First and foremost, it was great to see men's basketball return to the NCAA Tournament with a young and exciting team that is poised for greater triumphs. Five other programs had positive postseason performances: women's golf, men's swimming & diving, women's swimming & diving, men's track & field, and women's track & field. Women's tennis has established itself as a consistent NCAA Tournament team (earning its fourth straight berth) and volleyball just missed earning its 10th NCAA berth in the last 11 years.
We saw some amazing performances by underclassmen, including freshman diver Steele Johnson, who won two national championships, and sophomore sprinter/hurdler Devynne Charlton, who earned All-America honors in three events. It's not surprising that those two youngsters were recognized as our Athletes of the Year.
However, we also must acknowledge that football, while improving from one win to three, needs to make a major step this fall. We are confident that the work being put in by the current players and an improved recruiting pipeline will result in more victories. Football needs to win to boost department, campus and alumni morale as well as to increase revenue.
We anticipate continued improvement by men's golf, softball and wrestling and bounce backs from sub-par performances by baseball, women's basketball, soccer and men's tennis.
Our goal remains to achieve high-level performance from all 20 of our teams and climb the Directors' Cup standings. The key is consistency, something we have lacked in recent years. Yet we truly believe that the coaching and support staffs -- with their passion and work ethic -- are in place to bring better showings across the board.
2014-15 By The Numbers
We accumulated 405 points in the Directors' Cup and ranked 60th out of 351 schools, which placed us in the 83rd percentile. When tallying only those sports that we offer, our ranking moved up 12 spots to 48th. Last year, we finished 48th with 466.5 points, with an adjusted ranking of 40th when counting only our sports.
We know that with only 20 sports, virtually all of them must score points (by advancing to postseason play). Combining each of our sports' best finish from the last six years would yield us 841.5 points and move us up to 20th in the overall rankings and 14th in the adjusted rankings.
In 2014-15, 12 teams earned NCAA postseason opportunities, matching our average over the last five years, while nine squads had upper-half Big Ten Conference finishes, in line with our five-year average. Three programs finished in the top 25 nationally -- women's golf (12th), men's swimming & diving (17th), and women's outdoor track & field (20th) -- while volleyball was 28th, women's swimming & diving was 30th, men's indoor track & field was 31st, wrestling was 42nd and men's outdoor track & field was 44th. Men's basketball returned to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012, and women's tennis earned its fourth consecutive NCAA berth.
We accumulated 30 total All-America honors (by 21 student-athletes). Twelve Boilermakers earned first team distinction -- twice as many as last year -- including Steele Johnson, a two-time NCAA champion in 1-meter and platform diving who was named National Diver of the Year. We had 12 first team All-Big Ten selections. A year ago, Purdue had 32 All-America honors (by 22 student-athletes), including six first teamers, and 13 first team All-Big Ten selections.
We had five individual Big Ten champions: Symone Black (400-meter hurdles -- outdoor track & field), Devynne Charlton (100-meter dash -- outdoor track & field), Lyam Dias (200 breaststroke -- swimming & diving), Chukwuebuka Enekwechi (hammer throw -- outdoor track & field) and Matthew McClintock (5,000 meters -- outdoor track & field), plus the women's outdoor track & field 4x100-meter relay of Savannah Carson, Carmiesha Cox, Charlton and Brionna Thomas. Enekwechi was named the Big Ten Field Athlete of the Indoor Championships and Field Athlete of the Year, while Johnson was Big Ten Diver of the Year, Rapheal Davis was Big Ten Men's Basketball Defensive Player of the Year and Symone Black was Big Ten Women's Indoor Track & Field Freshman of the Year.
We won the Governor's Cup -- our all-sports competition with Indiana -- for the second straight year, scoring seven of the last eight a half points for a 10-9 victory.
A complete recap of the 2014-15 school year with an update on each goal area from Plan 2020 will be released in July.
2014-15 Purdue Athletics Team and Individual Accomplishments
* Men's Basketball ~ NCAA Tournament First Round
* Women's Golf ~ 12th at NCAA Championships
* Men's Swimming & Diving ~ 17th at NCAA Championships
* Women's Swimming & Diving ~ 30th at NCAA Championships
* Women's Tennis ~ NCAA Tournament First Round
* Men's Indoor Track & Field ~ 31st at NCAA Championships
* Men's Outdoor Track & Field ~ 44th at NCAA Championships
* Women's Outdoor Track & Field ~ 20th at NCAA Championships
* Volleyball ~ 28th in final AVCA poll
* Wrestling ~ 42nd at NCAA Championships
* Jamie Bissett, Diving ~ All-American (platform), First Team Academic All-American
* Symone Black, Indoor Track & Field ~ Big Ten Freshman of the Year; Outdoor Track & Field ~ First Team All-American (4x400-meter relay), Big Ten Champion (400-meter hurdles)
* Savannah Carson, Outdoor Track & Field ~ First Team All-American (4x100-meter relay), Big Ten Champion (4x100-meter relay)
* Devynne Charlton, Outdoor Track & Field ~ First Team All-American (100-meter hurdles and 4x100-meter relay), Big Ten Champion (100-meter dash and 4x100-meter relay)
* Carmiesha Cox, Outdoor Track & Field ~ First Team All-American (4x100-meter relay and 4x400-meter relay), Big Ten Champion (4x100-meter relay)
* Rapheal Davis, Basketball ~ Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year
* Lyam Dias, Swimming ~ Big Ten Champion (200 breaststroke)
* Mary Beth Dunnichay, Diving ~ All-American (1-meter)
* Chukwuebuka Enekwechi, Indoor Track & Field ~ First Team All-American (weight throw); Outdoor Track & Field ~ First Team All-American (hammer throw), Big Ten Champion (hammer throw), Big Ten Field Athlete of the Year, Big Ten Field Athlete of the Championships
* Steele Johnson, Diving ~ NCAA Champion and All-American (1-meter and platform), National Diver of the Year, Big Ten Diver of the Year
* Aarin Jones, Outdoor Track & Field ~ First Team All-American (4x400-meter relay)
* Matthew McClintock, Cross Country ~ First Team All-American; Outdoor Track & Field -- First Team All-American (10,000 meters), Big Ten Champion (5,000 meters); Third Team Academic All-American
* Sean Mokhtari, Diving ~ All-American (platform)
* Brionna Thomas, Outdoor Track & Field ~ First Team All-American (4x100-meter relay and 4x400-meter relay), Big Ten Champion (4x100-meter relay)