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Myron Medcalf, ESPN Staff Writer
DETROIT — As they jumped around the court, hugged one another and screamed toward their fans following a 72-66 win over Tennessee in the Elite Eight on Sunday, the Purdue Boilermakers enjoyed the moment, something they couldn’t do a year ago.
As they made the 239-mile trek from Nationwide Arena to their campus in West Lafayette last March, Purdue ran into a snowstorm.
The previous 24 hours had gone so poorly that it almost seemed appropriate. That silent — and snowy — three-and-a-half bus ride followed the wrong kind of history for the Boilermakers, who’d been laughed out of the 2023 NCAA tournament with a loss to 16-seed Fairleigh Dickinson.
But the Boilermakers never ran from that reality. They confronted it throughout the season, knowing they’d never convert the naysayers into believers without a deep run in the NCAA tournament.
With Dalton Knecht (37 points, 6-for-12 from the 3-point line) driving to the rim for a must-have bucket with 22 seconds to play on Sunday, Zach Edey (40 points, 16 rebounds) blocked his shot — and Tennessee’s hopes with it.
Both Edey and Knecht, the two frontrunners for every major national player of the year award, put on a show in Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. Edey and Knecht are the third pair of opposing players to each have 35-point games in the Elite Eight or later, according to ESPN Stats & Information research.
But Edey and Co. left with the prize.
Before the game, both Edey and Knecht said a shot to earn a trip to the Final Four superseded any talk about who would win the Wooden Award and other honors. But on Sunday, both players competed as if they were playing for the title of “best player in America.”
In the first half alone, Knecht finished with 18 points and started 4-for-4 from the 3-point-line, while Edey had 19 points and 10 rebounds.
They were the engines for their teams throughout the game, the second time these programs had met this season.
At the Maui Invitational in November, Purdue battled to a 71-67 win over Tennessee in a game that featured some late drama. Volunteers guard Jordan Gainey hit a 3-pointer to tie the game 64-64 with 3:10 to play and Knecht made a 3-pointer to cut Purdue’s lead to three. But the Boilermakers left with the win.
As they prepared for the rematch, Rick Barnes and his players were quick to insinuate the officiating had previously made it difficult to corral Edey that day. In the first game, Tennessee had 30 fouls and Purdue had 48 free throw attempts.
Early in the game on Sunday, there may have been some deja vu for the Vols, who drew six fouls in the first seven minutes of the game — mostly as players tried to put a body on Edey. With eight minutes, Tennessee had 18 fouls. But Barnes got a gift as both Toby Awaka and JP Estrella gave Tennessee quality minutes guarding Edey for key stretches in the game.
This time, however, Tennessee also had a better version of Knecht, a projected lottery pick. His 3-pointer with 7:04 to play tied the game, 56-56, as the final minutes began to feel eerily similar to finish in the Maui Invitational.
It ended the way it had to end: with Knecht and Edey trying to lead their teams to a Final Four spot. Knecht kept his team afloat again, while Edey continued to lumber toward the rim, draw fouls and earn free throws. His dunk with 3:24 to play extended the lead by three points and his late block on Knecht ended any Tennessee comeback dreams.
Now, the Fairleigh Dickinson loss is a distant memory for a team that just reached the Final Four, the third appearance in school history, and continued its pursuit to follow Virginia in 2018-19 and win the national title a year after suffering a loss to a 16-seed.
The end of last season was a nightmare. But the dream is still alive for Purdue.