Purdue’s already won once at the NCAA Tournament in Indianapolis, with no issues during COVID-19 testing upon arrival and following the required quarantine period.
The No. 20 Boilermakers — the 4 seed in the South Regional — will meet 13th-seeded North Texas Friday night at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Notes from Purdue’s Zoom media availability on Wednesday, pre-game media access being considerably scaled back this season due to the inordinate logistics involved this season.
This is an uncommon experience for all involved, the most non-traditional NCAA Tournament in history, a distinction that will hopefully stand for many, many years.
But Purdue may find some welcomed comforts.
For one thing, the Boilermakers have been spared whatever hassles come with long-distance travel. They rode a bus an hour or so down I-65, far cry from flying to Hartford or Spokane or any of the other locales they’ve opened March Madness in.
Whether that’s an advantage, there’s no telling, but it can’t be a disadvantage, especially with fans gradually returning and the likelihood being that general-admission Purdue partisans will outnumber those of North Texas by a wide margin. Then, should the Boilermakers advance, those of either Villanova or Winthrop, too.
Freshman Jaden Ivey has suggested the Ohio State game, his first-ever college basketball game played in front of a live studio audience, to be the “most fun game I’ve ever played in.”
Purdue will play its first game at Lucas Oil Stadium. While a second game would likely be played at Hinkle Fieldhouse or Bankers Life Fieldhouse, the Boilermakers’ opener will be played in the same setting as the Big Ten Tournament, where Purdue lost to Ohio State in overtime last Friday.
“It probably helps us a little bit,” guard Sasha Stefanovic said before practicing at the stadium on Wednesday afternoon. “I don’t think a lot of us have played in a football stadium like that, so getting used to that environment kind of helps us.”
The Ohio State game was the first game for any member of Purdue’s current team in a football facility, at least during their college careers. (Prior to last weekend, Purdue hadn’t played in a stadium since it met Duke in the 2010 Sweet 16 in Houston.)
And should Purdue advance and be assigned to Bankers Life Fieldhouse, its players have considerable experience playing there, including under pandemic conditions, specifically this year’s Crossroads Classic vs. Notre Dame. Purdue’s players have played Crossroads games there and some would have played there in high school. (No one on this roster has played in a Big Ten Tournament there yet, due to last year’s cancelation; the prior year’s was held in Chicago.)
Indianapolis is Purdue’s backyard and the Boilermakers are the state’s lone representative.
“Indianapolis is the best,” Coach Matt Painter said. “They’ve proven that every time they’ve had an opportunity, not just to hold basketball events like March Madness, but any sporting event. It’s a great layout and It’s very fan-friendly.”
This is a bit of a unique opportunity, too, for Eric Hunter and Isaiah Thompson, the lone Indy (or thereabouts) natives on Purdue’s roster. They’re essentially playing on college basketball’s biggest stage in their hometowns.
Hunter spoke with Michigan State’s Aaron Henry on Tuesday night. The two are close friends. They discussed the added urge to win playing near their homes.
Henry’s also an Indianapolis native, but Michigan State’s been assigned to Mackey Arena in West Lafayette for its First Four meeting with UCLA, a once-in-a-lifetime NCAA Tournament draw for a once-in-a-lifetime NCAA Tournament.
“We talked about how we both want to win here at home,” Hunter said. “It kind of means a little bit more, especially if you make the Final Four when you’re right here at home in Indianapolis.
“I think it’s a little more important to the guys from Indiana, in general. Not just Indianapolis.”
For Purdue, that’s a much longer list.
In addition to Hunter and Thompson, Stefanovic and Brandon Newman are each from Northwest Indiana; freshman Jaden Ivey is from the South Bend area; and forward Mason Gillis from New Castle, about an hour due east of Indy.
Soon as Purdue checked into its hotel downtown, it went through COVID-19 testing, quarantined for a day, then tested again the following day, all required before it could participate in any tournament activity.
It was a lot of idle time for players — assigned to single rooms — and coaches alike, though the coaches obviously had work to do.
“If you’re not a person who likes to be by yourself, it’s probably really hard,” Hunter said. “I like being by myself. I’ve just been doing small stuff like homework, watching film, playing a game, whatever it may be to let the time pass by.”
The film Hunter watched, he did so on his own accord, studying up on his North Texas matchup, Javion Hamlet, a former Conference-USA Player-of-the-Year.
Purdue’s most substantive film study didn’t occur until Wednesday when team activity resumed.
“What’s different (in the bubble) is the time,” Painter said. “You’ve got so much time. Before, you’d play on a Thursday and you’d get here on a Tuesday mid-afternoon, get adjusted, have a practice and then the next day you’d get ready for your game. Now, you get here on Monday and you don’t play until Friday night, so you have time. There’s no rush to it. … What’s the point in doing something for four days when you can do something for two days? It’s basketball. We’re not running flea-flickers here or end-arounds. We’re not running the Statue of Liberty. It’s basketball.
“The most important team is yours. I told our guys before they selected us, ‘I promise you this: No matter who we’re playing, they can beat you. I promise you that.’ And I told them, ‘And I promise you, whoever they pick, we can beat them too. You have to respect your opponent but you also have to understand that every team you’re going to play is going to be really good.”
Purdue associate head coach Micah Shrewsberry is busy, you might say.
After being named Penn State’s head coach on Monday, Shrewsberry will remain with the Boilermakers through the NCAA Tournament. In the meantime, he’s had to establish a presence in State College while being anchored in Indy with Purdue.
He’s spoken to Penn State’s players already, many of which have put their names in the transfer portal, and handled a few minor external relations chores for Penn State, including a newspaper interview and a few short multi-media spots for social media. Shrewsberry has changed his Twitter bio to reflect his next job, a sign that for as long as Purdue is alive in Indy, he’ll have quite a bit on his plate.
Shrewsberry informed Purdue’s players of his looming departure on Monday.
