If you were visiting the planet earth from Mars and just happened to land in the state of Indiana knowing absolutely nothing about anything. The first lie boyz would tell you about life is that the Indiana Hoosiers were the elite basketball program in the state. They would proceed to tell you that Purdue is the little brother of the two and that all they want to do is be IU.
Well playas…that’s a lie that been told for far too long. Sure, the Hoosiers have five national titles blowing in the raptures down in Bloomington but unfortunately, they’re as old as Methuselah. The last title that was won was in 1987 my first year at IU.
Sure, the glamour of winning a national title never goes away but unless you keep winning at some type of level it means absolutely nothing to the young cats you’re trying to recruit right now. Telling a boy that you won a national title in 1987 is like telling him you won the Civil War. It’s ancient history. And please don’t tell them about winning in 1940, 1953, 1976 and 1981!! That’s like the dinosaur era bruh.
The Purdue Boilermakers last won a national title in 1932 when John Wooden was running around campus but they’ve been a consistent winner at some level ever since. They’ve won more Big Ten titles than any other program in conference history and they keep winning them. They just won the conference title this past regular season.
It’s not just ancient history. Not only that, we just saw them advance to the Elite Eight by knocking off Tennessee on Thursday night while the Hoosiers got knocked off in the stupid NIT at home by Wichita State a couple of days ago.
Now you can quote the archives all you want but the recruits watching this foolishness take place in real time isn’t seeing IU as the better program playa. No my friend, a kid 15 or 16 years old only sees what’s happening right now and the fact that Purdue just won the Big Ten this year and can say in the same breath “Oh yeah, by the way, we’ve won more Big Ten titles (24) than any other school in the league.” Speaks volumes to the legitimacy of the program TODAY.
Now that they’ve just advanced to the Elite Eight they can say, “Oh by the way, “We won more Big Ten Coach of the Year honors (10) and Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year honors (9) than any other school in league history too.” Then they can start rattling off “We’ve appeared in 29 NCAA Tournaments including in nine of the last 11 years under head coach Matt Painter. Did you know that the 29 appearances are tied for the 24th most in NCAA history?”
Those are real conversations they are having TODAY with recruits. They aren’t trying to sell a boy a bag of sunflower seeds talking to them about “how you can come here and help us rebuild something great.” Naw playa, boyz want to walk into a great program and keep it going.
Those are the types of conversations you can have with a recruit when you’re relevant today!! The Boilermakers were on TV Thursday night winning in the NCAA Tournament not losing in the NIT. That makes whatever Matt Painter and Co. says TODAY to a recruit more important than whatever Archie Miller and Co. says today. When you’re winning you’re always a better program than the duns that are losing.
Purdue has been consistent year after year after year and that means more today than five national titles that nobody was alive to see. There’s an old colloquialism that says, “If a trees falls in the middle of the forest and makes a loud crashing noise and nobody is around to hear it. Did it really make a sound?” That’s IU basketball.
Purdue basketball right now is the tree falling in the middle of downtown during rush hour traffic and everybody and their baby’s momma, Uncle LeRoy and cousin Man-Man saw and heard the whole darn thing. Salute to the Boilermakers for consistently putting in work. Good luck in the Elite Eight verses Virginia on Saturday. The entire country will be watching and you can stop me when I start lyin’!
Playas Thesaurus:
1) Dun: noun – the person in question, dude, guy, etc. It’s whoever I’m talkin’ about and its non-gender specific.