Let me take this time to tell you I am from New Jersey.
The most I can tell someone about the IU-Purdue rivalry is to retell the Old Oaken Bucket game last season between 4-8 and 3-9 schools. I don’t truly comprehend the depths of it and cannot explain why there is such a deep rivalry between these two in-state schools.
But here’s what I do know after talking to IU Coach Tom Crean and Purdue Coach Matt Painter — its return to its former heights comes down to a mutual dependence.
And it seems to be getting there. Painter said it best.
“I don’t know if our rivalry would ever reach the heights of where it was unless both of us are really good together for a long period of time,” he said.
Painter understands the rivalry as well as anyone.
He grew up in an IU family. His father attended IU. He played point guard at Purdue.
He was at Purdue when Bob Knight went on his “fucking tired of losing to Purdue” rant. Painter said the rivalry might not have the personalities it did with Knight and Gene Keady, but it’s still a rivalry.
USA Today’s Coaches Poll has IU at No. 15 and Purdue at No. 24 to start the season. Both teams start a season with as much preseason hype as we’ve seen with Painter and Crean at their respective posts.
But even more so, these teams are exciting and interesting. They are seemingly conflicting opposites.
IU is arguably the best shooting team in the nation with a high-octane offense, but it’s still trying to secure its front court depth. Purdue adds five-star big man Caleb Swanigan to a big man rotation already as respected as any.
Also, they speak highly of each other.
“I would think they would be a legitimate contender for the national championship,” Crean said. “There’s no question about it.”
Painter said Crean has “got it going again.”
The rivalry does not harbor an outright hatred between Painter and Crean. They respect each other in a professional sense, but the relationship is competitive and hard.
They are not going to be close.
“That’s the way it is,” Painter said. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be, right?”
The relationship between those two only means so much. What matters is the stakes. It seems like a no-brainer statement, but the two teams need to consistently return to prominence for the rivalry to truly feel relevant again.
Last year provided a taste of what it could be again. Purdue won both meetings, but it felt more important.
Both teams were tournament teams and when then-junior point guard Kevin “Yogi” Ferrell missed a 3-point shot with seconds remaining to lose, it just felt like it hurt more than any other loss that year.
That’s the point. It felt more relevant. The two losses were both top stories in this newspaper.
So as both teams have expectations placed upon them, the rivalry depends on them meeting those expectations — and meeting them together.
brodmill@indiana.edu
