When you’re the athletic director of a school that’s never won a national championship in basketball, you are forced to creatively sell your program as some sort of juggernaut. That, my friends, is exactly what Purdue’s athletic director, Morgan Burke, did recently at a tipoff dinner for his Boilermakers.

Speaking about how wonderful a time it is to be a Purdue basketball fan, Burke served up this one-liner:

“It should not come as a surprise, because Purdue leads the conference with 21 Big Ten championships. Nobody else has 21, not even the people down south of Indianapolis.”

And here is my rebuttal: “It should not come as a surprise, because Indiana leads the conference with five national championships. Nobody else has five. And the people north of Indianapolis are still waiting for their first.”

Nice try, Morgan.

{HT: The Dagger}

Indiana released it’s 2009-2010 schedule earlier today and here’s a look at five of the toughest opponents on the docket.

5. Maryland (Assembly Hall, December 1, 7:30 PM, ESPN2): Senior guard Greivis Vasquez returns to lead a Terrapin team that went 21-14 a year ago, advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament and should be among the top 25 teams in the country. The Venezuela native averaged 17.5 ppg, 5.4 rpg and 5.0 apg as a junior and tested the NBA Draft waters before deciding to return. Besides Vasquez, Gary Williams returns three other starters. It will be the first trip for Maryland to Assembly Hall.

4. Michigan (Crisler Arena, January 14, 9:00 PM, ESPN/ESPN2): Year three of the John Beilein era in Ann Arbor could find the Wolverines square in the middle of the Big Ten race with Michigan State and Purdue. After winning one game in the NCAA Tournament a year ago, Beilein has the pieces in place to make a run deeper into March. The one-two punch of guard Manny Harris and forward DeShawn Sims is arguably the best in the conference and the supporting cast is strong with guards Laval Lucas-Perry, Stu Douglass and Zack Novak all returning.

3. Michigan State (Assembly Hall, February 16, 7:00 PM, ESPN): The Spartans knocked off a pair of No. 1 seeds in Connecticut and Louisville a year ago before falling to North Carolina in the national championship. Forward Goran Suton and guard Travis Walton are both gone, but Kalin Lucas returns as the front runner for Big Ten Player of the Year. Sprinkle in a healthy Delvon Roe with wings Durrell Summers and Chris Allen and the Spartans could be looking at Tom Izzo’s sixth Final Four appearance.

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Tom Crean and the Indiana Hoosiers (most of them, anyway) got their first taste of the IU-Purdue rivalry Saturday afternoon in Mackey Arena.

And despite a spirit and toughness Crean felt his team exhibited throughout the contest, the Hoosiers dropped their fifth straight game in a 81-67 loss to Purdue.

“We came to play,” Crean said. “They’ve got a lot of pride and I’m glad they came out here and showed it that way today.”

Indiana trailed by nine at halftime, but cut the Boilermaker lead to six at 41-35 on a Devan Dumes 3-pointer with 17:59 remaining. Purdue responded with four straight points and the Hoosiers never got closer than eight points the rest of the way.

E’twaun Moore scored 26 points to lead the Boilermakers (21-6, 10-4) on 10-of-14 shooting. The sophomore from East Chicago scored nine points in the opening seven minutes as Purdue built an early eight-point lead.

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… And here’s the audio of Crean’s press conference from Friday afternoon, courtesy of The Hoosier Scoop:

In case you haven’t checked the schedule, IU has just about 24 hours until it’s next game — a big one in West Lafayette. And I’m not the only one who thinks the bizarre timing of the game needs to be addressed in the years ahead. Tom Crean is right there with me:

“I hope moving forward after this year it’s not a situation where we’ve got under 40 hours to prepare for a game. I get it now, I get it for television, but I think some concrete thought has really gotta be put into not allowing this to happen. Wisconsin’s gotta turn around and play. They’re playing on Sunday. I would have loved to see us be playing Purdue on Sunday. I’m not complaining about now as much as I really hope this doesn’t happen in the future. And not just because of where we’re at and where they’re at. Every game is big. Every game to every coach is the biggest game of the year, but there are certain games in all leagues that transcend anything. And I think Indiana-Purdue is one of those games just like I said the other day that Michigan State-Michigan is one of those games. And there’s probably others and I’m gonna learn pretty quick that there’s probably others. I would like to see both teams have the same kind of time to get ready for those games.”

Two quick observations: 1) The fact that IU is turning around in less than 40 hours to play any regular season game is ridiculous. Sure, it’s acceptable in March, but in the regular season, not so much. Especially when the Hoosiers had a break of more than a week earlier in the Big Ten schedule. 2) IU and Purdue need to play twice every season. It shouldn’t even be up for debate. Could you imagine the outrage if the ACC schedule came out and Duke and North Carolina only had one meeting? ESPN would probably run a 30-minute special denouncing it as the biggest travesty in sports. So note to you, Big Ten schedule-maker guy: IU-Purdue twice a season and little preparation time would be nice.