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Downtown Indianapolis is in for a Boiler advisory next weekend, after Purdue University became the first team in this year’s NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament to punch its ticket to the Sweet 16 with a 76-62 win over McNeese State University on Saturday afternoon.
A Visit Indy official said while game tickets and downtown hotel rooms were already expected to sell out regardless of which teams end up at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to play, the proximity of Purdue’s fan base is likely to mean more foot traffic throughout downtown, including at restaurants and retail spaces.
“Based on past NCAA events featuring an in-state team, there has traditionally been an incremental increase in total visitation downtown tied to fans wanting to be part of the excitement,” Chris Gahl, executive vice president of Visit Indy, told IBJ in emailed responses to questions prior to Saturday’s game. “A local team participating traditionally increases the likelihood of fans not having a ticket wanting to dine, shop and sit in bars to watch the action and be with fellow fans in close proximity to the stadium.”
In short, he said: Expect a lot of Boilermaker fans to flock to Indianapolis on Friday, and throughout the weekend if the team advances to the Elite Eight.
Last year, Purdue began its run to the NCAA national championship game in Indianapolis with first- and second-round victories at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Likewise, Indiana State University drew large crowds to Hinkle Fieldhouse for the semifinals and final games in the National Invitational Tournament.
Fourth-seeded Purdue will play the top-seeded University of Houston, which escaped Gonzaga 81-76 on Saturday, in a Midwest Regional semifinal game Friday at Lucas Oil Stadium. A tipoff time has not yet been set.
The other Sweet 16 game in Indianapolis on Friday will feature the University of Kentucky, which defeated Illinois on Sunday, vs. the University of Tennessee, which beat UCLA on Saturday night.
The winners of the Sweet 16 matchups will square off at Lucas Oil Stadium in an Elite Eight game Sunday, March 30.
Gahl said having other regional teams like Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee come to Indianapolis may be beneficial for the market, as each are from areas that Visit Indy has been marketing to regularly for leisure travel the past several years.
However, he said the distance between Knoxville and Indianapolis—360 miles, about a five-hour drive—might affect the number of non-ticketed fans making the trip from Tennessee.
All three teams were last in Indianapolis for an NCAA tournament game during the 2020-2021 season, when Indiana hosted the entirety of the tournament due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The same is true for UCLA, which reached the Final Four during that season. Both UCLA and Illinois compete in the Big Ten Conference, so both schools participated in the men’s and women’s conference tournaments at Gainbridge Fieldhouse earlier this month.
Purdue 76, McNeese State 62
Trey Kaufman-Renn had 22 points and 15 rebounds, and Purdue used a fast start to roll to victory over McNeese State in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
Fletcher Loyer added 15 points. C.J. Cox finished with 11 points for the Boilermakers (24-11), who advanced through the Midwest Region to the Sweet 16 for the second straight season.
In his 16 NCAA Tournament appearances with the Boilermakers, coach Matt Painter is now headed to his eighth Sweet 16.
Painter said the challenge is to sustain the offensive output they’ve had over the first two rounds.
“We can’t go further without playing great offensively,” Painter said. “We have to execute well, we have to shoot the ball well. That’s not really pressure, that’s just a fact.”
Sincere Parker had 17 points to lead McNeese (28-7). Javohn Garcia added 12 points as the Cowboys came up short in their bid to give the Southland Conference its first Sweet 16 team since Louisiana Tech in 1985.
McNeese came out in the 2-3 zone that was so successful during its first-round win over Clemson.
But Purdue hit 7 of its first 9 field goals and 3 of its first 4 3-point attempts to build an early double-digit advantage. A pair of three-plus minute scoring droughts by the Cowboys and runs of 10-0 and 9-0 by the Boilermakers helped Purdue grow its lead as much as 36-14 in the first half.
“From the start of the game they kind of imposed their will on us,” Parker said. “To their credit they made shots and we missed shots.”
The Boilermakers led for all but 19 seconds.
Purdue shot 11 of 26 from the 3-point line for the game and held a 41-24 rebounding edge.
“I thought we played really well these last two games,” Kaufman-Renn said. “We executed well and we stuck to our game plan and then we outrebounded both teams. So we do that, it’s a winning game plan.”
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Kentucky and Tennessee coming to Indy is great news for downtown hotels.