My son, Dad and I took the afternoon to go down to Lucas Oil Stadium to take in a bit of the atmosphere and the day's events. Here are some quick thoughts.
-Saw MSU practice- Izzo is awesomely-short...and awesomely-awesome. Tons of Spartans were around us in the crowd...all in their standard seats that they get each final four. Hats off again to MSU and their head man who just knows how to have players playing their best at the end. I'm hoping my brother, "Bill's" alma mater beats 'em though...
And speaking of Butler, they had a huge amount of people in the oil can there to see them run through boring drills. The entire lower level of the stadium was full for the Bulldogs.
I left when Duke took the floor. The video paying homage to Goobek & Co. was too much, too soon.
-We went over to check out the Bracket Town fanfest...couldn't bring myself to pay $10 for a corporate-sponsored fair. Seemed pretty silly to me that all of these large sponsors of the tournament needed such a high entry fee to promote themselves and their products.
-The hatred between the Hershey's and Reese's squads goes waaaaaay back and that was obvious while watching the Reese's Senior Game.
The neato thing about the game was that Keady was HC and his two assistants were Weber and Painter. Sure, their team allowed well-over 50 points in the first half and they were just figure heads, but I'm positive Keady was cursing at the refs at some point and wanted to throw an article of clothing at them.
Kramer not only had charging called on him, but also drew a charge and tried for a second. Clearly, he doesn't understand All-Star games. One thing that was very normal about this All-Star game is that it was painfully-boring. We left at the 10:00 mark in the second half...only made it that far because my son wanted to stay.
-Have we mentioned how much we think domes stink as basketball venues? In case you haven't heard it, I'll say it again. Yuck. Reliant was lousy last week, and Lucas was lousy this week. The stands are too gradual down low, and the upper levels are 50 to 75 yards away from the court. The 200 level seats weren't too bad, but they weren't too good either. Save your dough, enjoy your own beer and pretzels and watch at home.
-Pretty sure I saw Iowa's new HC Fran McCaffery at Lucas Oil Field today. If you tuned into the Handsome Hour this week, you heard J laud me as a guy who is comfortable meeting and talking to people...I passed this time. Granted, he was texting while doing his business at the urinal...so I thought it wasn't in anybody's best-interest to get to know the newest member of the BT coaching fraternity.
-And speaking of coaches, I think every high school and college basketball coach is in Indy right now. I'm short to begin with...so hanging around with thousands of ex-basketball players makes me feel tinier than usual. Throngs of golf shirts with college logos I've never heard of, nor never will hear of again were all up in that biatch. One of the most-noteworthy was one of the Citadel's coaches (I guess) couldn't help but try to mack on a good-looking young lady (probably a teenager) as she crossed the street near him. I'm guessing that's not the best way to represent your program...and most-assuredly, it's not the quickest way to a HC position. In most cases.
-According to WLFI.com, Coach Keady's coaching career isn't only limited to heading up All-Stars with candy bar names on their unis. It looks like Keady will become an adviser to Steve Lavin, his old employee. Good for the coach...probably better for Lavin. Too bad the iconic combover won't be seen at each Purdue game next year as it was at nearly every game this season.
-Also, congrats to both Morgan Burke and Matty. Coach Painter received a well-deserved contract extension and raise. The new deal makes his salary very competitive and keeps him at Purdue through the end of '16/'17.
Football Notes
-Purdue stayed very healthy last fall during the season...and in an effort to keep balance in the universe, the Boiler football team is making its best effort to cloth the entire squad in purple jerseys.
Today, Dan Dierking was injured...and more scary in the same backfield was Ralph Bolden's injury. Bolden hurt his surgically-repaired knee, badly, according to GBI. This injury hurts the team, in a big way, in my opinion. Bolden was really impressive last year in his first full-season as a starter. His ability to do multiple things, from block, to make people miss, to catch passes made him, in my opinion, the most-complete back Purdue had seen in more than a decade. My hope for the guy is that he can mentally take this injury. Having it happen once is awful, twice is devastating. Keep your head up, Ralph!
In his stead, Kieth Carlos has been moved to RB...While his build looks more like a receiver's, he was a pretty good RB in HS and during his JuCo years.
Also of note, Nick Mondek is getting a look at OLine...Mondek has been a strong back up for the last two seasons at DT...so that means EITHER, the DTs look good and are coming along quickly...OR, the OLine looks horrible and isn't coming along at all...or perhaps a bit of both.
Regardless, this spring has been a tough one for the Boilers and seems to be getting tougher by the practice.
