairway to heaven.
And Keady’s crying. Whatever you do, do not go near press row. Because the Westwood One national radio network is still there, still working this 2024 NCAA men’s tournament game, about to sign off as Purdue guard Lance Jones snips a piece of the net, and then Fletcher Loyer, and now Trey Kaufman-Renn. The radio crew is saying goodbye to America, and play-by-play man Kevin Kugler is doing the honors and then taking off his headset and hugging his partner, Robbie Hummel, a rising star in the business but an avatar for what can go wrong – what always goes wrong – when Purdue is on the verge of its first Final Four appearance since 1980.
Hummel was Purdue’s best player in 2010, when the Boilers were ranked No. 3 and deemed a Final Final-quality
team until he suffered a torn ACL late that season.
Now Hummel’s taking off his headset. And he’s crying.
Edey carries Purdue, then has their back
Zach Edey is Purdue’s all-time leader in points and rebounds, and a two-time consensus National Player of the Year, and this was the best game of his life. Let that set in for a moment, then read these numbers: 40 points, 16 rebounds, 13for-21
from the floor, 14-for-22 from the foul line. For two years, the most plausible way to beat Purdue has been to limit Edey’s supporting cast, just dare the 7foot-4, 305-pound senior to have the stamina, the touch, the poise to carry his team for 40 brutal minutes.
This was Zach Edey carrying the Boilers for 40 brutal minutes.
OK, 39 1⁄2 minutes. Edey took a breather with 11:20 left in the first half, sat for all of 33 seconds, then played the final 31:47. Edey carried this team physically, emotionally and psychologically. He did what
UConn coach Danny Hurley loves to say – and Hurley is correct – about his topranked Huskies “systematically breaking down” the other team. That was Edey last Sunday, systematically breaking down Tennessee by staying in the game, staying in the lane on defense, rolling to the rim on offense, dunking and dunking again, or going to the foul line and making a free throw or two, again and again, until the Volunteers were done.
Consider this: Edey goes to the line with 42.1 seconds left. Purdue leads 69-64, but he misses the first free throw. Then he misses the second, an air ball short, because have you ever tried to carry a team for 40 minutes? Gets exhausting. Now Tennessee’s going the other way, needs a basket to make this a onepossession game, and Vols star Dalton Knecht is driving to the rim. But Edey’s there, blocking Knecht’s shot toward the baseline, and Gillis is saving the rebound to Loyer and Tennessee has no choice but to foul.
Loyer’s an 86% foul shooter. Think he’s missing these? The Vols don’t. Edey has just taken their will and snapped it over his knee. Josiah Jordan-James sags his shoulders, because it’s over. Knecht, who’s been waging a one-man offensive of his own – he scored 37 of Tennessee’s 66 points – is lifting his eyebrows shrugging theatrically because he knows: It’s over.
Loyer hits both free throws, those two points a late-game rarity for Purdue, seeing how Edey scored 18 of its final 23 points in the last 12 minutes. He goes to the line 12 times in the final 4:42, makes seven, and it’s enough. It’s plenty, because Knecht has been getting even less help from his supporting cast than Edey had from his. The rest of the Boilers roster was 11-for-32 from the floor and 3for-15 on 3-pointers. History shows Purdue cannot win a game like this against a really good team, but history has never seen a 7-4, 305-pounder with the stamina to play 39 1⁄2 minutes, the poise to deal with being hit on every possession, and the touch to keep scoring, keep scoring, keep scoring.
But when it’s over, when CBS wants to interview Edey on the court, Edey is standing firm: He wants his teammates in the shot or he’s not coming. CBS is totally cool with that, so Edey’s waving his teammates over. They form a semicircle around him so the country can see this Purdue star, and this Purdue team, headed to the 2024 Final Four.
So happy for Hummel
Robbie Hummel is talking to the country and wiping the tears from his eyes. No idea how it sounded on the radio – I’m standing on the floor, watching, and there are about 15,000 Purdue fans just Boilering the (heck) up, so it’s loud in here – but Kugler signs off and Hummel removes his headset and mouths a single word:
Wow.
This is Hummel’s moment, and forgive me for interrupting it, but I’d just been visiting with Painter on the court. His team was cutting the nets and Keady was standing next to him with redrimmed eyes, and Indiana’s basketballloving governor Holcomb was floating nearby, posing for selfies with Purdue players and family members and, wait, is he posing now with Purdue’s President, Dr. Mung Chiang? He is.
Meanwhile, Matt Painter’s eyes look red when I find him near those ladders. “I wasn’t going to cry,” Painter tells me, “but I just did radio with Robbie Hummel and he was crying. I couldn’t help it.”
A few minutes pass, and Hummel is wiping his face and saying that one word – Wow – and I’m saying excuse me, so sorry, but please tell me what this moment means to you.
“I really didn’t think I’d cry,” Hummel says. “But I’m just so happy for this team and this school and those players, and I’m just so happy for Paint. He’s one of the best coaches in the country, but he never had this ...”
Hummel is waving his arm at the court, at the confetti swirling and the ladders set up under each rim, and I’m finishing his sentence for him.
And with Purdue going to the Final Four, I’m telling Hummel – picture me making air quotes over the final word of this sentence – now Painter’s greatness is “official.”
“Exactly,” he says. “And it’s just been so hard for Purdue. So many things have gone wrong, like my knee and Isaac’s elbow” – 7-2 center Isaac Haas suffered a broken elbow in the first round of the 2018 tourney – “and last year happened (the loss to FDU in the first round). I have no idea what they’ve been dealing with, but you know it’s been hard. And this is just a great moment for the school, and I’m so proud to have played for this program.”
Out there on the court, the most recent great player for Purdue and Painter – following in the footsteps of AllAmericans like Hummel and Biggie Swanigan, Carsen Edwards and Ivey – is ready to snip his part of the net. Not sure I’ve ever seen this happen before, but Zach Edey walks around the ladder, stands under the basket and looks up. He spots the perfect cord of cotton, takes those scissors and reaches for the heavens.