GLENDALE, Ariz. – Somewhere Tobin Anderson has the game ball. Why wouldn't Fairleigh Dickinson's former head coach save a keepsake from not only one of the biggest upsets in college basketball but in American sports?
Anderson is the son of a coach from tiny Truro, Iowa, whose Knights brought down mighty Purdue last year in the first-round upset that shook the foundations of the sport.
The result mixed Hoosiers with Rudy with Cinderella. Purdue became only the second No. 1 seed to lose to a No. 16 seed.
"It's why I try to keep our players from going into coaching because there is such a level of misery," Purdue coach Matt Painter admitted on the off day before Monday night's national championship game with UConn.
That ball, the leftover scouting report – and a new job at Iona – remain nice mementos for Anderson but that wasn't the end of it. Shortly thereafter, Anderson's phone started ringing. Future Purdue opponents wanted to know how he had done it – Alabama in the nonconference, then teams among the five Purdue has beaten to get to Monday night's championship game against UConn.
"I don't have any secret formula," Anderson told CBS Sports. "We had a really good night. They didn't play well … The memories are great. I'm happy for Purdue but we've had to move on."
That's where it gets murky for Purdue prior to Monday night's national championship between the superpowers. Purdue actually hasn't moved on from that game. In fact, it is living rent-free in their heads judging by the Boilers' comments the last few days.
"When you have a loss at the end of the season, you have to sit in it, you have to own it," Painter said. "Some of that is healthy in a sense."
Some of that is Purdue's ongoing legacy until it wins it all. UConn is trying to become the first back-to-back winners in 17 years. Purdue is trying to become national champions for the first time. But first there is a mental hurdle the size of two Zach Edeys.
The last time Purdue was in this position, a kid named Lew Alcindor went for 37 points and 20 rebounds in the 1969 national championship game. Alcindor became Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He and UCLA became legends.
Purdue eventually became a powerhouse of a lesser variety. They know it.
"They're the big dogs. They're UConn," sixth man Mason Gillis said. "They've won multiple national championships and we're Purdue."
And everything that means going into Monday's matchup.
Since last year the Boilermakers have embraced the setback like you'd embrace a cactus to get to redemption. You know it's going to hurt but there is a deeper purpose to doing it. The Boilers made the memory a rite of passage, a stone in their shoe. It's always there, a pain that won't go away until Purdue exorcizes the memories.
"I'm sure like it's [frustration] been building since FDU," said former Purdue star Robbie Hummel. "Those guys have gotten shit on. That's come from a year ago. That's become the punchline."
Purdue has made 15 NCAA appearances in the last 19 seasons. Four times since 2010 the Boilers have been eliminated in the first round, three times as a No. 5 seed or higher. Four other times Purdue has failed to advance out of the first weekend.
You shouldn't have to be reminded this is their first Final Four in 44 years, so please excuse the Boilermakers if they haven't let the FDU loss go.
"We kind of make a joke about it," Gillis said. "It keeps us going. I don't want to say if we didn't lose to FDU we wouldn't be here but it definitely helped."
The reality of those early embarrassing exits have become part of Purdue's brand. Gillis even spent a few seconds obsessing over last month's overtime loss to Wisconsin in the Big Ten Tournament.
"That was all because we didn't get [a] rebound," Gillis said. "It's those small things. It's very small things."
As cliché as it sounds, some of it is motivation.
"If [teammate Fletcher Loyer] is having a bad day, I can say, 'We gotta go do this, we lost to FDU last year,' Gillis said. "He doesn't really have a comeback. It's just like a constant reminder."
Constant and open to the public. It seemed like, if prompted, the Boilers would talk about that stone in their shoe more than UConn.
"It's not even the game, it's that feeling after. It's how empty you felt. All that work you put in, it felt like you wasted your time," Loyer said.
Gillis said he would use the subject to urge his teammates during sprints. Loyer said during summer lifting sessions, the team was "pushing each other, yelling at each other. We've all had that feeling. We never want to have that feeling again."
Second-leading scorer Braden Smith might be the guts of this team. The sophomore is a human floor burn averaging 12 points and one constant burning fire per game.
"I've flushed it," Smith said of the FDU loss. "At the end of the day, nine out of 10 times we win that basketball game. They got us on our off day."
Maybe the Boilermakers should flush it. Gillis and fellow guard Braden Smith were pressured into 5-for-20 shooting against FDU. Purdue as a team made only 5 of 26 from beyond the arc.
"I think that's a very rational thought process," Anderson said. "Athletes and coaches are motivated by the past. They are motivated by negativity, losing, trying to prove people wrong. It's a totally natural reaction."
The connections to Virginia in 2019 are almost eerie. Painter admitted to admiring Virginia coach Tony Bennett after the Cavaliers lost to 16 seed Maryland-Baltimore County in 2018.
"The humility of Tony Bennett and how he handled it with class," Painter recalled. "I think anytime you can take it, [it becomes] you can dish it out but you can't take it, right? We're all that way as young people. We can say whatever we want then it hurts when it comes back your way."
The No. 1 losing to a No. 16 is a special kind of pain only few share. Smith revealed Sunday he was contacted by former Virginia guard Kyle Guy who was part of both the Wahoos' pain and party. Guy famously hit three free throws with six-tenths of a second left to lift the Cavaliers over Auburn into the championship game against Texas Tech.
"He was like, 'Hey man, it happened to us … You've got to block out the noise and just focus on next year," Smith said. "Hearing that from a guy like that, how successful his career has been and what he's done, it made me paint that bigger picture in my head. Hey, it happens, it's a part of the sport. Look where we're at now. It definitely paid off."
Meanwhile, Anderson will be taking in the championship game here Monday night – without taking any more calls.
"If they would have gotten by us … who's to say they wouldn't have gone to the Final Four and won the whole thing last year," Anderson said. "In a six-game tournament everybody is going to have a bad game at some point, right?"
Ask Purdue. They've hugged the cactus too many times.
