Fortuna Files: A meaningful Big Ten Tournament means a new national title contender as we fill out our brackets
Purdue was something else this week, huh?
CHICAGO — News and notes from the Big Ten Tournament as we look ahead to the Big Dance.
1. This was Matt Painter at the start of the Big Ten tournament, after beating Northwestern on Thursday: “Michigan had a lot of success in this tournament last year, and their seed did not move. They might have slid up a little bit, but they stayed where they stayed. So after you’ve done it for 21 years, you realize that. I didn’t used to realize that. You’re just like, Hey, this is where you are. We’re going to be a 3 seed or a 4 seed.”
2. This was Painter at the end of the tournament, after upsetting Michigan on Sunday: “You got a scholarship to play college basketball at a Big Ten university, you’ve got an advantage over a lot of people. It doesn’t mean you’re better than anybody, but you’ve got an advantage. Use that. Don’t let basketball use you up. Have balance in your life and understand the big picture. Those are the things we really try to sell. I’m cool with it. I’m cool with guys making money. I’m good. Make money, make good basketball decisions, and get your education. Do it all, man. Pimp the system.”
3. All candid, all refreshing. Just one problem: Purdue is now a No. 2 seed after its 80-72 win here, a validation for the Boilermakers, yes, but also for this tournament, which too often has seen its champion get the short end of the stick with the selection show airing immediately afterward. (Yes, we know the committee makes contingency brackets, but still.)
4. This is the Purdue team that we all expected to see at the outset of the season, when the Boilermakers were the No. 1 team in the AP and coaches’ polls. Matt Painter’s crew blitzed the competition across four days here, from flattening a hot Northwestern team that had taken the Boilers to the limit just a week earlier, to a second-half barrage that No. 1 seed Michigan had no answer for.
5. Purdue was incredible in the second half, hitting 57.7 percent of its shots and turning the ball over just once. Braden Smith enters the NCAA Tournament just 1 assist shy of Bobby Hurley’s career NCAA record, and he may even need a new permanent jersey number to do it, as he donned the Superman cape in the second half by wearing a nameless No. 41 after ripping his No. 3 jersey out of frustration. That’s Tournament MOP stuff, as, not surprisingly, Smith earned the honor after the game.
