Did you know that NCAA tournament basketball is often played into April? Me neither!

I kid, of course. It’s just that Purdue basketball has not been to the Final Four in a while. And because for some unknown reason I feel like picking at the scab (or the open laceration, currently hemorrhaging), I’m going to take a look at things to put that in perspective.

I officially became a Purdue fan in the Spring of 1994. I was a senior in high school and I visited Purdue’s campus for an official visit (not that kind of official visit, I am only 5’11” and am a mediocre cornerback) the night that the Big Dog took Purdue into the Elite Eight. At that point, it had been a mere 14 years since Purdue had been to the Final Four, back in 1980.

We now jump ahead three decades in our story and….not a lot has changed. Purdue basketball is still among the most successful programs each year, consistently attaining high seeds in the NCAA tournament, dominating early-season tournaments, winning the Big Ten Championships and flaming out in the NCAA Tournament.

Since that Elite Eight appearance in 1994, Purdue has added two (2) more of those – a surprise run in 2000 with Brian Cardinal giving Keady his last shot at a Final Four and 2019, when Carsen Edwards and a hard-working squad came within seconds of achieving the dream.

And that’s as close as they’ve come over the past 44 years.

Before you think this is some kind of hit piece, let’s ground ourselves a bit.

Purdue has been to the Sweet 16 a bunch, eleven times since 1980, including a recent run of four times in five tourneys (2017-19, 2022). So that’s what kinda makes this weird. They do win a lot. They win the Big Ten more than literally anybody else. They go from the round of 64 down to the round of 16 quite frequently. Yet they never break through.

Matt Painter himself has been at Purdue for 19 seasons. If you throw out the first year when he was picking up the pieces of Gene Keady’s tired final seasons, you toss out 2020 when there was no tourney, and you don’t yet address this year since it’s not over…we’ve got 16 seasons to look at. Of those 16, he’s made the tournament in 14 of them. He’s advanced at least a round in ten of them. He’s gone to six Sweet 16s. And that one Elite Eight.

Coach Painter is 442-202 (.686) at Purdue, has five conference championships and two Big Ten Tourney championships.

Guys, I know it doesn’t always feel like it, but that’s a really good resume.

All that said….

Let’s have a look at the Final Four since 1980.

The tourney back then was comprised of 48 teams, 12 in each region. Seeds 1-4 had byes to the second round (that sounds nice), while 5-12 played in the first round to move on to face them. The rest proceeded from there as you are currently familiar.

In 1983, four slots were added, bringing the total to 52 teams, which was handled by having four play-in games (“preliminary round”) for the 12 seeds (which were then the lowest seed in each region). The 1984 tourney added one more team, so now there were five play-in games – one for each of the four 12 seeds and then one for an 11-seed (sure, why not).

Finally, in 1985, the tourney expanded to its perfect state of 64 teams. It’s since expanded further out to 68 to accommodate more auto-bids without removing at-large slots, but I think it would be better to just go back to the perfect 64 and if those “last four in” teams don’t make it…too bad.

But I am straying far from the point here…to the extent that I even have one. Want some numbers on what’s happened in the past 44 years?

By my calculations, 57 different teams have made the Final Four. Considering there are 168 slots over those 44 years (actually 42 years, since 2020 didn’t happen and 2024 isn’t determined yet), only 57 schools making it feels sorta exclusive.

The Big Ten has sent seven different schools – Michigan State (eight times), Michigan (five), Indiana (four), Ohio State (three), Wisconsin (three), Illinois (two) and Minnesota (once). Add all those appearances up and you’re still short of what UNC (15) and Duke (14) combined have done. Mercy.

The only other school with double digit Final Four appearances since 1980 is Kansas, with an even ten.

Want some weird ones? NC State has been there only once, in 1983 – and they won it all.

Seton Hall made it once and lost to Michigan for the 1989 title.

One of the weirdest ones ever was Mississippi State – they have never been a good basketball program and their coach for 12 years was Richard Williams (not Serena’s dad), who was….eh…not a great coach. He was 89-113 in conference play and went to the tourney three times in those dozen seasons. In 1995 he went to the Sweet 16 and then randomly, in 1996, he ran to the Final Four. (The year that Purdue was a #1 and almost lost to Western Carolina.)

Marquette has gone to the FF once since 1980 – led by Dwayne Wade and everybody’s favorite weirdo, Tom Crean.

How about some small-conference schools? How about George Mason (an 11 seed, led by the awesome Jim Larrañaga) in 2006? Or Loyola-Chicago, also an 11 seed, in 2018, led by a 100-year old nun at head coach (I think I have that right). Or VCU, another 11 seed (maybe the trick is capturing an 11 seed), led by Shaka Smart who never really did anything in the tournament again.

What’s my point in all of this? I have no idea. But I do know that 57 different schools have made their way into the Final Four – 31 of them more than once – since the last time Purdue showed up.

And yet… doesn’t it seem like Purdue wins an awful lot to have this lack of breakthrough Final Four success?

Oh, I see.