I started writing about Purdue sports in August of 2006, when I began this adventure as the creatively named “Boilermaker Football Blog. That first year I did only football, then it evolved into Off the Tracks before SB Nation picked it up and it was renamed as Hammer & Railed in February 2009. I am approaching 16 years of writing about Purdue sports, and some of you are still around from those very early days.
In that time I have written well over a million words about Purdue sports, with basketball often being at the center. The men’s basketball program is the premier program at Purdue. It carries our hopes and dreams more than others. Football had an unexpected 9-4 season with a bowl win and two top 5 upsets just months ago. That was a tremendous success and honestly about as good as it ever gets for us. Basketball though? That is the center.
It has led to some of the most painful columns I have written, such as the Little Rock collapse and the Virginia stomach punch. It has also led to some of the most hopeful writing I have produced, such as this year’s season primer, and last week’s one on catharsis, where it felt like we had finally slayed some of our most persistent March demons.
In 16 years, this may article be one of the hardest pieces I have written.
Sunday night it really felt like we had a breakthrough. The Texas game was the type of game we have seen Purdue lose a bunch, not only in previous NCAA Tournaments, but just this season alone. Finally, we had someone step up and hit the big shot to stop the collapse. Finally, we prevailed against the collective despair the fanbase often feels. Finally, this team was fulfilling the tremendous potential it had, and the path was wide to reach the Promised Land.
That feeling lasted five days.
There is a cruel irony in the way last night’s game ended. Four times this season, against Rutgers, Indiana, Michigan State, and Wisconsin, we saw our hopes and dreams crushed by a three-pointer in…