2/3/2025 Boilermaker Water Cooler Chat: Rumble Edition
Rants, ravings, and somewhat sensical opinions following the wild, wacky, and wide-wide world of Purdue sports.
Indianapolis is a fun city. Being from Northwest Indiana, Chicago was always closer, but I always enjoy Indianapolis. I have friends, family, and business-dealings there. This weekend, I spent Saturday in our great state’s capitol, and even got a chance to visit my grandmother! Hi Granny!
In Indianapolis this weekend, they hosted my favorite professional wrestling/WWE event, the Royal Rumble! I had this weekend pinned for several months, and after scoring tickets, I got my rumble-on! 30 fighters enter the ring, one leaves! The ultimate test of of a warrior’s mettle!
After the show, perhaps alcohol encouraged, I made a philosophical epiphany. The Royal Rumble (and WWE as a whole) is a noir version of Big Ten basketball. I wrote a list!
- Pageantry
- Ravenous fans
- Extreme physicality
- Heels & Faces
- Drama
- Inept referees
- Botches
- Violence
- Chairs being thrown about
- Elite Athletes
- Many ways to win a championship
- Underdogs and favorites
Whatever… it made sense at the time. I think you can see where I was going with that.
Just like the Royal Rumble this week, there has been rough and tumble action around the league. Games that shouldn’t have been very close went down to the wire (IU vs Purdue). The unstoppable champions looked weak (MSU). An unexpected competitor took down the presumptive favorite (USC). Real sports can be just as drama filled as scripted ones. A clash of several teams competing at once to try to win the championship (The entire B1G race). Not to cast aside a testosterone filled soap opera, this week brought the drama!
The Game:
Indiana 76, #10 Purdue 81
The first round of two against the Hoosiers commenced, with a heartstopper of a game. The Hoosiers played their best game of the season, with everything clicking. Out of body performances from Malik Mbako, Trey Galloway, Oumar Ballo, and Luke Goode had the Hoosiers in position to pull off a huge upset. The collective Hoosier performance may have been miraculous, but it still wasn’t enough for the victory.
Braden Smith (24 pts, 7 ast) and Trey Kaufman Renn (23 points) were boosted by Fletcher Loyer (15 pts) and Gicarri Harris (9 pts), collectively/narrowly escaped an embarrassing upset loss against a suddenly competent underdog, playing in their Super-Bowl.
Purdue – Indinia Photo Gallery by Mark Elsner
Break It Down:
Purdue should have lost this game. In a basketball season in which miracles happen against our Boilers, this one got fended off due to strange Hoosier self-inflected wounds late in the game. Good teams win close games. Good teams shouldn’t have to rely on flares of incompetence from a team playing over their heads in order to win a game.
There is good and bad from this game. The bottom line is, Purdue won. Strange things happen in a rivalry, and we saw some “strange” on Friday. Whether it is Hulk Hogan vs Macho Man, or Purdue vs IU, you have to throw the records out. It is encouraging that Purdue could fend off their little brother when he brought his A game, but it should never be that close. Boilers need to be the Champions. Hit a weaker opponent with a choke-slam, a powerbomb, a full-nelson, and toss their asses over the top rope. When you let a weaker/feeble opponent hang around, it can bite you.
With this victory, Purdue has surpassed the Indiana Hoosiers for 10th in all time victories with 1,946 victories. Strange how these two programs were tied, leading into Friday’s rivalry tilt. Boilermakers have now won 3 straight, and lead the all time series 128-92 (36 games).
What Went Well:
- Braden Smith & TKR: This tag-team can inflict damage to their opponents. Working together to the tune of 47 points, including clutch plays down the stretch, these men showed up.
- 75%: From free throws (21-28), is absolutely the difference in the game. While several of the misses were early in the contest, Purdue being relatively sure-handed down the stretch allowed Purdue to be in position to pin the Hoosiers.
- Hot Tag: During a tag-team match, when a wrestler is struggling in the ring, and barely has enough energy to survive, he will desperately dive towards his adrenaline-filled teammate begging to be tagged into the match. That teammate will, naturally, kick major butt, due to being well rested and fired up! In wrestling lingo that is called a “hot tag”. Gicarri Harris was tagged into the game and provided defensive pressure, three point shooting, and 100% from the free throw line. Purdue needed his presence in a bad way.
Opportunities for Improvement:
- Pummeled: Like repeated chair shots, Indiana destroyed the Boilermakers on the rebound front. Purdue lost the rebound battle by 6, while giving up 12 offensive rebounds. We know that the Boilers aren’t going to win every rebound battle, but when a team like IU is playing head and shoulders above their ability, you can’t give them extra opportunities to score.
- 15.4%: on 2 of 13 three point attempts, is incredibly poor. This team is filled with sharpshooters, but as of late they’re gun shy. They’re not taking a ton, they’re not making hardly any. Who will be the player to regain their confidence and get back at it?
- Pro-Wrestling Referees: Have an excuse for their ineptitude. It is part of the script, the gimmick. In wrestling, the officials are often shown as fumbling/bumbling or ineffectual. They are, however, consistent. Regardless, it is all part of the script. Big 10 officiating continue to be ineffectual without a script. Neither IU nor Purdue fans got favorable whistles, and this crew continued the Big Ten Tradition of disallowing a flow to be created in the game. The frustrations arise when the game changes from the first half to the second. What was a foul in the second half, was not a foul in the first. When one team had quite a few more fouls than the other, the officials equaled the foul totals out. Did the ball hit the rim, or did it make a 90-degree turn by itself? Lets stop the game to review! Did their guard hook and/or hold our guard at half court where nobody hit the ground? Lets stop the game and review! When the ref-show reared its ugly head midway through the second half, I cashed out. They are ruining the product.
Big Man on Campus:
With 11 seconds left, TKR scored 2 of his 23 points. A spinning, running, jump hook from 13 feet out in the lane. Difficulty level 10 out of 10. That proved to be the game winning shot. An incredible performance, capped by a clutch shot! Anytime you hit the game winner against a rival, you get the BMOC award!
One Last Thing:
In the 18 team Battle-Royale which is the Big Ten Regular season title, things got a little bit more interesting. Purdue has 2 losses to inferior teams in conference play. Bummer. Michigan State, up until two days ago, was the unbeatable superstar of excellence and perfection (if you believe certain talking heads). They, supposedly, were going to win every single game in the conference, and cakewalk to WrestleMania the Big Ten Championship.
Sharp fans would tell you that losses happen in conference. MSU’s schedule is back-loaded, whereas other Big Ten foes had a more traditional gauntlet. After losing to USC, Michigan State only leads Purdue by .5 games, about halfway through the conference slate.
A Look Ahead:
The (as of this writing) #10 Purdue Boilermakers will take to the road for a Tuesday game at Iowa, and will follow up with a Friday game at Mackey against USC. Purdue -should- be prohibitive favorites against both of these teams, however, remember what happened to MSU this week? Never take a game for granted.
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