Six months of really great intensity
Posted: Saturday October 24, 1998 08:38 PM
From the season's first tip-off to its final buzzer, Purdue coach Gene Keady files a weekly column with CNNSI.com. In his 19th year as head coach of the Boilermakers, Keady provides an exclusive peek into the highlights, lowlights and sidelights of a full college basketball season. Follow one of the nation's top coaches within one of the nation's top conferences this season "From Midnight to March."
This is the first in a series of my weekly columns that you will be able to access at CNNSI.com between now and the end of the NCAA tournament in late March. Not only will this give you an in-depth look at the men's basketball program here at Purdue, but also a glimpse into what is happening in the world of college basketball across the country.
Let's jump right in.
We started our season as nearly 100-plus schools across the country do with a Midnight Madness celebration -- Purdue's own Mackey Magic. We had about 8,000 fans in Mackey Arena at the stroke of midnight on Saturday, October 17 to watch both our men's and women's teams conduct their first practices. It might be better to say we "staged" practice, because there's not much "accomplished." It's more of an event for the fans to get excited about the season. But with a tough schedule ahead, we will soon turn up the intensity.
I believe that if you play great teams early, and play in venues in front of large, vocal crowds, you will be able to cope with the pressures of playing in the NCAA tournament in March. Therefore, we usually play a schedule that includes teams that are ranked in the top 20 in the nation.
As our first practices begin, I don't know how this squad is going to respond to our excellent schedule. We start out with the Chase NIT where we host the University of Illinois-Chicago in the first round. If we win that game in Mackey, we'll then play the winner of the Gonzaga-Memphis game that's at Memphis. And of course if you win two, then you go to New York City and play in Madison Square Garden, which is one of the great, great places to play college basketball.
Our schedule isn't as tough as last year, but it's tough enough for a team that has seven new people and seven returners. As we get into the season, it's going to be interesting to see how we improve to replace our scorers from last season in Brad Miller and Chad Austin. There are several people who I think can do that, but it's going to be interesting to see who steps up. You never really know what to expect when thousands of eyeballs are watching young men -- whether they'll tighten up or play better or whatever the case may be.
We have a great deal of early concerns about improving our chemistry and our leadership, about who's going to be our leading scorers, about who's going to be our leading rebounders, about who's going to take care of the basketball under pressure, and about our press against great teams. But as I find the answers to these questions throughout the season, so will you. The insight into this season -- from the coaches' outlook to the players' outlook -- is going to be interesting, and I'll try to expose you to the long journey that we have this season. It's six months of really great intensity starting in October and hopefully ending in early April, but I'm looking forward to taking you along with us on the journey this season.
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