Which Hoosier Hometown Wins Purdue Fantasy Bracketology?
Instead of filling out an NCAA tournament bracket this week and losing to someone who picked winners by school mascots, I decided on an eight-team fantasy tournament based on the hometowns of Purdue basketball players.
The top seed as voted upon by me is Fort Wayne, which edged Indianapolis for the honor. Both cities have sent very talented players to West Lafayette but the depth of talent from Allen County was the edge.
Picture this starting lineup: Walter Jordan, Rapheal Davis, Caleb Swanigan, Eugene Parker and Ricky Hall. Coming off the bench is Fletcher Loyer, Tony Jones, the father and son team of Greg and Grady Eifert, Alan Eldridge and Caleb Furst.
Jordan, a 6-7 forward, scored 1,813 points as a Boilermaker. Davis and Hall are former Big Ten Defensive Players of the Year. Parker scored 1,430 points and was a four-year starter alongside Jordan from 1974 to 1978. Swanigan was Big Ten Player of the Year in 2017 and one of the greatest rebounders to wear gold and black.
Indianapolis also boasts a Big Ten Player of the Year in JaJuan Johnson, whose length at 6-11 and ability to shoot outside made him a difficult defensive matchup. Who better than Billy Keller to play point guard while also being a threat from outside? According to his Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame biography, Willie Merriweather was versatile enough to play all five positions at 6-5. Merriweather was an All-American selection in 1959.
Frank Kendrick could score (1,269 points in three seasons) and rebound (664 career), making him a perfect fit alongside Johnson and Merriweather. It was a close call for shooting guard, but Joe Sexson gets the nod over David Teague and Mel Garland. Sexson left Purdue as its all-time leading scorer and most notably was the Boilermakers’ first Indiana Mr. Basketball winner.
Team Indianapolis fields a strong bench with Teague, Garland, 1934 All-American Emmett Lowery and Terone Johnson.
Glenn Robinson leads third-seeded Gary in this fantasy tournament. The 1994 College Player of the Year and 1991 Indiana Mr. Basketball is part of a strong front line that includes first-team All-Big Ten selections A.J. Hammons and Jim Bullock. The 7-foot Hammons is another former Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year. Bullock averaged 14.2 points and 6.6 rebounds as a senior in 1985.
In the backcourt, Kenneth Lowe was a two-time Big Ten Defensive Player of the year (2003-04). Wilson Eison, the 1955 Indiana Mr. Basketball, averaged 18.7 points and 13 rebounds a game as a senior in 1959. The Gary bench isn’t deep after brothers Gary and Greg McQuay.
Evansville earns the No. 4 seed, led by 1966 national scoring champion Dave Schellhase. All-Big Ten forward Bob Ford scored 1,244 points from 1970-72, and 6-10 Matt Kiefer fills out the front line.
Larry Weatherford, who was overshadowed by Rick Mount and Billy Keller early in his Purdue career, averaged 21.1 points as a senior in 1971. The other guard is more famous for his primary sport. Bob Griese played varsity basketball as a sophomore before wisely devoting all of his time to an eventual Hall of Fame football career.
Speaking of Mount, he carries the offensive load for fifth-seeded Lebanon, which fields a four-guard/one forward lineup. It’s a family fantasy team that features Mount’s son, Rich, and the Walker brothers. Brian Walker was the point guard on the 1980 Final Four team, and elder brother Steve, the tallest Lebanon player at 6-5, was the sixth man.
The fifth starter is 1921 consensus All-American Donald White, who led the Big Ten in scoring as a senior.
Another guard-heavy team is sixth-seeded South Bend. NBA Draft lottery pick Jaden Ivey of the Detroit Pistons is joined by high-scoring guard Jaraan Cornell. Point guard Brandon McKnight also has Darmetreis Kilgore as a third scoring option.
Ed Ehlers, a 6-3 forward in the 1940s, was one of the greatest athletes of his time. His coach at South Bend Central? John Wooden.
In addition to being the first draft pick in Boston Celtics history, Ehlers was selected in the 31st round of the 1947 NFL Draft by the Chicago Bears. He also spent three seasons with the New York Yankees organization and two with the Chicago Cubs.
East Chicago earns the seventh seed thanks to guard E’Twaun Moore, one of six 2,000-point scorers in Purdue history. Drake Morris was a starting forward for the 1980 Final Four team and ended up with 1,250 career points. Brandon Brantley was an undersized center at 6-8 but nonetheless helped Purdue win three Big Ten championships in the 1990s.
Don Beck was another undersized center in his time. The 6-5 Beck averaged 9.5 and 11 rebounds per game as a junior and senior in the mid 1950s. Beck averaged 12.2 points a game as a senior.
After leading East Chicago Washington to the 1960 Indiana state title, Phil Dawkins started for three seasons at Purdue, playing three different positions.
Lafayette gets the eighth seed with quantity, if not quality depth. Jewell Young was a two-time consensus All-American guard and a two-time Big Ten scoring champion. Young’s running mate with Lafayette Jeff in the 1930s, John Sines, played pro basketball after his Purdue days with the Indianapolis Kautskys.
Denny Brady was the first of three consecutive Indiana Mr. Basketball winners recruited to Purdue. Brady led Lafayette Jeff to a state title in 1964 but gave up his senior season at Purdue to sign a pro baseball contract with the Cleveland Indians organization.
Lafayette Jeff graduate Dennis Blind was Purdue’s first 1,000-point scorer, and Central Catholic alumnus Henry Ebershoff was a strong No. 2 scorer (15.1 as a junior, 15.8 as a senior) next to Dave Schellhase for George King’s first two Purdue squads.
The bench is led by 6-9 Ryan Berning of Lafayette Jeff, a good outside shooter for Gene Keady from 1986 to 1990. Edward Elliott, the son of former Purdue president Edward C. Elliott, played center for three Big Ten championship teams from 1934-36 after his playing days at Lafayette Jeff.
One of the more popular Purdue players in recent memory is Bobby Riddell. The former Harrison High School standout is now the analyst on Purdue men’s basketball radio broadcasts.
Ted Dunn was a 6-5 center who followed Jeff teammate Blind across the Wabash River and started as a junior and a senior. The father-son tandem of John and Dru Anthrop, who starred at Central Catholic, provide guard depth.
Smith goes 4-for-4
Braden Smith became a consensus first-team All-America guard, adding honors from The Associated Press, the United States Basketball Writers Association and the National Association of Basketball Coaches this week in addition to his previous selection from The Sporting News.
Smith is the seventh consensus All-American under coach Matt Painter, joining JaJuan Johnson (2011), Caleb Swanigan (2017), Carsen Edwards (2019), Jaden Ivey (2022) and Zach Edey (2023, 2024). No school has had three consensus All-Americans during the past three seasons. Purdue has had an All-American in four straight seasons, the longest streak in the country.
Smith took averages of 16.1 points, 8.7 assists, 4.6 rebounds and 2.2 steals per game into Purdue’s NCAA tournament opener Thursday against High Point.
The Indiana Mr. Basketball from Westfield also made the 10-man semifinalist list for the Naismith Trophy, given annually to the nation’s top college basketball player.
Short-term memory
Despite having two first-team All-Big Ten players and a third returning starter from last year’s NCAA runner-up team, Purdue was a popular upset pick by some in the national media when the tournament draw was announced Sunday.
The Boilermakers weren’t lacking for believers, however. Eddie Timanus of USA Today lists Purdue as a sleeper in the Midwest Regional, headed by Houston, Tennessee and Kentucky.
“Purdue will not be favored to make it back to championship weekend and just getting through the first couple of rounds will be difficult. But they have plenty of experienced hands including a couple other starters who are familiar with the pressures of March.
While noting a 13 seed has defeated a No. 4 seed in all but two NCAA tournaments, Daniel Chavkin of the Sporting News says High Point defeating Purdue “feels improbable.”
“It feels like Purdue is a year away from unleashing a monster, as nearly the Boilermakers’ entire core is eligible to return next season. This Purdue team is very good, but it hasn’t looked the part of a Final Four contender after last year’s run to the national championship game.
“The scoring options get remarkably thin after (Braden Smith, Trey Kaufman-Renn and Fletcher Loyer). … Size is also an issue for Purdue, which dropped from 10th nationally in rebounds last season to 315th without Zach Edey.”
Smith, Kaufman-Renn and Loyer combine to average 50.1 points per game. Freshman guard C.J. Cox is Purdue’s No. 4 scorer at 5.9.
“In the first round, it’s easy to envision Smith’s playmaking ability, Kaufman-Renn’s scoring and Loyer’s shooting overwhelming an opponent,” Chavkin writes. “Unless someone else can step up, a deep run is much harder to envision, though coach Matt Painter continues to get the most out of his teams.
“The Boilermakers have the talent advantage and the matchup advantage, which means they should be able to hold off the upset. Purdue may not replicate its Final Four run from last year, but it feels like the Boilermakers got a good break facing a team whose defense is its biggest weakness.”
Amazingly, Purdue’s streak of eight consecutive top four seeds is the nation’s longest active run and tied for the fourth-longest in NCAA Tournament history. The Boilermakers earned the Midwest Region’s fourth seed, the eighth straight tournament that Purdue has been named a top-four seed – the longest active streak in the country and fourth longest in NCAA Tournament history behind Kansas (19), Duke (12) and North Carolina (11).
Kenny Thompson is the former sports editor for the Lafayette Journal & Courier and an award-winning journalist. He has covered Purdue athletics for many years.