For Purdue basketball, there were times during the regular season where the fan base brought a Mackey Arena like atmosphere on the road.
It was like that at Michigan, and at Indiana. And, odds are good, it will be like that tonight at Gainbridge Fieldhouse when the top seeded Boilermakers open the NCAA Tournament against 16th seed Grambling State in Indianapolis.
Gainbridge Fieldhouse is about 60 miles from Purdue’s campus and a place Purdue basketball is already familiar with, having knocked off then-number one Arizona earlier this season.
For Purdue basketball, the opportunity to play in front of a local crowd that can be loud and hostile is something they call, “special.
“It’s something we’ve worked for, something we’ve earned, to be here in the Midwest, the number one seed. It’s really cool. It’s something we won’t take for granted, to, hopefully, have a sold out crowd with a bunch of Boilermaker fans in the crowd. It’s something really cool and it’s something we are looking forward to,” guard Fletcher Loyer said.
For Zach Edey, this will be the Purdue big man’s final games inside the Hoosier State.
“It’s cool to be close to Purdue, close to where we’re living at and, probably, have a lot of fans at these games,” Edey said.
While it is “cool,” Purdue basketball coach Matt Painter admits there was a lot of work that went into having the opportunity to play in Indianapolis.
Painter said his team fought to get back into the position it finds itself in — the number one seed in the Midwest and playing in Indianapolis.
“But we’ve got to do our part. I always say when you have a good fan base or you have a full house, you still have to play well for that to be an advantage. If you don’t play well, they’re not an advantage because they have nothing to cheer about,” Painter said.
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