A Look Back: Purdue-Michigan in Mackey; A dozen classics

Tonight marks the 50th game between Purdue and Michigan in Mackey Arena. The Boilermakers have won their fair share against the Wolverines on its home court with a 33-16 record, about 10 percentage points lower than its typical home winning percentage against conference foes in the 58 seasons played in the facility. But then again, Michigan hasn’t been, for the most part, a second-class conference foe.

And yes, there have been some great moments and classic performances. Here is my dozen that stand above the rest.

1969: Purdue returns home as Big Ten champs

Coach George King’s Boilermakers broke the school’s 27-year conference title drought the game before with a win at Iowa, but the return home was a coronation of sorts for the eventual Final Four team. A 116-87 win over the Wolverines, Michigan’s first appearance in the building that would be named Mackey Arena two years later, helped the Boilermakers to remain on pace to lead the nation in scoring, which it eventually did. And junior Rick Mount’s 45-point effort tied a career-high and Purdue Arena record.

1970: Mount does it again

Mount had put up a paltry 53 points in Crisler Arena three weeks before, and he matched the effort with a short-lived Arena record 53 in a 116-103 win (Mount would score a still-standing league record 61 points against Iowa four weeks later). The Wolverines, who were talented and led by Rudy Tomjanovich (future NBA standout player and coach), jumped out to a 10-0 lead but were no match for Mount and the race-horse Purdue offense.

1974: Comeback kids

In this game, Purdue was dead in the water, trailing the eventual Big Ten champ Wolverines by 12 points with just over four minutes left in the second half. With no three-point shot, that deficit was akin to 20-plus points. To make matters worse, Mackey was silenced at the sight of Its best defender, Jerry Nichols, spilling blood on the floor after breaking his nose and sustaining a concussion in a gruesome moment matched only by Chris Kramer against the Wolverines 26 years later (see below). Michigan, with bookend forwards Campy Russell and C.J. Kupec were hard to stop, but it was a pair of Mike Steele free throws, his only points of the game, that led Purdue to a 85-84 overtime win to warm up a cold January 21 evening.

1981: Hot Shooting Buoys Gene’s Big Ten Debut

No team has shot better in Mackey Arena in a conference game since (if my facts are correct). Purdue’s 75.5 shooting percentage set a Big Ten record as the Boilermakers hit 37-of-49 shots. It’s 82 percent shooting in the second half, and it remains a Mackey Arena record. But that wasn’t the whole storyline. First-year coach Gene Keady, picked to be in the league’s bottom half, surprised the league by upending the undefeated and No. 10-ranked Wolverines 81-74 in a battle of rookie league coaches (Bill Frieder led the Wolverines. Freshman sensation Russell Cross had 21, and junior Keith Edmonson added 20 and served notice that Keady would be a force in the league. At the time, no one could have predicted it would last a quarter century.

1988: ‘Big Ten Champs, Big Ten Champs’

For the first time in 19 years, No. 2 Purdue claimed an outright conference title with a hard-fought win 80-67 win over the No. 10 Wolverines. It was an epic battle between Michigan guard and star defender Gary Grant trying to slow All-Big-Ten guard Troy Lewis. In the end, Purdue broke away in the end, and the home crowd was left in the close moments to celebrate the Boilermakers’ first outright title in 19 years and the second league crown for the Three Amigos of Lewis, Everette Stephens, and Todd Mitchell, the school’s first consecutive titles since the 1930s.

1990: Oliver beats the buzzer on ABC

Older fans will remember that in the 1980s, when the games were big in Mackey, the networks would install temporary lights. Such was the case, and it was also the final appearance of legendary ABC football broadcaster Keith Jackson (yes, Jackson did college basketball) in Mackey. Purdue had rolled to a shockingly easy 18-point win at Crisler over the defending national champs a few weeks earlier. Still, this one took a last-second game-winner by Menifee, Arkansas native Jimmy Oliver, beating the final gun by three seconds. Purdue coaches contend that it should have  Oliver’s second buzzer-beater in as many games to this day. The contest before at Iowa, Oliver hit a last-second shot that would have delivered Purdue to a conference victory and keep it in first place. Without the benefit of replay at today’s level, the basket wasn’t allowed. That call, and a horrible no-call at the end of the game in the conference season finale, cost the Boilermakers at least a shore of the league title. 

1993: The Fab Five rolls in Mackey

There has never been more star power for a game in Mackey before or since. The Fab 5, ranked third on Jan. 7, 1993, would make its second and final appearance (as a unit) in West Lafayette, and it would face No. 9 and undefeated Purdue and its star (not senior guard Matt Painter TIC) but sophomore forward Glenn Robinson. The game was up and down, and Purdue had its chances, but in the end, Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, and company got the best of the Boilermakers. I have never seen a more dominant fast break than the ones the Wolverines possessed on that night. 

1994: Fab 4 Stuns Purdue

 This was not a happy night for Purdue fans. The now Fab 4 battled back from an 11-point second-half deficit to beat surprise Robinson and the Boilermakers 62-61. Free throw shooting killed the Boilermakers as they hit just 8-of-20, and it was a one-man show as Big Dog scored 36 of the home team’s 61 points. Purdue had worked from being unranked to start the season to No. 8 in the contest. Yet this one didn’t cast Purdue the title, as a few weeks later, Robinson hit a game-winning shot at Michigan, capping an 8-0 run in the game’s last two minutes (he didn’t travel, did he?), and the first of Purdue’s Three-Pete titles came closer to reality. 

1995 Winning the league crown on Senior Day

No one gave Purdue much of a chance to win a Big Ten title. Robinson was gone to the NBA, and senior standouts Matt Waddell and Cuonzo Martin were coming off knee injuries. This game went to the wire, but Purdue weathered a Wolverines’ rally in the closing minutes to hang on to the win, thanks, in part, to a shot-clock beating hoop by point guard Porter Roberts that sealed the Boilermakers’ first consecutive outright league titles in school history. It was a memorable final home game for Waddell and Martin.

2006: Another surprise for a first-year coach

Wins were hard to come by in coach Matt Painter’s first season. He had only nine of them, after all. But there were flashes throughout the 2005-06 season, none more sore in a blowout win over No. 22 Michigan. Freshman Marcus Green, who was thrust into more minutes in his freshman year than he would have the final three seasons of his Boilermaker career, went off. He scored 22 points, hitting shots from almost anywhere enroute to a 84-70 win. Painter’s first team set the tone that has permeated all of Painter’s 20 years at the help. The Boilermakers played hard, real hard. 

2009: Not a glancing blow

He didn’t need any more evidence of being a tough guy. But Kramer inadvertently produced one of the most memorable moments in series history when he was the recipient of an elbow from Michigan’s Manny Harris early in the second half and the game very much in doubt. The play was ruled flagrant, and Harris, the Big Ten’s No. 2 scorer whom Kramer had frustrated to that point in the game, holding Harris to just five points, was booted from the game. Kramer left with his nose in a bloodied towel. It should have come as no surprise, but Kramer put on a mask and was back on the court four minutes later (in game time). Purdue’s 30-8 run after the incident help the home team to a 67-49 win and served as a key victory in a Big Ten regular season title campaign.

2018: Offensive Display

This game might have been the best exhibition of offensive basketball between two teams in Mackey Arena history. The final score was 94-88, but I remember most of the first nine minutes of the second half. It was up and down without a stoppage of play for about seven minutes as both teams executed on the offensive end of the court. Senior Vincent Edwards produced one of the most efficient high-scoring games in Boilermaker annals, scoring 30 points on just 11 shots. It was a classic matchup by a couple of offensive coaching gurus in Painter and Michigan headman John Beilein. 

More: Purdue-Michigan game notes for tonight | GoldandBlack.com Game Preview