Early Basketball Schedule & Late Football Media Day Thoughts
Sometimes your favorite writer at your favorite site goes dark for no good reason and without warning...first you mourn the loss...then, after those two minutes are over, you accept that your virtual pal has probably retired to a Caribbean island with all of the earnings from his lucrative website.
Rejoice! None of that is true...I'll be sitting on my fat stacks of BS cash for at least another football and basketball season before I reassess what might be next for this half of the Handsome Duo.
Screwed by the B1G?
In case you haven't heard the Men's Big Ten Basketball regular season match-ups were released earlier today.
Along with road trips to Milwaukee (to play Marquette in the pre-con), a Thanksgiving trip to the Bahamas for the Battle of Atlantis, a short trip to Indy for another game versus the new look Butler Bulldogs, The Forces of Good will travel to Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Rutgers and Wisconsin as they trade home-and-homes with these B1G foes.
In addition to these games, they'll travel to Ass. Hall, State Farm Arena (formerly Illinois' Assembly Hall), Iowa and MSU...thanks to the lop-sided B1G schedule.
In addition to these road games, they'll host Nebraska, Northwestern, aOSU and Penn State...Along with Louisville, Valpo and a handful of tune-up games in the pre-con in Mackey.
I still hate not playing IU twice...and think it's almost criminal for the conference not to give each team a protected rivalry. Further, it hurts the conference not to showcase the Purdue v. IU atmospheres as much as possible, in my opinion. Hopefully this changes in the near future.
Imbalanced schedule giveth and taketh away...
Playing MSU in East Lansing, but not at home is a raw deal...same goes for an IU squad in a mini rebuild. but not having to travel to Columbus (Purdue's house of horrors until last season) or PSU (a looooooong trip for a glorified scrimmage atmosphere) is kinda nice.
I have read mixed opinion about the schedule from Boiler fans...I'll withhold judgement about this schedule until Purdue is receiving their second conference championship trophy on Senior night.
Yeah, I'm kinda bullish on these Boilers in spite of the loss of their superstar...but they'll find someone to fill the shoes of Albrecht.
Kinda Different at Media Day This Year
So for years, I ate up media day...just loved the fact that the summer doldrums were nearly over and football was almost back.
Nothing will cure that quite like seasons of mediocrity topped with a sh*t burger or two for good measure. In spite of my admitted malaise and the poor habits that the Darrell Hazell Era gave me, I DVR'd BTN's media day events.
Coach Brohm's no-BS attitude on the podium is kinda like Danny Hope without the smirk and a little of Matt Painter's encyclopedic knowledge rolled into one. Brohm is saying all of the right things and has already won more recruiting battles than Haze did in three years. Purdue probably won't have a Joe Tiller-esque turn around...but based on what we're hearing, the offense will take some chances and do some inventive things and the defense is showing some promise. Depth will be a MASSIVE concern.
But as we learned from Brohm's predecessor, sounding good on media day isn't worth much...
In case you missed B1G Media Day(s), you also missed PJ Fleck dressing and acting like a (wealthy) clown, Harbaugh's normal weirdness and, what some call the highlight of all of college football's media days, David Blough speech (as J talked about last week). Purdue's (presumably) starting QB talked about how football has taught him how to care for his teammates, and those off of the field...as well as how much of what drags down our country might be rectified by some of what he's learned in this game. Always good to see guys represent our Alma Mater well, but Blough's speech might only be matched by MSU's Cousins, a few years ago.
We're just 33 days from the match-up with L'Ville in Indy...and just three days until camp begins in God's Country.
The Summit 2017
Since I last wrote on this site, my pal Aneesh hosted a mini-BS Summit in beautiful downtown Indianapolis. Secondarily, he decided to wed his longtime sweetheart at the event in celebration of J coming back to the Midwest. Will Lil' Swamys join LBD, Lil' Money, TBD and Tiny Money at a Purdue game in the coming seasons...stay tuned to find out.
Swamy, Money and BDowd's forehead celebrate the off-season
