| WEEKEND STREAMING GUIDE (all times ET) |
| Men's Basketball |
| Friday / 8 p.m. / SIUE / BTN Plus |
| Sunday / 4 p.m. / Chicago State / BTN |
| Women's Basketball |
| Friday / 7:30 p.m. / at Central Michigan / Watch ESPN |
| Cross Country |
| Friday / 11:15 a.m. / at NCAA Great Lakes Regional / FloTrack |
| Football |
| Saturday / 7 p.m. / at Northwestern / Watch ESPN |
| Volleyball |
| Friday / 5:30 p.m. / Minnesota / BTN Plus |
| Saturday / 7 p.m. / Wisconsin / BTN Plus |
By Tom Schott
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Basketball season officially begins today.
The No. 20 men's team opens its 120th season against SIU-Edwardsville at 8 p.m. ET at Mackey Arena, while the women get underway with their 43rd season at Central Michigan.
The men also are home Sunday at 4 p.m. against Chicago State in the first game of the Battle 4 Atlantis. The women have their home opener Nov. 15 against Miami (Ohio) at 7 p.m.
Tonight, there will be a special pregame ceremony to unveil Purdue's 23rd Big Ten Conference championship banner from last season, and Sunday the first 2,000 fans will receive a replica championship ring.
For basketball ticket information, click here.
As part of the 50th anniversary celebration of Mackey Arena, the men's and women's teams unveiled their 50 greatest players and coaches over the last 50 years. Read more here.
More Nightball for Football
Coming off an impressive 29-10 Cannon trophy win over Illinois at Ross-Ade Stadium, football (4-5, 2-4 B1G) plays its fourth night game of the season at Northwestern (6-3, 4-2) at 7 p.m. ET tomorrow. It is the first night game in November in school history.
The game will be televised by ESPN2.
The Boilermakers have been winning the line of scrimmage. Offensively, they have rushed for 1,434 yards this season compared with 1,154 a year ago. Defensively, Purdue allowed merely 120 rushing yards the last two games, the fewest in back-to-back games since 2005 (Akron and Arizona) and the fewest in back-to-back Big Ten games since 2004 (Penn State and Wisconsin).
The 10 points allowed to Illinois are its fewest allowed by the Boilermakers in a Big Ten game since Nov. 22, 2008, when they beat Indiana 62-10.
Head coach Jeff Brohm boasts an 11-1 record in November games.
Tickets are available for the Old Oaken Bucket Game against Indiana on Nov. 25. To purchase, click here.
Blough Man of the Year Semifinalist
Junior quarterback David Blough is a semifinalist for the inaugural Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award. He is one of 20 of the nation's top leaders in college football.
Blough completed 65 percent of his passes for 1,103 yards with nine touchdowns and just four interceptions before his season was curtailed with an ankle injury Nov. 4. His work off the field has been even more impressive. Blough has taken five mission trips to an orphanage in South Africa, and helped influence several teammates to join him. While sporting an impressive 3.51 grade-point average as organizational leadership major and helping his mother battle cancer, Blough embraces his role as a team leader.
'Biggest Home Weekend of the Season' for Volleyball
Head coach Dave Shondell calls it the "biggest home weekend of the season" for the volleyball team.
No. 21 Purdue (18-7, 8-6 B1G) takes on No. 5 Minnesota (23-2, 12-2) at 5:30 p.m. ET today and No. 10 Wisconsin (16-7, 7-7) at 7 p.m. tomorrow on Belin Court at Holloway Gymnasium. Both matches are sold out. Tomorrow is the Boilermakers' Salute to Service match.
In the Big Ten standings, the Boilermakers are in sixth place, the Golden Gophers third and the Badgers seventh.
On Nov. 3, redshirt senior setter Ashley Evans recorded the 1,000th dig of her career, becoming the first player in school history with 3,000 assists and 1,000 digs.
Johnson Diver of the Week Again
Make it 4-for-4 on Big Ten Diver of the Week awards for redshirt junior Steele Johnson.
And Johnson is 8-for-8 in event victories in the Boilermakers' four dual meets of the season, most recently sweeping the springboard events against Iowa on Nov. 3. Johnson has swept his diving events at 11 consecutive collegiate regular-season meets over the last year.
Johnson's 16th career Big Ten Diver of the Week honor keeps him in pursuit of fellow Boilermaker David Boudia's conference record of 20 achieved from 2009 to 2011.
Also against Iowa, senior Marat Amaltdinov (backstroke sweep) and sophomore Nick McDowell (distance freestyle sweep) won multiple events for the men's team.
The women's squad was led by junior Taite Kitchel's three event wins (butterfly sweep and 200 individual medley) and two by senior Kaersten Meitz (distance freestyle sweep), who also was part of the victorious 400 freestyle relay. Meitz moved up to third place nationally with her season-best time of 9:39.42 in the 1,000 free.
Next up for the Boilermakers is the three-day Purdue Invitational from Nov. 16 to 18 at the Morgan J. Burke Aquatic Center.
Wrestling Bound For New York
Wrestling competes in three duals - LIU Post, No. 22 North Carolina and Hofstra - at the Journeymen/ASICS Northeast Duals tomorrow in Clifton Park, New York.
At last weekend's season-opening Michigan State Open, redshirt senior Luke Welch and redshirt junior Ben Thornton captured titles at 125 and 133 pounds, respectively. Welch defeated redshirt freshman Devin Schroder in an all-Purdue final.
Ambrosio 1-2 at Oracle ITA National Fall Championships
Junior Silvia Ambrosio posted a 1-2 record at the prestigious Oracle ITA National Fall Championships in Indiana Wells, California. She earned a straight-set victory in the first round of the consolation draw.
Ambrosio, who compiled a 14-3 record this fall, was the first Boilermaker to compete in the event - previously called the ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships - under head coach Laura Glitz.
Purdue plays at the UNLV Invite today through Sunday.
Men's Tennis Successful in Fall Finale
In its final competition of the fall last weekend, men's tennis won three singles championships and two doubles titles at the Old Gold & Black Invite at the Schwartz Tennis Center.
In singles, sophomore Stephan Koenigsfest won the Flight A title, freshman Maksymilian Raupuk the Flight B title and freshman Ali Mooraj the Flight C title.
Koenigsfest and Raupuk captured the Flight A doubles crown, while Mooraj and junior Renan Hanayama were victorious in Flight B.
Fall Signing Period
Several sports are in the midst of their fall signing period. Here are links to releases on the new Boilermakers:
Men's Basketball / Women's Basketball / Volleyball
Moreland to Lead Strategic Initiatives
Tom Moreland has been hired as associate athletics director for strategic initiatives. He will start Nov. 24.
Moreland will provide direct oversight of the Purdue Athletics ticket office and sales & service unit. He and his team will analyze and create revenue generation infrastructure and strategy that enhances internal collaboration and leverages relationships with a variety of stakeholders to maximize revenue. Moreland also will work with the department's marketing & promotions, development and premium seating areas, as well as with Learfield (Purdue Sports Properties). He will serve as the point person for licensing and retail sales.
Moreland comes to the Boilermakers from the University of Iowa, where he served as assistant director of development (2010-12), associate director of development (2012-14), director of development (2014-17), and director of development and premium services (2017). He directed various fundraising and revenue generation programs, including the $170 million National I-Club campaign. Moreland designed the strategy for a $60-million revenue model for Kinnick Stadium renovations and created a corporate engagement strategy that resulted in $3.5 million in new corporate revenue in its inaugural year. With his guidance, the athletics department surpassed its comprehensive campaign goal of $240 million by $33 million, accounting for 14 percent of the university's fundraising productivity.
In 2009 and 2010, Moreland was the director of baseball operations and external relations at Arizona State University, where he increased game attendance by 9 percent, donors to the program by 27 percent and group sales by 147 percent. The Sun Devils qualified for the College World Series and finished the season ranked seventh nationally.
A native of Shorewood, Wisconsin, Moreland earned two bachelor's degrees from Iowa in 2007 - health and sports studies and journalism and mass communications - and a master's degree in intercollegiate athletic leadership from the University of Washington in 2010. He played baseball for the Hawkeyes from 2004 to 2007, receiving the Coaches Award for loyalty and effort and twice earning Academic All-Big Ten honors.
Etcetera
Men's and women's cross country run at the NCAA Great Lakes Regional today in Terre Haute, Indiana. The women's 6,000-meter race begins at 11:15 a.m. ET, followed by the men's 10,000-meter race at 12:15 p.m. … Senior forward Vincent Edwards has been named to the preseason watch list for the Naismith Trophy, which is presented to the National Player of the Year … The NCAA's annual study of institutions nationwide revealed that Purdue student-athletes on the West Lafayette campus entering from 2007-08 through 2010-11 earned a graduation success rate (GSR) of 84 percent, the same as a year ago. Analysis of the 2011-12 class suggests that Purdue's GSR will improve to the department goal of 85 percent in the spring of 2018 … Guests on this week's Purdue Athletics Podcast are volleyball senior Azariah Stahl and football junior Cole Herdman.