Close calls, heartbreak and surprises: Gene Keady's 5 best Purdue basketball teams
Gene Keady goes into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend.
Keady spent 25 seasons as Purdue head coach, reaching 17 NCAA tournaments and winning 512 games and six Big Ten titles.
His teams failed to break through and reach a Final Four, but produced some great basketball and moments Boilermakers fans won't soon forget. Here are the five best Keady-coached Purdue teams.
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5. 1999-2000 — 24-10, Elite Eight
"I don't think you can call us a great team, but I think it's a good team that does two or three things pretty well. The most important thing about this team is that the players like each other." — Gene Keady
This team gets bonus points for March success... because well, you know....
Preseason No. 23, Purdue started the year 9-5, including a 20-point loss to Ball State (without an injured Brian Cardinal).
"I'm not sure we could've beat (Ball State) with him," Keady said of Cardinal's absence. "When you're missing your heart, you've got a problem. The thing is, somebody else has to step up and make something happen. If your heart is out, find a new heart."
Three of the other losses were by two points (N.C. State, UCLA and Michigan in OT), so while there were alarm balls, it wasn't a lost cause. And a team with five seniors and a starting lineup with an average age of 22 was able to right the ship, winning 12 of its next 14 games.
However, a regular-season finale loss to IU at Assembly Hall cost Purdue a Big Ten title share with Michigan State and Ohio State.
"From the beginning of the summer, we knew we had a good club," Cardinal said. "We knew we had depth and experience. Early on, we struggled. We didn't know certain things about each other, and we weren't physically or mentally tough enough. Throughout the year, we developed both those characteristics with coach Keady teaching us."
Purdue rode some hot-outside shooting (including a few unexpected 3s from Chad Kerkhof) and held off Dayton, 62-61, in a physical first round NCAA tournament matchup. The second-round win over Oklahoma (66-62) wasn't much easier but had the Boilers in a third-straight Sweet 16.
This group finally got over the hump and into the Elite Eight with a 75-66 win over a favored Gonzaga team, leaving a matchup with a familiar foe between the Boilers and the Final Four: Wisconsin.
Purdue split the regular-season series with the Badgers, but lost to them in the Big Ten tournament.
After taking a one-point lead with 6:56 left, the Boilers didn't make another field goal until 56 seconds left and saw its closest shot at a Final Four — one that would be played in Indianapolis — slip through its fingertips.
Cardinal was asked afterward about not getting Keady to that elusive Final Four.
“I wish we could’ve” Cardinal said. “If anybody deserves it, he does. It’s just too bad.”
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4. 1995-96 — 26-6, Big Ten champions
"Coach said before this year began, he thought this could be one of his best teams ever because we didn't have any great players, but we didn't have any bad ones. And he got these guys to accept their roles... and like them." — Frank Kendrick then-assistant coach
Purdue entered the year with a No. 24 preseason ranking and six returning seniors. But it was two sophomores (Chad Austin and Brad Miller) who took the lead and pushed the Boilers to become the first to win three straight Big Ten outright titles since Bob Knight did it... as a player at Ohio State in 1960-62.
It was a personally-trying season for Keady. His daughter, Lisa, suffered a major head injury after falling in her kitchen on Jan. 10. And soon after, Keady's dad, Lloyd, died of respiratory failure.
"It's been a special year for me because the seniors carried the load at home, and the assistant (coaches) carried me when I was gone, and my wife (Pat) carried me at the other end, and when my father died, my sister (Norma) carried me in California. I've had great support," Keady said after he was awarded 1996 AP National Coach of the Year.
The Boilers dominated the Big Ten. Notable wins were the 24-point blowout of No. 10 Iowa, a 21-point road win at No. 20 Michigan and a 74-72 road triumph over IU at Assembly Hall.
Purdue entered the NCAA tournament with a No. 1 seed and No. 4 national ranking... but once again March success proved elusive. The Boilers had to survive two last-second shots from Western Carolina to avoid first-round disaster.
“I was thinking we could make history by being the first No. 1 seed to get beat by a No. 16, that’s the kind of history I make,” Keady said afterward.
The Boilers weren't as lucky in the second round against Georgia. With Purdue up 24-20, the Bulldogs went on a 20-2 run and led 48-35 at halftime and Purdue couldn't catch up. It was Purdue's fourth second-round exit in its past eight tournaments.
"It seems to be the history of Purdue that if you go back and check us the last 12 years of the tournament, we'll get ahead and then not sustain that," Keady said. "I don't know whether that's the talent level or our system, but that's happened to us a lot. I don't know why, but I want to get it corrected."
Purdue finished the season 26-6, but the record book says 8-24 because of later forfeitures. Luther Clay, a freshman on the 1995-96 team, was ruled ineligible because an NCAA investigation found he received an impermissible bank loan.
"The biggest disappointment about the outcome is that we are asked to forfeit 24 games because of the participation of a former player who had minimal impact on our success in those games," Keady said.
Despite the forfeits, the Big Ten let the Boilers keep their conference title.
3. 1986-87 — 25-5, Big Ten champions
"I think it's in there. I think it's the same problem we've had, I don't think we have many NBA prospects. Yeah, I think we've got the makeup for a Big Ten championship, I'm not sure it's next year. I'll be a little more secure with that when our sophomores are seniors." — Gene Keady said after the 1985-86 season.
Purdue's 1984 recruiting class was ahead of their coach's schedule, but right on time of theirs.
The class of Troy Lewis, Todd Mitchell and Everette Stephens set a goal of making Purdue, in Lewis' words "a national team" by the time they were juniors.
Achievement unlocked.
With four returning starters, including Lewis and Mitchell, who were second-team All-Big Ten the previous year, Purdue began the season ranked No. 4 and never fell below No. 7 the entire season.
Purdue lost big games to then-No. 4 North Carolina, then-No. 1 Iowa, then-No. 4 Indiana and the fiasco at Michigan (a 104-68! loss) that cost Purdue the outright Big Ten title and a No. 1 seed in the NCAA. But the Boilers finished 15-3 in a conference that featured four of the top-11 ranked teams in the final AP poll.
"What we did in March at Michigan still baffles me," Keady said ahead of the 1987-88 season. "I've had 4,000 people ask me about that, but if I would've known what it was I wouldn't have let it happen in the first place."
The loss pushed the Boilers to a No. 3 seed and first-round matchup with Northeastern. Reggie Lewis scored 23 points for the Huskies, but Doug Lee had a bonkers game for Purdue. He hit six 3s on his way to 29 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and was 10-of-14 from the field in a 104-95 win.
In the second round, future NBA players Vernon Maxwell (24 points) and Dwayne Schintzius (21 points) pushed Florida past Purdue for a pretty comfy 85-66 win, marking the fifth year in a row the Boilers exited the NCAA tournament's first weekend.
"It's a mystery to me why we can play so well during the season, but can't play well in big games like this," Keady said afterward.
2. 1987-88 — 29-4, Big Ten champions, Sweet 16
"Why is this our year? I hope that we're the best we've ever been, but how do you know?" — Gene Keady prior to the season.
Ranked No. 2 in the preseason and with four returning starters and seven of their top-eight contributors back from a Big Ten championship team, Purdue wasn't going to sneak up on anybody this year.
The Boilers lost the second game of the season, 104-96 at home to a middling Iowa State team, but went on to win their next 16 games. They cruised to an outright Big Ten title with a dominating 16-2 record, the program's best league mark since going 13-1 in 1968-69, and set a new school record for wins in a season.
"One of the hardest things to do in any sport is to be predicted to be first and then go ahead and do it," Keady said. "That's special to me, especially the way we did it. We won by so many games, and that's difficult to do in this league. A lot of that has to go to our seniors, because they did a great job of leading us."
Purdue entered the NCAA tournament with a No. 1 seed, but there was plenty of skepticism considering the Boilers' propensity for early March exits.
Against No. 16 seed Fairleigh Dickinson (ugh, not these guys...), Melvin McCants was unstoppable (11-of-15 for 26 points) in a 94-79 first round win. Memphis State didn't offer much more resistance in the second round, a 100-73 cruise-control win for the first Boilers team under Keady to reach the tournament's second weekend.
"It's a new feeling for us ... we get to practice some more," Keady said.
A Sweet 16 date in Detroit with Kansas State was next. Purdue had beat Kansas State, 101-72 in December, so Purdue fans began to dream: 'Maybe this is our year!'
Mitch Richmond (27 points) and William Scott (5-of-5 on 3s) put an end to those hopes as the Wildcats rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit to win 73-70.
"It was a very rewarding season," Keady said. "We won the league title outright, we made improvement throughout the year and we reached the final 16. I took the loss to (Kansas State) very hard. I tried not to, but when you put your heart and soul into it... I wanted to see us get to the Final Four. I felt more relaxed this year than any year. We gave it our best shot."
Todd Mitchell, part of what was then Purdue's winningest senior class added: "Right now the loss stands out more. But when we have more time to think about it, we'll realize we had a great year. We had as much fun as any team could ever have, and we accomplished things that most teams in the country can't say they did."
1. 1993-94 — 29-5, Big Ten champions, Elite Eight
Preseason predictions didn't expect much from this group. But those forecasts underestimated the utter dominance of Glenn Robinson.
Robinson led the nation in scoring (30.3 points per game), was the clear national player of the year and helped lead the Boilers to No. 3 in the polls and a No. 1 seed.
Purdue opened the season a school-record 14-0, finished regular season with a 26-4 record. Its four losses all came in the Big Ten — by a total of 12 points.
Robinson scored a career-high 49 points in an 87-77 win over Illinois to wrap up the Boilers’ first Big Ten title since 1988.
“I’ve never seen anything like the performance of Glenn Robinson,” Illinois coach Lou Henson said. “… I’ve never seen a player make such an impact on the Big Ten.”
The Big Ten title was nice, but it wasn't the priority. Keady emphasized that elusive March breakthrough.
“Coach said at the beginning of the season he wasn’t going to worry about the Big Ten,” Robinson said. “We’re going to worry about making some noise in the tournament.”
“We want to get to the Final Four. It’s that simple," Keady said. "I’ve wanted to win for Purdue’s sake and for our sake. I don’t like not playing in March. I don’t like going home and watching it on TV, and I especially don’t like it when they’re ripping me about my NCAA percentage. Nobody wants to do well in the NCAA more than I do.
“I don’t know whether this the year or not. I know if we don’t do it, if we get beat the first game, it’s still been a fun team to coach.”
Robinson's 31 points and 20 from Cuonzo Martin eased the Boilers past Central Florida in the first round, 98-67, and Purdue exorcised some SEC demons with a an 83-73 win over Alabama to reach its first Sweet 16 since 1988. Robinson went for 33.
In the Sweet 16, Purdue beat Kansas basically 2-on-5. Robinson (44) and Martin (29; eight 3s) scored a combined 73 of Purdue’s 83 points, booking the program's first trip to the Elite Eight since the 1980 Final Four team.
But against Duke in the Elite Eight, Robinson and Martin couldn't repeat the magic. Robinson was held well below his season average (13 points on 6-of-22 shooting) and Duke's depth proved the difference in 69-60 Boilers defeat.
“I’m proud of our kids," Keady said. "This was a team that was picked sixth or eighth in our conference. Nobody ever thought we would get this far.”
Robinson added: “I’m not ashamed of our season at all. I think we proved a lot of you guys wrong. We’re not a one-man team. Before the season started, I looked at Sports Illustrated and Street and Smith. We were ranked 30th, 35th and 29th, and we fought our way all the way up to No. 3 in the AP poll. So we made some of you guys look like fools.”
Honorable mention: 1983-84, 22-7, Big Ten champions; 1989-90, 22-8; 1994-95, 25-7, Big Ten champions; 1997-98, 28-8, Sweet 16
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Purdue basketball history: Gene Keady's best Boilermakers teams
