Boilers Trounce Hawkeyes

The Purdue Boilermakers stamped their ticket to the big dance with a dominating 74-55 victory over the Iowa Hawkeyes in the 4/5 seed quarterfinal matchup in the Big Ten Tournament in Chicago today.

Carl Landry led the Boilers, as he's been stoicly doing all season, with twenty points and 11 boards. Carl looked like he wasn't going to give the Hawkeyes a chance to hang around in this game and the Hawkeyes did indeed look overmatched and out of sorts.

Truth is, this Iowa squad has some considerable talent but never seemed to be able to string together consistent outings. Chalk it up to the overrated Steve Alford, who has yet to do anything significant at Iowa, or credit it to the up-and-coming Matt Painter-led Purdue squad. Sure, the Boilers have no inside presence to speak of, but if Landry plays this way in future games this month, the Boilers can hang with almost anybody.

Next up for Purdue is the top-ranked team in the country, Ohio State, in tomorrow's semifinal matchup.

As for the NCAA Tourney, ESPN now has Purdue in the tournament as an 11-seed and facing Virginia, of all teams, a team they beat earlier this season. Let me just say now that there is absolutely ZERO chance of Purdue playing a team they've already played this year in the first round of the NCAA tournament. It just doesn't happen.

But it's irrelevant. The Boilers are going and that's what matters.

And it feels gooooooood.