Purdue University

A country at war and anthrax scares popping up from Florida to Nevada didn't keep the faithful from crowding into the Big House--110,540 of them on Saturday, to be precise. They poured into the open-air stadium here for the University of Michigan's homecoming game against Indiana's Purdue University, the largest gathering of people anywhere in the country this day.

A decade removed from his last head coaching job, Jim Colletto kicks back in his new office at Purdue University, reveling in the difference between then and now. "Right now," Colletto says, speaking by phone, "I'm looking out the window of my beautiful office at a stadium that seats 70,000. I can see an indoor practice facility that's as good as any in the country. I'm coaching at a school that plays in a great football conference." Colletto laughs.

There's no crying in women's basketball. And Lin Dunn knows it. But there she was--tough, blunt-speaking Lin Dunn--speechless, futilely using her hand to hold back the flood of tears rolling down her cheeks. She'd been watching a Duke practice at the San Jose Arena on Thursday morning, seated in the stands. She'd just been asked how she felt about seeing so many of her former Purdue players reach the Final Four. No response. Five seconds went by. Then the tears spilled over the flood gates.

The Indiana state collegiate basketball championship is up for grabs tonight, a rematch of two old foes loaded with players recruited by each other. Purdue (31-6) is bent on winning its second NCAA title in three seasons, while Notre Dame (33-2) is seeking its first. If the latter happens, Coach Muffet McGraw said Saturday her players would hope the Notre Dame football team "can be a team the women's basketball team can be proud of."

Greg Carothers is either amazingly cool for a 19-year-old or a great actor. Ask the Washington player if he feels pressure about being the starting free safety in the Rose Bowl against the Purdue Boilermakers and Carothers just smiles and says he can't wait. So what is there to feel pressure about? So what if no freshman has ever started for Washington in a Rose Bowl game. So what if he will be playing against Drew Brees, one of the best quarterbacks in college football.

After waiting 34 years to return to the Rose Bowl, the Purdue Boilermakers weren't fazed when planes carrying players, coaches, staff and families made a refueling stop in Oklahoma City, delaying their arrival in Southern California until nearly 6 p.m. Saturday. "The best thing about it is we didn't see the same type of weather that we left," Coach Joe Tiller said after receiving the traditional welcome from the Rose Queen and her court at the team's hotel.

Washington began its first day of practice in shorts at USC's Howard Jones Field. All eyes may have been on versatile quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo, but the play of two freshmen could be just as crucial. After the spinal injury to free safety Curtis Williams, Hakim Akbar moved from free to strong safety and opened a spot for freshman Greg Carothers.

Purdue quarterback Drew Brees promised to rent limousines and take his offensive linemen out to dinner as thanks for protecting him so well that he was sacked only seven times in passing 473 times this season. But according to senior center Chukky Okobi, a steak won't begin to pay Brees' debt if the 14th-ranked Boilermakers defeat the fourth-ranked Washington Huskies Monday. "Drew owes me a whole lot of things," said Okobi, one of three fifth-year seniors on Purdue's offensive line.