The Week That Was In Sports

This was an interesting week in sports to say the least. It started with a great game that saw an opponent go off in Mackey. The next day Purdue beat IU in women’s basketball for the first time in a very long time. Here are a few of the stories that caught my attention this week. This will be a weird week coming up. I actually photographed a game last night. I am doing something special with it so it will get its own post next week. I have been pretty good about keeping the sports posts to once a week, but my plan fits perfectly into my February theme so it gets its own post. Hopefully it all works out to have something really cool for you to see.

A Huge Day

The story of the week has to be the 46 points that Keaton Wagler put up against Purdue. His team scored 88 points for the game. At one point in the first half Keaton had 19 of the 21 points that Illinois scored. He was just having one of those days. You could see the confidence in his eyes. He thought that he could do almost anything. It was pretty amazing to see.

The Cliz

I was just standing on the baseline during pregame when I saw this ribbon board. It took me a second to realize that it was my picture of Larry Clisby on it. That photo has been used a lot over the years. I was just shooting that game for fun, but Purdue gave me my passes back then. I made this photo of Larry getting interviewed and I gave it to the school. Back in the day I would only get paid for a couple of games a year, but I would turn in photos from every game. They gave me a pass so it made sense. It is still cool to see my stuff from back then getting used every now and then.

Purdue Reclaims The Barn Burner Trophy

It has been a while since Purdue last had the Barn Burner trophy. Heck it has been a while since Purdue last beat Indiana.

The Barn Burner Trophy

This is one of the last trophies that I had not seen in person. I had seen photos of it, but never been able to photograph it. I made sure to make some photos of just the trophy after the game. You hope that I get bored of photographing it, but just in case I do not I wanted some photos of it for the future.

Recognizing #33

Before the game Katie Gearlds presented Madison Layden-Zay with a ball commemorating her place as the all time three point leader at Purdue. Her return seemed to come at the perfect time. She is giving this team some leadership and scoring that it needs.

Trying Something Different

For this game I moved at the half and following Purdue the entire game. When I can move I am supposed to follow the story. The story for this game to me was Purdue reclaiming the Barn Burner trophy. For most of the Big Ten season I will just post up at the other end of the floor. For this game though I thought that the bench and the reactions were worth moving for. I did miss a heck of a performance by one of the IU guards by doing this, but I am just a one man band.

A Blast From The Past

I almost posted this photo a couple of weeks ago when talking about Madison Layden-Zay passing Karissa McLaughlin for the all time three point mark. Karissa made a basket late in the game to give Purdue the win over Indiana. It was the last top 25 win at home for the Boilers until that Washington game, and it was the last win over IU until last Sunday. I had the thought that it would be fun to drag a photo out of mothballs every week on this post to kind of show a little history. This was as good of a time as any to do just that. The win over IU in 2019 capped off three days of domination over the Hoosiers. We beat them in wrestling on Friday night, men’s basketball on Saturday, and finally the women pulled off the win on Sunday. It was a great weekend full of fun photos.

Trying Something New

I have been having some fun during pregame finding new ways to photograph Mackey. I was down here with my friend Quan finding some fun things to do as the team was on the floor. I don’t get anything for warm up photos anymore so it is fun to come up with one photo idea and just wait for it to happen. While down here I took a look at a couple of things that Quan was doing, and I will steal them on a future date.

The Return Of Rashunda Jones

Last year I had high hopes for Rashunda Jones. She was one of the bright spots of last season, and I couldn’t wait to see what she did this year. I still remember that last press conference of the year hearing Coach Gearlds talk about getting her some help. College sports is not a place where you watch kids for four years anymore. It wasn’t long after that last game that Jones was in the portal and signed with Michigan State. I completely get what is going on. I understand that players should be able to get what they can while in school. I just miss the days of watching someone grow for four years. Senior day used to be something really cool. It was kids that you watched develop for four years. Now it ends up being a bunch of players that just transferred into the program this year. It was fun photographing her again though. She is on a better team, and will be playing the NCAA Tournament this year. That has to be a good feeling.

A Tough Game

The score might say otherwise, but the game Thursday night was a tough one. Both teams were allowed to beat and bang a little. I tried to capture that in some of my photos. This one here shows just how tough it can be to score while under the rim.