IU/Purdue: What does this game mean?
Jordan Hulls was very clear that the Purdue game was just like any other Big Ten game when he addressed the media this afternoon.
He said every place IU goes, it’ll see a hostile crowd. He said as a competitor, you want to win every Big Ten game as much as the others.
I’m not buying that.
While Hulls may have been politically correct with his statements, I decided to dig a little deeper into his typical pregame jargon. In the grand scheme of IU’s season and this rivalry, what would a potential win do for IU?
Let’s get the bare basics out of the way. A win would get IU back to .500 in the Big Ten with six conference games to go. A win at Mackey would also give IU it’s first win in West Lafayette since 2006 when Mike Davis was at the helm. A win would probably be enough to keep IU in the top 25.
But those few things are all on the surface.
What has Tom Crean preached from the moment he stepped onto the IU campus to clean up Chernobyl? IU needs to take back the state of Indiana.
That doesn’t mean simply winning the recruiting battle. Anyone can point to how well Crean recruited within state lines in these past couple years and that’s all well and good. Starting #TheMovement might sound glamorous but stars on rivals.com doesn’t win games.
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