DETROIT — It’s fitting their lockers are side by side by side.
The last locker on the row belongs to Carson Barrett.
To the right of it, Chase Martin’s locker and next to him is Brian Waddell.
Their contributions to Purdue’s Final Four run were mostly done behind the scenes as scout team players but they, maybe more than anyone else sitting in the locker room with them, can appreciate the magnitude of what had just happened Sunday at Little Caesars Arena.
“Having our dads play together and having that camaraderie kind of drew us together,” Martin said after Purdue defeated Tennessee in the Elite 8 to advance to the Final Four for the first time since 1980.
Here’s the backstory for the few of you who don’t know.
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Purdue reached the Final Four in 1980 under head coach Lee Rose, who left after two seasons to go to South Florida. Gene Keady, who’d just gone to the NCAA Tournament with Western Kentucky, was hired as Rose’s successor. Keady became a six-time National Coach of the Year and last summer was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
But he never coached in a Final Four.
Barrett’s father, Dave, was a guard on perhaps Keady’s best team, the one that went 29-4 and won the 1988 Big Ten title, but ultimately got upset in the Sweet 16 by Kansas State and star guard Mitch Richmond, a team the Boilers beat by 29 earlier that season.
If that team wasn’t Keady’s best, then the 1993-94 team was.
It featured National Player of the Year Glenn Robinson, but a supporting cast led by Cuonzo Martin and Matt Waddell. Purdue won the Big Ten, went 29-5 and was a No. 1 seed. A day after Robinson was dominant against Kansas, he allegedly injured his back rough housing with teammates in the hotel before facing Duke in the Elite 8. Robinson had his worst game of the season, shooting 6 of 22, and the Blue Devils went on to eventually play in the national championship game.
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That was as close as any of them ever got.
“My dad still has a strong hatred for Duke to this day and reasonably so,” Brian Waddell said.
Now, led by coach Matt Painter — a former teammate of Dave Barrett, Cuonzo Martin and Matt Waddell — three former players who came up short of college basketball’s final weekend are able to live it out vicariously through their sons.
“I get to be a part of it as a dad and as a fan and it is pretty incredible,” Dave Barrett said.
Sam King covers sports for the Journal & Courier. Email him at sking@jconline.com and follow him on Twitter and Instagram @samueltking.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Journal & Courier: Purdue legacies cherish trip to Final Four their fathers never got
