My Two Cents: Boiler Nation, Thank You For 6 Fun Years 'On SI'

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — There's a certain slam-the-door-shut finality to the NCAA Tournament. It's the nature of a one-and-done tournament, especially when the stakes are so high.

For 39 minutes and 59 seconds Friday night as Lucas Oil Stadium, there was still hope for Purdue to have another game, another day, maybe even another week. But when Houston scored on a crafty inbounds play in the final second, the Cougars won 62-60 and Purdue's season was over.

It was over for me, too.

I have thoroughly enjoyed being the publisher of our ''Purdue Boilermakers on SI'' since 2019, but it's time to call it quits. I'm going to be 67 later this year and I own eight different ''On SI'' sites. I don't want to work 80-90 hours a week anymore, and don't want to spend 130 nights a year in hotels.

Something has to give, so last year I decided that 2024-25 was going to be my final year covering college basketball both here and at my sister site to the south, ''Indiana Hoosiers on SI.'' I'm going to continue to do a little bit of major-league baseball and the NBA, but it's time to pass the baton on the college side. It's time to say goodbye here, and goodbye down south at the end of next month.

I'm thrilled to hand over publishing and ownership duties to this Purdue site to Dustin Schutte, who's been working with me for two years now and has done a terrific job covering the Boilers. He loves this job, and he'll do great. I hope you all continue to support him.

When we started this site six years ago, my bosses — who had years of experience at places like Scout and Rivals and 247 — said a Purdue site would never work. Too small of a fan base, they said. Won't do even a third of the pageviews and ad revenue of your Indiana site, they said.

But I wanted to try anyway. As a Northwest Indiana native, I grew up in Purdue country. I just didn't think it made any sense to have an Indiana site without a Purdue site. So I worked very hard to make sure they were both successful.

My bosses were partly right. It took a while. But we're cooking now with Dustin as the lead writer. How much so? Well, in February, our Purdue and Indiana sites were BOTH in the top-10 of your 75-team ''On SI'' college network with Sports Illustrated's team-specific sites.

We made it happen. Thank you.

So I can walk away to Florida now knowing full well that our Boilers readers are in good hands with Dustin. But as I leave, there are a lot of people I need to thank. First off, our business model is to provide all of our content — nearly 800 articles since Nov. 1 and almost 3 million pageviews — for free, We have no paywall, and no subscription.

We succeed by sharing all of your stories on social media and interacting with fans. So thank you to Facebook folks like Kraig Bowers and Christopher Thies and Jim Tanoos and John Hardesty and others for always supporting our work and allowing us to be a part of the Purdue family. It's greatly appreciated.

I first started covering Purdue basketball in the late 1970s, so I certainly can't leave without saying thank you to three of my all-time favorite people — Lee Rose, Gene Keady and Matt Painter. They have all made this experience so memorable.

I first met Lee Rose as a student at — well, you know — and he was always helpful to me in getting access to himself and his players. I wrote a lot about that 1980 team, beating Indiana in the NCAA Tournament and going to the Final Four. That was my first Final Four. He talked to me whenever I needed him, unlike his counterpart to the south. Rose and I both went to the Tampa Bay area in the summer of 1980 and we remained good friends right up until his death.

My favorite part of the past six years has been able to spend some time with Gene Keady. Every year, we'd get together for breakfast and talk for hours for a story. It meant a lot to be with him at the Final Four last year, and we got a picture against last week in Providence. I root hard for him to have continued good health.

And I can't say enough about Matt Painter, of course. He's always been accessible to me and my team in West Lafayette. He's a terrific coach, and a good person. Thank you, Matt, for all the time. It really meant a lot to me to cover the Final Four last year in Arizona, 44 years after my first one. The Phoenix area was overrun with Purdue fans, including many from my hometown. I loved sharing all of that with them.

None of what we do could get accomplished without Chris Forman, either. He's Purdue's basketball media relations leader, and he's one of the best in the business. He knew I was always trying to pull double duty, but he also helped me out of some real time crunches and was great with credentials and making sure we got all we needed. I covered close to 100 Purdue games the last six years, and Chris was greart.

Lastly, there are a lot of players I need to thank. I've been doing for a long time, and for me, this is ALWAYS a players' game. And it should be.

When NIL was thrust upon us in 2021, the first call I made was to Sasha Stefanovic, whom I had known since his high school days at Crown Point. I asked him if he wanted to do a weekly podcast with me, and he jumped at the chance. He was entertaining as hell, and he enjoyed getting paid, too. That mattered much more four years ago than it would today.

We had a great time. The folks at Mad Mushroom were gracious enough to sponsor the ''Sasha Live'' show, and we had a great time at their place. Fans loved it. Sasha was there every week, and he'd bring along guests like Zach Edey, Jaden Ivey, Trevion Williams, Eric Hunter Jr. and more. It was so much fun hanging out on campus. We enjoyed the "Boilers Live'' podcasts too with Aidan O'Connell and Payne Durham and others. I was happy to provide that NIL support to Purdue athletes.

Thanks to all of them, especially Sasha. Every time we're in the same arena, he always comes over to shake my hand and chat. I'm so glad he's back at Purdue and doing such a great job on the coaching staff. He'll be a great head coach someday.

I appreciate all the time from the current guys, too, especially Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer and Trey Kaufman-Renn. Travel conflicts were really tough this year, but I enjoyed being around them for a third of the schedule or so. They're great kids — and they've provided you Purdue fans with a lot of great memories. Don't ever forget that.

And lastly, thanks to all of you. We do our best to provide great content every day, and I appreciate you all absorbing so much of it. It's been an absolute blast to call Mackey Arena a second home the past six years, and I can tell you from the bottom of my heart that I'm really going to miss it. I'm that big of a fan of college basketball, and there is nothing out there that will replace watching that sport in the state of Indiana every winter. I've loved all of my Big Ten travels

It's no Braden Smith pass, but passing this site to Dustin is pretty darn close. I'll look forward to just being a reader now.

Thank you all. And bye for now. One more goodbye next month.