Last year’s marketing slogan was “Our State”, playing off of the state of Indiana’s love affair with basketball and Purdue’s desire to be the best team here. Indiana only has 10 Division I basketball programs, but it regularly gets 3-4 into the tournament with several doing damage. Indiana, Purdue, Notre Dame, and Butler all have a proud tournament history, but Indiana State has been to a Final Four, Ball State and Valparaiso have been to Sweet 16s, and Evansville has a strong history before joining Division I.
Yes, it is a basketball crazed state, but after yesterday Purdue needs just one more win to have a complete set of victories over all nine Division I programs in our last matchup with them.