Purdue: 2026 Big Ten Men's Basketball Champions

 

CHICAGO — Oscar Cluff scored 21 points, Trey Kaufman-Renn had 20 and No. 18 Purdue topped No. 3 Michigan 80-72 on Sunday for the Big Ten Tournament championship.

Purdue: 2022-23 Big Ten Men's Basketball Champions

CHICAGO − If anyone doubted the validity of Purdue's regular-season Big Ten championship, the Boilermakers doubled down.

After running through the league and winning the title by three games, Purdue (29-5) beat Rutgers, Ohio State and Penn State on consecutive days to add a Big Ten tournament championship.

Piloted again by Zach Edey and a cast of eight solid role players, Purdue stopped a monumental week for the Nittany Lions on championship Sunday with a 67-65 victory in the United Center, surviving a late rally.

With 3.3 seconds left, Penn State's inbounds pass from the right wing was tipped by Edey, causing a scramble that resulted in a traveling violation on the Nittany Lions. With 0.6 of a second left, Purdue heaved a pass to the 7-foot-4 Edey, who swatted it away as time expired.

It is Purdue's second Big Ten tournament championship, with the first coming in 2009.

Edey also added to his postseason haul of awards, garnering Tournament Most Valuable Player to package with his Big Ten Player of the Year award.

3 stars

Zach Edey, Purdue: The Boilermakers trailed 4-0 after Penn State opened with two straight shots. Then Edey scored. Then he scored again. And Purdue's unstoppable force was just that. Edey went 12 of 17 from the field, finished with 30 points and 13 rebounds.

David Jenkins Jr., Purdue: Jenkins continued his hot shooting in the first half Sunday, going 3-for-5 from 3-point range in the opening 20 minutes, missing only on an attempt as the shot clock expired and on the final play of the first half. This week, Jenkins became the scoring punch Purdue needed off the bench, scoring 11 first-half points.

Purdue men's basketball: This third part is interchangeable and probably why the Boilermakers got just one player (Edey) on the Big Ten's first-, second- and third-teams. There's Edey. And there's a plethora of really good basketball players besides him. None consistently stand out, but at one time or another, all eight players aside from Edey in the rotation have stood out. Every player who saw the floor in the Big Ten Tournament championship - Edey, Jenkins, Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, Brandon Newman, Ethan Morton, Mason Gillis, Caleb Furst and Trey Kaufman-Renn - had big moments in Sunday's victory.

Key moment

Penn State can get hot from the outside and with Jalen Pickett, has one of the most dynamic players in the Big Ten.

When the Nittany Lions pulled within 40-36 with 16 minutes to go, it felt like an opportunity.

Purdue slammed that door shut immediately, holding Penn State to five points over the net seven-plus minutes and expanding that lead back to 14.

Ethan Morton slid into the paint on a Seth Lundy drive and drew a charge with 8:21 to go. This is the stuff that gets Purdue coaches excited more than flashy passes or 3-point shooting. The United Center erupted as Morton pounded the floor with both hands in celebration after the charge.

Penn State was able to cut the lead to four with 1:55 to go, but the Boilermakers went back to old reliable, getting it down low to Edey, who turned and put in a shot off the glass. Purdue needed every bit of that separation.

Myles Dread hit a 3, then Penn State stole the ensuing inbounds pass and cut the deficit to 66-65. Loyer made 1 of 2 free throws with 6.4 seconds remaining.

Key stat

When Purdue struggled this season, it was plagued by turnovers.

Needing to elevate its level of play heading into the NCAA tournament, the Boilermakers were masterful in taking care of the basketball on Sunday.

Purdue turned the ball over just seven times. If there's one concern, its' that three of those came in the final minutes that kept Penn State in striking distance.

Purdue: 2021 Music City Bowl Champions

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- — Purdue came into the Music City Bowl short-handed and banged-up, particularly at wide receiver.

The Boilermakers are going home winners after a game that had people clicking over to catch an amazing finish.

Mitchell Fineran kicked a 39-yard field goal in overtime and Purdue finished off its best season since 2003 by overcoming a 14-point deficit and beating Tennessee 48-45 on Thursday in a record-setting Music City Bowl.

Purdue's Aidan O'Connell threw for 534 yards and five touchdowns with three interceptions. He couldn't explain the final five minutes of regulation as the teams combined to score four TDs — two apiece.

"It's why you love the game, it's why it keeps bringing you back," O'Connell said. "The fact it's unknown. No one knows what's going to happen. It's not a movie or TV show where the actors get retries. It seems like the world's watching and anything could happen."

Purdue (9-4) tied for the second-most wins in program history as only the 12th team in the Boilermakers' 134-year history to win nine games. They also won their fifth game away from home, something they hadn't done since 1943.

"We found a way to just barely win," Purdue coach Jeff Brohm said.

Tennessee (7-6) missed a chance to make Josh Heupel the first Vols coach to cap his debut season with a bowl win since Bill Battle won the 1971 Sugar Bowl. The Vols also snapped a four-game bowl victory streak with a loss that dropped the Southeastern Conference to 1-5 this bowl season.

The teams combined for 1,293 yards of total offense — second-most in overall bowl history, trailing only the 1,397 yards Baylor and Washington had in the 2011 Alamo Bowl. Tennessee became the 10th team in bowl game history to run 100 or more plays, and the combined 185 plays rank seventh.

This high-scoring game featured a flurry of big plays and points in the final five minutes only to see Purdue's defense make the deciding play.

On the first possession of overtime, Jamar Brown and Kieren Douglas stopped Vols running back Jaylen Wright short on fourth-and-goal. The stop was upheld on review for Wright's forward progress being stopped despite Wright reaching the ball over the goal line before the whistle without a knee touching the ground while laying on top of Douglas.

"I love these guys," Heupel said. "They fight, they scratch, they claw and they compete. We came up a play short."

Tennessee quarterback Hendon Hooker watched the replay on the large video board and was excited.

"I thought we scored, but you know it's a tough call," Hooker said. "Feels like me and my teammates gave it our all.

After Purdue ran three plays, Fineran sealed the victory with his fourth field goal of the game, sending the Boilermakers running down the field in celebration after what Brohm called a "a crazy game."

"It really picked up there at the end," Brohm said.

The Vols had a final chance to win in regulation, but Chase McGrath's 56 yard field goal fell well short.

Tennessee finished with 639 yards total offense and Purdue had 623 in regulation — both bowl records before overtime. O'Connell easily set the yards passing record, well above the 383 Mike Glennon had with N.C. State.

Purdue came in without a pair of All-Americans in defensive end George Karlaftis and wide receiver David Bell, both prepping for the NFL draft, with a receiving corps further thinned by injuries. Broc Thompson, who needs offseason surgery on both knees, filled in with seven catches for a game-high 217 yards and two TDs.

The Boilermakers had a chance to keep this finish from being quite so exciting. But they settled for three field goals in the second quarter and only led 23-21 at halftime. Tennessee led 31-30 after the third.

Hooker finished with 378 yards passing. Tillman had three touchdowns on seven receptions for 150 yards, and Jabari Small ran for 180 yards. Small wasn't available in overtime with Heupel saying he was fighting "some things" all through the game.

THE TAKEAWAYS

Tennessee: The Vols set a single-season record with 511 points, topping the 484 scored in 12 games in 1993. ... The Vols brought out a record crowd of 69,489 topping the previous mark of 69,143 set in 2010 when Tennessee also played in this bowl.

Purdue: Brohm said his Boilermakers had a lot of wide receivers, and they tapped that depth in this game. O'Connell spread the ball around connecting with nine receivers.

PENALTY ISSUES

The Vols were flagged 14 times for 128 yards.

"End of the day you can't control when they yellow hankies come out," Heupel said. "There's some things I don't agree with. Yeah, everyone knows that. But it's about what we can control."

UP NEXT

Tennessee is set up nicely for 2022. Tillman, who came into this season with eight career catches, finished with the Vols' first 1,000-yard season since 2012. He's already announced he's returning next season along with Hooker, tight ends Jacob Warren and Princeton Fant and a handful of other Vols.

Purdue has O'Connell coming back along for 2022, giving Brohm a chance to build on an offense that threw the ball more than any other team in school history.

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Purdue: 2017 Foster Farms Bowl Champions

SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- When Elijah Sindelar took the field for Purdue's late comeback attempt in a bowl game he thought back on a failed opportunity in a similar situation in the season opener.

The difference from that interception he threw against Louisville to a bowl-game winning touchdown against Arizona sums up the progress the Boilermakers made in their first season under coach Jeff Brohm.

Sindelar threw a 38-yard touchdown pass to Anthony Mahoungou with 1:44 remaining and Purdue capped its most successful season in years in dramatic style with a 38-35 victory over Arizona in the Foster Farms Bowl on Wednesday night.

"I just did not want to do that again," Sindelar said about his interception in the opener. "I remembered that feeling, I was going to try to do everything I could to make sure we didn't have to experience that again."

The Boilermakers (7-6) had squandered a 17-point halftime lead when Khalil Tate threw his fifth TD pass with 3:21 remaining to give the Wildcats (7-6) the lead.

But Sindelar responded with a 75-yard drive that ended with the deep throw into the end zone to Mahoungou, giving the Boilermakers their first winning record since 2011 and first bowl win over a major conference team since beating Washington in the 2002 Sun Bowl. Purdue had won only nine games in the previous four seasons before Brohm arrived.

"That's a memory you'll cherish for the rest of your life," Brohm said "They definitely earned it because they put in the hard work, have gone through the adversity and continued to hang in there."

Sindelar threw for 396 yards and four touchdowns, with Mahoungou (118 yards) and Gregory Phillips (149) each topping the 100-yard mark and catching two TD passes.

Tate was just as good, showing he can win with his arm as well as he can with his legs that carried him to 1,353 yards rushing in the regular season. Tate threw for 302 yards and five touchdowns but his late interception to Jacob Thieneman ended the comeback attempt.

"They made one more play than we did at the end to win," coach Rich Rodriguez said. "It's pretty simple. Give them credit but I'm also pretty excited about the future."

Brohm pulled out all the stops, going for it three times on fourth down, calling a couple of flea-flickers and using an innovative trick play on a fake kneel down to set up a field goal at the end of the first half that made it 31-14.

THE TAKEAWAY

Purdue: The Boilermakers were dynamic in the 31-point first half, showing off offensive prowess that was rarely seen on a consistent basis during the regular season. The offense stalled mostly in the second half before the winning score. The most promising drive before that ended when Markell Jones got stopped just short of the first-down marker on a fourth-down pass.

Arizona: The Boilermakers managed to keep Tate's electric running in check, holding him to just 58 yards on 20 carries. But that opened up space for him to exploit them with downfield throws and he had career highs in touchdown passes and yards passing.

DISPUTED PLAY

Arizona was still steaming after the game about the fake kneel down at end of the first half on a play Purdue practiced all season.

The Boilermakers took over at their 32 with 56 seconds left after Tate lost a fumble. Purdue appeared to be taking a knee on the play to run out the clock, but running back D.J. Knox was crouching hidden behind a guard. Sindelar then handed the ball to Knox, who waited a second as the linemen stood and then ran around left end for a 30-yard gain that helped set up the field goal.

Rodriguez thought it should have been a dead play because he said the officials told his players not to rush.

"If the refs tells us it's a kneel it's really a dead play," linebacker Tony Fields II said. "We can't do anything as linebackers or DBs. They don't even want us to rush the quarterback because that's an injury prevention thing. They got us."

Brohm successfully ran a similar play in the Boca Raton Bowl last year at Western Kentucky.

THEY SAID IT


Mahoungou hurt his shoulder the play before his winning catch but wasn't going to leave the game. He drew on a saying from position coach JaMarcus Shephard.

"He says, `Don't tell me how rough the seas are, just bring me the damn ship," Mahoungou said. "So I just had to bring the damn ship."

UP NEXT

Purdue: The Boilermakers will try to build on Brohm's successful first season. They start with a tough conference test when they host Northwestern on Aug. 30.

Arizona: The Wildcats are excited to see what a full season with Tate at quarterback looks like. The 2018 campaign will start at home against BYU on Sept. 1.