No one's denying that. But it really has only been the last 2/3 seasons, and I think it's awfully premature to be putting your program ahead of MSU, OSU and even Wisconsin and Illinois as far as overall status goes. If things stay this way for 3-4 more seasons, maybe. And I will concede that we're probably not having this discussion if not for the bum, but what he says sometimes takes ridiculous to a new level. Oh, I agree we're not ahead of those programs in recent years. I openly said beating MSU on the road (had Kalin Lucas not even played) would be an upset for Purdue. I openly said after Purdue's three game losing streak that getting a #2 seed in the dance would be almost impossible (with MSU, @ OSU, and Illinois left - I stand by this). Your quote in bold is the biggest part of the whole problem. I think another thing is that CCCub is right, why would Purdue fans be flocking to post here when the team was godawful? Well, that and I've got less than 2k posts in 7 years, heh. From the very long term perspective Purdue has been a good program, including a winning record against every team in the conference, conference championships, a decent amount of success in the tournament, etc. We've gone through spurts of terrible basketball for sure, but we're on the upswing now. That's all I'm saying.