Congratulations to the #11 Purdue men’s basketball team, on their clinching a share of the 2018-19 Big Ten Championship after defeating Northwestern, 70-57, at Welsh-Ryan Arena today. That gives them a record-setting 24th league title, and approximately 1/5 of all the Big Ten regular season conference titles that have been awarded.
Here is video of the final seconds ticking away, and the moment the Boilers officially became champs. Below that, you’ll find video of the trophy exiting the court.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/1104494765779890181
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/1104497365866688512
Purdue will share the league title with the winner of the Michigan at Michigan State game tonight. Purdue will be the #2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament, which starts on Wednesday. The Boilermakers achieved 16 Big Ten victories for just the second time in school history (1987-88 season).
We’ll have quotes from Matt Painter and Nojel Eastern later tonight, most likely audio and video too. Painter was excellent in his press conference today, he had a lot of insightful and thoughtful things to say.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/1104504668653318144
I've always been on the same page as Matt Painter with this….I've been saying for years, beware the nefarious influence of the recruiting service-industrial complex https://t.co/BaIKDAywyo
— Paul M. Banks (@PaulMBanks) March 9, 2019
Northwestern head coach Chris Collins gave a very meaningful press conference as well. He got very emotional when he addressed the media, one because it was senior day and two because he saw one of the cornerstone players of his program, senior forward Vic Law, go down with a gruesome looking knee injury.
More will be known about the extent of Law’s injury once testing and scans are complete.
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/1104500129074241538
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/1104500742226874368
Here’s video of the Chris Collins media session:
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/1104489180502081540
https://twitter.com/PaulMBanks/status/1104490280139538433
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.