Building Mackey's Great Wall

First appeared on December 17th, 2015
in The Lebanon Reporter

All told, China’s Great Wall is estimated to be around 13,000 miles long, or roughly the driving distance from Indianapolis to Evansville before the completion of the I-69 extension. After 2,000 years, the Wall still snakes across China like a wild river, the only manmade object visible from outer space. Built on the backs of prisoners and slaves, hopeless souls allotted only rice and water, it was the brainchild of a maniac and life preserver that kept Chinese society afloat until the advent of gunpowder.

It took the Chinese over 2,000 years and far too many empires to name here to finish their wall, it took Purdue Head Coach Matt Painter around 48 months to build his. But what he’s created is impenetrable. It is imposing. It is historic. It is the Great Wall of Mackey.

What the Boilers have in A.J. Hammons, Isaac Haas and Caleb Swanigan is the best kept secret in college basketball. For, despite an undefeated start, few are talking about Purdue, and Painter would seemingly have it no other way. When you’re blue collar to the core you don’t have time for praise, yours is a life dedicated to productivity and industriousness.

The Chinese were certainly an industrious bunch. They gave the world gunpowder, fireworks, whiskey and toilet paper and is there really anything else one needs come Friday night? But now your brother in law, staring across at you from the booth you're sharing at the Golden Wok Buffet, has you convinced the Chinese really do serve dog meat. And suddenly, next to your glazed beans and precious sweet bun, those pieces of chicken do seem oddly misshapen and far too large.

“Think of all the dogs you’ve seen in China, ever seen one wearing a collar?” He asks as you nervously push your General Tso around thinking this is the same guy who once told you cell phones cause testicular cancer and has numerous times offered to smash them with a hammer (and yes, we’re talking about cell phones).

The waitress is friendly, smiling ear to ear in the Chinese fashion, as she hustles your plates off to the back room. And, despite some incredible Lo Mein and silky-smooth Won-Ton, in the end you come to the realization you will most likely die having discovered there is nothing on Earth more fantastic than Chi-Chi’s cornbread.

If you’re going to beat Purdue there appears no obvious game plan. Their size is so glaring they look like forty year old men playing Biddy Basketball. They have athleticism and shooting and, yes, they’re going to play defense because their head coach is still named Matt Painter. And size, athleticism and shooting just happen to be at the top of any checklist for any coach trying to assemble any basketball team anywhere at any level.

So as the rest of basketball is busy going small, pushing the ball and relying on perimeter shooting, spacing and athleticism, Painter has remained true to his smash mouth style; he’s just upped the ante by adding a historic front line. Still, how such an unconventional approach can be hugely effective remains a mystery. Perhaps some things are just impossible to explain, like how Americans still maintain faith their government will address the real issues facing us, or why my four year old chose to draw a portrait of me with flowers for hands.

Purdue is good. Scary good. And, despite their high ranking, they’re still not completely on the national radar. They’re not sexy enough and they’re not exciting, but by mid-January most will recognize they’re going to be one incredibly tough out come tournament time.

© 2015 Eric Walker Williams

Pudue dethaws against Illinois

First appeared on January 5th,
in The Lebanon Reporter

Pardon the cliché but while it was cold outside, inside Mackey Arena Wednesday night was red hot. So loyal Boilermaker fans by the hundreds trudged in on their snowshoes cloaked in bulky Arctic parkas lined with fur from the durable, and yet always fashionable, Musk Ox. They’d come most likely to see Illinois play, having given up on their beloved Boilers sometime after the Bucknell loss (three games into the season).

Illinois had been good. Scary good. After winning the Maui Invitational in a championship game in which they beat Butler by 17 points, first year head coach Jim Groce’s team had won six of seven coming in.

Seeing DJ Byrd play an integral role in winning a basketball game is nothing new to folks in this part of the state, but the number 11 ranked Illinois Fighting Illini were blindsided by the 6’5 Senior Wednesday night. The Purdue Boilermakers (7-6) did what nobody on Earth, including all 9,874 people inside Mackey, believed they could; they beat Groce’s upstart Illinois team 68-61.

Purdue came in with absolutely nothing to hang their hats on following a lackluster preseason. And clearly there was little for Purdue fans to look forward to coming in to the season what with all the attention their arch rivals downstate had garnered before anyone had even had a chance to embarrass a directional school.

So the near zero degree temperatures outside must have seemed balmy to Matt Painter as he took the court with his team, considering the fervor Purdue fans once had for the coach’s program was quickly freezing over.

The Boilers don’t boast the top recruiting class in the nation or a preseason All American, but what they do have is a coach who instills a faith in hard-nosed defense and hustle. The product is of course oftentimes a brand of basketball so ugly even Sports Illustrated doesn’t have enough airbrush artists on staff to make the average basketball fan interested in watching it. But more often than not, when players are on board, it produces wins; of course nothing helps a group buy in faster than winning a game nobody has given you a chance in.

The heat wave came after Purdue outrebounded the Illini 45-34. And in doing so Purdue not only helped themselves compensate for a lack of shot making but may have revealed a glaring weakness in this Illini team at the same time. Illinois is a flashy and athletic team that can shoot the basketball, but what we saw Wednesday was a much less talented and far less athletic team punch them square in the face.

This physical, Gene Keady style “football on the hardwood” was enough to put Painter’s team in a position to win, but as they came down the stretch Purdue began to tighten up. You could see their arms get shorter and feel their throats drying up.

Knowing you’re a terrible foul shooting team late in a game you have no business leading must be a lot like diving with sharks wearing a wetsuit lined with chum. But in the end the Boilers were able toss Byrd into the microwave long enough for him to reach just the right temperature and, after proving to have the perfect amount of seasoning, the senior was able to make all the plays necessary at the end to help his team win.

There’s nothing like a nice win to warm ones soul on a cold winter night. And while it may come as a welcome distraction to the Arctic conditions in which we currently exist, Purdue fans should temper their blue lips, for nobody wants January 2nd to be the high water mark of their season.

© 2013 Eric Walker Williams