Rivalry Between Indiana Hoosiers and Purdue Boilermakers Has Meaning Again

By Hashim R. Hathaway | Feb 19, 2015

The Indiana Hoosiers and Purdue Boilermakers have one of the most underrated rivalries in all the nation. Their game tonight will be special.

While college hoops fans across the country are abuzz about the latest chapter in the Tobacco Road rivalry, back in the heartland of Indiana, the rivalry that really matters heats up again tonight as Purdue makes their way down I-65 to the most unfriendly confines of Assembly Hall in Bloomington to face their arch nemesis Indiana Hoosiers.

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For the Hoosiers, tonight is not only a chance to avenge their Jan. 28 83-67 drubbing in West Lafayette, it’s also an opportunity to reclaim much needed ground in the Big Ten standings, where they’re now 8-5, something that’s essential to their chances for reaching the NCAA tournament after being left out in 2013-14.

The 9-4 Boilers also have tremendous skin in the game as a win in Bloomington would place them in sole possession of second place and give them a much needed victory before rounding out the season with tough road games against #24 Ohio State and Michigan State. For Purdue, the road to an NCAA berth has to begin by beating the Hoosiers.

Winning for the Hoosiers tonight will mean a tie with Purdue for third place, but a loss means that they they become a distant fourth, but still leading a number of teams such as Michigan and Iowa who at this point aren’t in any danger of getting a bid outside of winning the upcoming Big Ten tournament in Chicago next month.

For either team, a win tonight is critical, but more so for Purdue, because after tonight, Indiana has the benefit of facing Rutgers and Northwestern before closing out with home games against Michigan State and Iowa.

Taking the remaining games into consideration, certainly anything can happen in the volatile Big Ten, where only Wisconsin is a defacto lock at this point, however, for both Indiana and Purdue, the bad blood between fanbases that have been at each other’s throats for decades since the storied days of Bob Knight and Gene Keady only raises the stakes in more ways than one.

Both Indiana Head Coach Tom Crean and Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter have been under intense scrutiny this season as both fanbases are less than happy with their performance, with Indiana left out of last season’s NCAA tournament, and Purdue missing the last two years. For both men, a win tonight brings them closer to a tournament berth and more importantly, another year of job security.

Of course, it’s unlikely that either coach will lose their job at the end of the season as both are in the middle of contracts that have hefty buyout clauses, with Crean’s somewhere in the neighborhood of $7 million and Painter’s hovering around $9 million. That said, if either team should miss yet another tournament berth, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine some of that buyout money magically appearing.

In either case, the atmosphere in Bloomington will be electric and fans can expect to see dominant performances from Indiana junior Yogi Ferrell, whose recent dominance on the court could bring him Big Ten Player of the Year, and freshman phenom James Blackmon, Jr., with both players averaging 16 points a game this season.

But don’t expect Purdue go gently into that good night as they will come hard behind the firepower of junior A.J. Hammons and junior Raphael Davis, who put up 19 on the Hoosiers in the January meeting.

Both teams are capable of solid shooting, but this is a game that will require solid defense from both teams, something that has been touch and go for the Hoosiers, but with one of the best home crowds in the nation behind them, the advantage is nudging towards the Hoosiers. In the end, the old cliche of “who wants it more” has never been more relevant.

Classic rivalries like this are what college basketball are all about, and you can be sure tonight will be every bit as exciting as any Duke vs. North Carolina match-up.

As it should be.

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