John Wooden never did this.
Terry Dischinger didn't, Rick Mount didn't, Walter (Jordan) and Eugene (Parker) didn't, the Triplets (Troy Lewis, Todd Mitchell, Everette Stephens) didn't.
Joe Barry Carroll wasn't Joe Barry enough. The Big Dog (Glenn Robinson) wasn't Big enough. Brian Cardinal wasn't even Brian Cardinal enough.
But this Purdue team?
Jaden Ivey and Trevion Williams and Zach Edey and Caleb Furst and all the rest?
They're No. 1, y'all.
No Purdue men's basketball team had ever been ranked No. 1 in Purdue's 124 seasons until this week, when the Purdues ascended there after Ohio State beat Duke and the Boilermakers dispatched Iowa. It remains to be seen if the Boilermakers can stay there -- the Big Ten is far too brutal a slog to make that likely -- but what you can say is this looks and plays the way a Final Four team should.
Which is something Purdue hasn't been in so long (42 years) it feels like it's never happened before.
This team?
You never want to traffic in absolutes in these matters, because absolutes are fragile things. But this might be the best basketball team Purdue has ever put on the floor.
You reserve the right to call the Blob out if it's proved wrong about that. Doesn't feel like it so far, though.
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