Purdue column: Still irrelevant

Editor's Note: IDS columnist Avi Zaleon and Purdue Exponent columnist Anil Rao say just what they think about the other's basketball team in anticipation of the Saturday game.

I’d like to start off by congratulating Indiana University, YOU’RE BACK.

With your under .500 record in conference play, your amazing 2-32 record in the Big Ten on the road in four seasons under Tom Crean along with your 84-112 record against Purdue all-time, you’re back.

Never mind the fact that in a down year, Matt Painter and his Purdue team have an over .500 record in conference play and have won three games on the road in the Big Ten, THIS SEASON alone.

The logical, normal response for Indiana fans to this is to point to their five banners in Assembly Hall. Granted, five championships are impressive, but when you are supposed to be a blue-blood of the sport, it would be nice to see some success in the last 24 years after your most recent title. Instead, all Indiana has to show for it are less Big Ten titles, less Big Ten tournament titles and less wins total than Purdue over this same span of time.

Although its recent past is pretty miserable, the worst part of the program are the Hoosier fans. These are fans that chanted Kelvin Sampson’s name in unity during his last game in Bloomington after NCAA rule violations. In 2009, they racially taunted former Maryland Terrapin Greivis Vasquez and called for him to be “deported.”

These are also the same reversible jacket fans who won’t bother to to support their school’s football team and instead cheer for Notre Dame.

If Indiana students had any class, dignity and intelligence they could be something the whole state of Indiana would be proud of. Then again, if they had those traits they would probably go to Purdue.

With the exclusion of recent addition of Nebraska, Indiana University is academically the weakest school in the Big Ten according U.S. News and World Reports. Try telling a future employer that you go to one of the biggest party school in the nation.

As Indiana alumnus and Indiana Business Journal columnist Bill Benner once said, “Boilermakers everywhere are enjoying a hearty last laugh. I never thought I say it, but the bumper sticker I long ago detested is true. Purdue is the Indiana university.”

Hopefully, Hoosier fan across the state enjoyed their beating of out-of-state rival Kentucky, because Saturday, they will be rightfully put in their place as second-fiddle in Indiana.