PHOENIX – Making the Final Four in the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament can be notoriously difficult, with some Power 5 programs going decades between appearances.
This year is no different, with Alabama making its first appearance in the Final Four, as well as NC State reaching its first appearance since 1983’s championship run.
But for the Purdue Boilermakers, reaching the men’s Final Four marks not only their first appearance in the landmark event since 1980 but also a chance to avenge their past demons in the hunt for the program’s first championship.
This weekend’s stage at State Farm Stadium is unknown territory for Purdue and coach Matt Painter, who has never made it to the Final Four in his coaching career.
The top-seeded Boilermakers face No. 11 N.C. State to kick off the slate Saturday at 3:09 p.m., followed by No. 1 seed UConn against fourth-seed Alabama. The winners meet Monday night in the title game.
“You know, it’s the first time in my coaching career, my 31st year, that I ever had a practice in April. We’ve been to a lot of tournaments, we’ve been to that second weekend, but (to) be able to get to a Final Four and be able to get to Phoenix in (the) nice weather, it’s pretty cool,” Painter said Tuesday evening, shortly after the team landed in the Valley.
This is Painter’s 19th year as the coach of the Boilermakers, with his previous best finish in the tournament coming in 2019, when Purdue suffered an 80-75 overtime loss in the Elite Eight to the champion Virginia Cavaliers.
Painter led Purdue to 15 tournament appearances during that stretch, only missing the tournament three times, as well as the canceled tournament of 2020 due to the pandemic. And yet, with all of the tournament success, the team has struggled to advance to the final weekend.
