| WEEKEND STREAMING GUIDE (all times ET) |
| Baseball |
| Friday / 7:30 p.m. / at Tulane / TulaneGreenWave.com |
| Saturday / 5 p.m. / at Tulane / TulaneGreenWave.com |
| Sunday / 2 p.m. / at Tulane / TulaneGreenWave.com |
| Softball |
| Friday / 2:30 p.m. / Saint Francis, Pa. / USA Softball |
| Friday / 5 p.m. / Oklahoma State / USA Softball |
| Saturday / Noon / Pacific / USA Softball |
| Saturday / 5 p.m. / UConn / USA Softball |
| Sunday / 1:30 p.m. / Drake / USA Softball |
By Tom Schott
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Selection Sunday and Selection Monday cannot get here fast enough.
Men's basketball (28-6) will learn its NCAA Tournament fate Sunday at 6 p.m. ET on TBS, followed by women's basketball (18-13) Monday at 7 p.m. on ESPN.
In a twist from previous years for the men's selection show, the 68 teams will be revealed in first 10 minutes, followed by the brackets.
Edwards, Edwards and More Edwards
Sophomore guard Carsen Edwards is one of 15 finalists for the Wooden Award. Presented annually to the nation's top player, the Wooden Award is considered one of college basketball's biggest honors. Edwards also is one of five finalists for the Jerry West Award, given to the nation's best shooting guard.
Furthermore, Edwards has been tabbed a second-team All-American by USA Today and a third-team honoree by The Sporting News. He earned first team All-Big Ten and first team All-District V honors.
Edwards leads the Boilermakers in scoring at 18.5 points per game while contributing 3.9 rebounds and 3.0 assists. He is shooting 46.6 percent from the field, including 41.2 percent from 3-point range, and 81 percent from the free throw line.
Edwards needs 12 points to become merely the seventh player in Purdue history to have 1,000 points through his first two seasons.
Senior forward Vincent Edwards was named first team all-district, as well.
Mitchell Great Lakes Region Athlete of the Year
Senior Jahneya Mitchell is the Great Lakes Region Women's Track Athlete of the Year.
Mitchell won a pair of Big Ten indoor championships last month while breaking two conference records, including one with a world-leading time.
Mitchell won the 600 meters in 1:26.65 that is the best in the world this year. She also ran the second leg of the 4x400-meter relay, which the Boilermakers won with a conference-record clocking of 3:30.40 that ranks second in the country this year.
Mitchell is one of seven Boilermakers heading to the NCAA Indoor Track & Field Championships on Friday and Saturday in College Station, Texas. Sophomore Chloe Abbott and senior Brionna Thomas will compete in the 400 meters and redshirt junior Sarah Loesch in the weight throw. Purdue also will have an entry in the 4x400 relay, with the foursome picked from Abbott, Mitchell, Thomas, senior Symone Black, redshirt senior Carmiesha Cox and redshirt freshman Samara Miller.
Amaltdinov Qualifies for NCAA Championships for Fourth Time
Senior men's swimmer Marat Amaltdinov will represent Purdue at the NCAA Championships for the fourth year in a row. He will compete in the 200 breaststroke and have the option to do so in the 100 breaststroke.
Amaltdinov is the fifth Boilermaker in program history to qualify for the NCAAs four times.
The national meet runs March 22 to 24 in Minneapolis. The 200 breaststroke is contested on the final day.
4 Divers Qualify for NCAAs
Four Purdue divers - junior Joe Cifelli, redshirt junior Steele Johnson, senior Samm Reese and junior Morgan Meixner - qualified for the NCAA Championships on the opening day of the Zone C Championships on Thursday in Columbus, Ohio.
Reese was third and Meixner eighth in the women's 1-meter competition. Johnson placed third and Cifelli 10th in the men's 3-meter competition. By auto-qualifying on the first day of Zones, the four Boilermakers only need to finish among the 12 in their subsequent events at Zones to add those events to their schedules at the NCAA Championships.
Four other Boilermakers will look to qualify for the NCAAs as the Zones continue Friday and Saturday: freshman Emily Bretscher, sophomore Emily Meaney, sophomore Brandon Loschiavo and junior Lexi Vincent.
7 Wrestlers Bound for NCAA Championships
Seven Purdue wrestlers will compete at the NCAA Championships from March 15 to 17 in Cleveland.
Sophomore Christian Brunner (197 pounds), redshirt sophomore Nate Limmex (141), redshirt sophomore Dylan Lydy (174), redshirt freshman Shawn Streck (285) and redshirt senior Luke Welch (125) each earned automatic bids with their performances at the Big Ten Championships, while redshirt senior Jacob Morrissey (165) and redshirt junior Ben Thornton (133) received at-large berths.
At the Big Ten Championships, the Boilermakers turned in their best showing in six years. They amassed 59.5 points to finish ninth in the team standings. The 59.5 points were the most at Big Tens since 76 points were scored in 2010. Purdue's six placewinners were the most since seven Boilermakers landed on the podium in 2012.
Baseball Rolls On to Tulane
Baseball, which has raced out of the gate to the tune of an 8-2 record, plays a three-game weekend series at Tulane in New Orleans.
The Boilermakers boast a .313 team batting average and a 2.82 ERA while outscoring their opponents by a 69 to 40 margin.
Three players are batting above .400: junior catcher Nick Dalesandro (.472, one home run, eight RBI and five stolen bases), junior first baseman Jacson McGowan (.447, six home runs and 17 RBI) and sophomore center fielder Skyler Hunter (.447 and eight RBI). The trio sits atop the Big Ten leaderboard.
Dalesandro has been selected to the watch list for the Johnny Bench Award, which recognizes the nation's top catcher.
Senior right-handed pitcher Tanner Andrews has recorded a snappy 0.92 ERA over three starts, with a 2-0 record and 19 strikeouts in 19.2 innings pitched. Junior left-hander Gareth Stroh also is 2-0 with a 1.65 ERA covering three starts. Freshman Bo Hofstra leads the Big Ten with a microscopic 0.87 ERA, allowing just one earned run in 10.1 innings out of the bullpen. Those three will start the games at Tulane on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
Etcetera
Men's golf was runner-up at the Desert Mountain Intercollegiate, which concluded March 4 in Scottsdale, Arizona ... No. 20 women's golf tied for fifth place at the Wildcat Invitational, which wrapped up March 6 in Tucson, Arizona ... Senior Devynne Charlton achieved an eighth-place finish at the IAAF World Championships on March 3 in Birmingham, Great Britain. Her finals time was 8.18 seconds, but she recorded a personal-best 7.89 seconds in the semifinals to set the national record for the Bahamas ... Softball plays five games this weekend in the Oklahoma State Hall of Fame Classic in Stillwater, Oklahoma ... Women's tennis (6-5) opens Big Ten play at Northwestern (8-3, 2-0 B1G) on Saturday and plays at Illinois (10-2, 1-1) on Sunday ... Men's tennis (7-6, 0-1 B1G) has won four straight matches and is back in action March 16 to 18 at the prestigious BNP Paribas Open Collegiate Tennis Challenge in Indian Wells, California ... For the fifth consecutive year, Folk Field, the home of Purdue soccer, is a winner of a Fields of Excellence Award from Pioneer Athletics. Nick Lievense and Steve Vonderheide are the primary sports turf managers for the playing surface ... Guests on this week's Purdue Athletics Podcast are baseball senior Tanner Andrews and softball junior Stephanie Ramsey.