Rooting for Keady just seems right

Danny Bridges It’s hard to forget the profound look of disappointment on Gene Keady’s face in the 1995 NCAA Mens Regional Final in Albuquerque, New Mexico, as the game clock finally expired. His highly favored Purdue Boilermakers were upset by the Wisconsin Badgers, denying Keady a trip to the Final Four, which was played that year in Indianapolis, just one hour from the Purdue campus in West Lafayette, Indiana.  Yes, a superb leader of young men that had been named National Coach of The Year many times with nearly five hundred wins to his credit suddenly saw his lifelong professional dream slip away by the score of 64-60 and in the process break every heat in Tippecanoe County and beyond that night. While fiery on the court, the ultra-competitive Keady was a true gentleman off it, and is still beloved by the Boilermaker faithful as they head to Phoenix this weekend to face an upstart North Carolina State squad who crashed the party& to the Final Four by taking the ACC Conference tournament, finishing off an improbable run by defeating Duke in the Regional Finals. The Boilermakers who enjoyed several weeks ranked number one in the regular season are of...