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Gold and Black Illustrated, Vol 28 Digital 4

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GOLD AND BLACK ILLUSTRATED VOLUME 28, ISSUE 4 6 Purdue's winning streak hit a program- record 19 straight on Feb. 3, when the Boilermakers squeaked out a victory at Rutgers. But a trio of losses followed, including back- to-back to ranked Ohio State and Michigan State by a combined total of four total points. Road games taken by Jeff Brohm this season to watch the Boilermaker men's basketball team, including to Indiana, Michigan State and Illinois. He also is expected to be at Madison Square Garden for the Big Ten Tournament. He's the first football coach in recent memory to attend a road basketball game. Wins over ranked teams by Sharon Versyp's Boilers this season, the most since 2006- 07 when they won six. That team, Versyp's first at Purdue, advanced to the Elite Eight. As of Feb. 28, Purdue was 4-1 this season vs. ranked opponents. Gratitude Rules The Day O n Page 9 is our listing of the best senior nights in Mackey Arena history. That is before this year's event, saying goodbye to a transformative senior class as our cover title sug- gests, blew those away. Just like about everything else, senior nights have changed over the years, morphing from impromptu events like Joe Barry Carroll's roses presentation to his mother 38 years ago to relatively low-key pregame ceremonies that were the standard fare until years ago when Coach Matt Painter and staff decided to move the celebration to postgame. With their playing careers en- capsulated in video and emotional music, the theater and spectacle be- come one. And if you're a parent, es- pecially of college kids as I happen to be, you can't helped becoming a little verklempt when the families walk with their sons. You tie it all together with the players getting emotional them- selves, and you have an event that required Kleenex. So, yes, there are some level of emotional capital to be spent on just about any senior day, but this year was different. By a long shot. Why? It's because we have all come to know Vincent, P.J., Dakota and Isaac, so much that we fell com- fortable calling them by their first names. Through social media, Pur- due's marketing and video folks have done a good job of making these guys seem real to us. We have watched them celebrate in locker rooms with Gatorade show- ers. We have also watched them in their lowest moments, like right after the 19-game winning streak came to an end with a gut-wrench- ing home loss to Ohio State, when they found a way to smile and share their space with Tyler Ralstin, a 10-year-old who has pediatric can- cer and was getting an experience of a lifetime meeting his heroes in their private enclave. In a word, this senior class has done it with gratitude. In every se- nior speech, that was the word that came to the forefront. The four se- niors were truly grateful for the op- portunity they were given, and took time to thank everyone that helped them along the way. They each ar- ticulated that feeling extremely ef- fectively and they were believable. There was no going through the motions here, it was the real deal. We, too, as fans and observers should be grateful for having the experience of getting to know these guys a little bit over the past four years. Wins, and there have been a lot of them, and losses, there have been few, aside, it has been a great ride for all of us. That's a good thing for everybody to remember no matter how March Madness turns out. Boiler Index From Publisher Alan Karpick By The Numbers 4 3 19 Photos by Rugers (Edwards); Charles Jisckhe (Brohm and family); Purdue Athletics (bench)

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