Purdue had simply fallen unexpectedly within the Big Ten Tournament final week and Braden Smith sat down alongside star Zach Edey and coach Matt Painter to satisfy reporters.
It took three inquiries to conjure a March Madness specter: the Boilermakers’ inconceivable loss as a No. 1 seed to Sixteenth-seeded Fairleigh Dickinson in final yr’s NCAA Tournament.
“I don’t think we’re really worried about what happened last year,” Smith stated matter-of-factly.
Yes, Purdue has appeared like a title contender all season and owns one other 1-seed because the NCAAs start this week. Yet one unhealthy evening on the worst attainable time hangs over a program that has had a number of March Madness stumbles.
Only one different program is aware of that ignominy: Virginia, which fell to UMBC within the first-ever 16-vs-1 upset in 2018. Yet these Cavaliers regrouped to win the nationwide championship the next season, providing a roadmap for the Boilermakers’ potential path to redemption and proof it may be carried out.
“’They weren’t the first to do it, so it’s not the worst thing in the world — it’s the second-worst thing in the world,” stated former Virginia star Ty Jerome, now with the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers. “To go through that together and bounce back together … it’s definitely going to make them stronger. I hope they’ve talked about it.
“That’s the best way to move forward, is to embrace it, to talk about it and let it fuel you.”
Like Virginia 5 years in the past, Purdue has heard regular questions, references and taunts. In preseason. Amid wins and losses. They’ll decide up in depth this week; that’s what occurs when you’re on the mistaken facet of a 150-2 all-time ledger for No. 1 seeds in opposition to No. 16 seeds.
“Every arena we went to, we heard chants of ‘FDU! FDU!’ throughout the whole game,” reserve ahead Camden Heide stated, “so we’ve kind of heard it ever since we lost.”
But the second is right here, the possibility to close all of it down. The Boilermakers (29-4) headline the Midwest Region, led by a reigning nationwide participant of the yr within the 7-foot-4 Edey — who was named an unanimous Associated Press first-team All-American for the second straight season on Tuesday.
Yet Friday’s first-round matchup in opposition to the Montana State-Grambling winner additionally appears like returning to a criminal offense scene for a program going through long-standing strain to succeed in its first Final Four since 1980. It illustrates why the Boilermakers’ problem differs from that of No. 1 general match seed and reigning nationwide champion Connecticut, or fellow high regional seeds Houston and North Carolina with latest Final Four journeys.
“We’ve embraced it for 12 months,” Painter stated, including: “A lot of times, that’s the best medicine, is to be able to sit in that adversity. But you can’t fix something if you don’t own it. And I think from a staff standpoint, we own it and our players own it.”
The Virginia parallels are robust. Both opened the folllowing seasons extremely ranked and received early season marquee tournaments (Purdue with the Maui Invitational, Virginia with the Battle 4 Atlantis within the Bahamas ).
Each received its convention regular-season race (Virginia tied UNC within the Atlantic Coast Conference) earlier than a semifinal loss within the league match. They entered the NCAA tourney with matching 1-seeds and 29-win totals.
They additionally toted alongside the burden of latest postseason losses past essentially the most incomprehensible of upsets. And there was one thing deeper, the stomach-dropping lurch that comes when a Final Four dream is crashing within the opening sport, thought to be a formality for title contenders. Virginia coach Tony Bennett recalled listening to that Purdue was in bother final March.
“I flipped (on) the channel, someone said, ‘Uh-oh, it might happen again,’” Bennett informed the AP. “And I remember like, ‘Please, no. I hope that doesn’t happen to them.’”
When it did, Bennett texted Painter.
“Matt is one of the best coaches we’ve got in the college game, he’s a man of character,” Bennett stated. “And not many can say, except for me: I’ve felt that pain. … So I just wanted to tell him, ‘If you ever want to talk, I’m here. I think the world of you and hopefully your story is the same as ours.’”
For Bennett, that story began with making an attempt to rebuild his gamers’ confidence. He informed them everybody – household, pals, critics – would watch their response, and so they had the chance to weave their very own unimaginable comeback story.
Still, the UMBC wound was sluggish to heal.
Eventual Final Four most excellent participant Kyle Guy was open about battling nervousness and shared that the group heard dying threats. Jerome described “shock and trauma” upon returning to the group lodge, and that sitting with the embarrassment was “like rock bottom.”
“I couldn’t tell you two weeks, I couldn’t tell you two years because we were all dealing with it in different ways up until we won it the following year, to be honest,” Jerome informed the AP.
“I know for me, it definitely motivated me, but it was in the back of my mind all summer,” he added. “It was hard to relax. It was hard to enjoy other areas of life. And the following season, you hear it everywhere you go. And although we were dominant all season, you almost deal with the idea of: how much does the regular season matter? You want to get back on the court and get revenge for last year.”
DeAndre Hunter, who missed the UMBC sport with an damage and is now with the NBA’s Atlanta Hawks, remembers speaking with Jerome instantly afterward about coming again to win the title.
“It just comes from within,” Hunter stated. “Everybody’s going to be down on you. Everybody’s going to be thinking about that game that you lost. That’s how it was for us. That’s all people talked about the whole year. It didn’t matter how we did during the year.”
Virginia in the end received its storybook ending, however not with out white-knuckle vibes. The Cavaliers performed tight once more in opposition to Sixteenth-seeded Gardner-Webb and trailed by 14 within the first half, stirring their very own uh-oh second that each Jerome and Hunter referenced when discussing 2019.
Virginia emerged from halftime with a 14-2 run to take over, incomes the routine win that was something however 12 months earlier.
“I think once we overcame that obstacle … we felt like we weren’t going to lose,” Hunter stated.
There was the regional last in opposition to — coincidentally — Purdue. The Cavaliers survived Carsen Edwards torching their vaunted protection for 42 factors and needing the Kihei Clark-to-Mamadi Diakite buzzer-beater to drive OT earlier than advancing.
In the Final Four, Virginia edged Auburn 63-62 when Guy hit three free throws with 0.6 seconds left after being fouled on a 3-pointer. The Cavaliers accomplished the run by utilizing Hunter’s clutch nook 3 with 12.9 seconds left to drive time beyond regulation earlier than beating Texas Tech for the title.
That evening in Minneapolis, they lower the nets and danced amid confetti falling from the rafters in what appeared each celebratory and cathartic. They alternated between big smiles and hypnotized stares towards videoboards because the “One Shining Moment” spotlight montage that could be a tournament-capping custom started to play.
Bennett savored the scene from the background, leaning in opposition to a railing on the stage’s edge whereas holding a cut-down web.
Jerome stated he considered Bennett as the proper coach to deliver the Cavaliers by adversity and to what CBS announcer Jim Nantz proclaimed as an “all-time turnaround title.” He sees similarities with Painter.
As for recommendation, Hunter instructed the Boilermakers keep in mind “all the naysayers” for the objective of proving them mistaken. Jerome stated they need to “double down on what they believe in and double down on what got them there, and be in the moment as much as possible.”
“It’s a one-game elimination and you’re the better team,” Jerome stated. “You can’t play tight.”
Then he supplied an endorsement.
“Purdue is my champion this year, in my bracket,” he stated earlier than the sector was even set.
Now it’s as much as the Boilermakers to observe the Cavaliers’ path by that wilderness.
“Yeah, we are trying to prove ourselves from last year because we shouldn’t have lost to FDU,” ahead Mason Gillis stated. “But we know we can’t change that. The only thing that we can do is go out and play our best every single game from here on out.”
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AP Sports Writers Dave Campbell in Minneapolis; Michael Marot in West Lafayette, Indiana; and Tom Withers in Cleveland; contributed to this report.
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AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and protection: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness
(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – Associated Press)
