Cabrera: A Two Party System

Dr. James Naismith invented the game of basketball in Massachusetts in the late 1800s. But Massachusetts was already famous for other historic American happenings: the Pilgrims and Puritans, The Boston Tea Party and The Salem Witch Trials. With no space for basketball in Massachusetts, the sport had to find a new home.

That home: Indiana, the Hoosier State. It’s team: the Indiana University Hoosiers—a team that has held a dictatorship on basketball in the state of Indiana since its existence. But what happens when an authoritarian regime becomes weak and its opposition strengthens?

Purdue University, known for its engineering and occasionally good football teams, recently has made its presence felt in the basketball world, post Gene Keady era.

Last year, thousands of students pitched tents outside Mackey Arena in order to secure seats for the sold-out game versus Duke. As a 5-seed, Purdue fell to the 1-seed UCONN in a closely contested game in the Sweet 16. The winning culture has returned after young coach Matt Painter lead his Boilermakers to 3 straight years NCAA tournament appearances and a Big Ten Tournament Championship last year.

After its most successful year since 2000, the scary thought is that Purdue returns all 5 starters: E’Twaun Moore, JaJuan Johnson, Chris Kramer, Lewis Jackson, and of course, Robbie Hummel—a Hummel who played most of last year plagued by a broken vertebra. The sharp-shooting Moore, speedy Jackson, heady Kramer, athletically refined Johnson, and reliable Hummel present matchup problems for many teams.

The Big Ten is undoubtedly deep this year, with Championship runner-up Michigan State, Illinois, Ohio State and Michigan joining Purdue at the top. If Purdue can get solid contributions from their freshmen coming off the bench, the Boilermakers don’t only become a threat to win the Big Ten with a healthy Hummel, but a potential final four team. It always seems that a Big Ten team squeezes into the final four no matter how much chatter occurs about the Big East and ACC. The Boilermakers possess size, speed, athleticism, skill, and most importantly experience. So why not Purdue this year?

And even more importantly, why not Purdue in years to come? A certain coach can generate a winning, exciting culture at a University. Painter’s job is that much easier because of his young age at 39. Moreover, he can easily relate to the University, born in Muncie, Indiana and a Purdue alumnus who played for Gene Keady—Painter holds an ideal résumé for a Purdue University basketball coach. He’s using that résumé to land local recruits. While Tom Crean is busy rebuilding a deflated Hoosier program (which he will do very quickly), Purdue continues to steal many of the top homegrown, Hoosier recruits—shifting the talent northwest.

A small university named Duke bloomed into a basketball institution in the mid-1980s, creating the state of North Carolina into a two-party coalition. If Matt Painter continues to give his Boilermakers steam, conducting them deeper into the NCAA tournament, there is no reason why Purdue can’t create some room for West Lafayette in a Hoosier State. It might take some time, but dictatorships never last forever.