After his final basketball game at William Henry Harrison High School in West Lafayette, Bobby Riddell (BS ACCT ’10) assumed he was hanging up his sneakers for good. His high school career had garnered interest from Division III and NAIA schools, but he had set his heart on attending Purdue, the team he had rooted for since birth.
“I was ready to be a regular student and sit in the stands,” admits Riddell, who doubles as an accounting manager for the Purdue Research Foundation and a color commentator for Purdue men’s basketball radio broadcasts. “But my dad encouraged me to see if I could walk on for the Boilermakers, so I came over to the office to learn about how the process worked.”
Riddell talked to Todd Foster, an assistant under first-year coach Matt Painter at the time. Foster told the 5-foot-9 Riddell there would be an open walk-on tryout in the fall, but that he might be best served by first coming to pickup games in Mackey against the scholarship players.
“So I started coming to the open gym games. I remember how small I felt as I walked down the steps to the court in Mackey Arena, and the first time I went I didn’t get on the court at all. But I kept coming, and eventually, they let me play,” he says.
Riddell had always been a sharpshooting guard in high school, and his success continued in the pickup games. In fact, it even earned him a new nickname from a fellow competitor.
“Nate Minnoy said something like, ‘Man, you sure make a lot of buckets,’” Riddell remembers. “The nickname stuck, and when a local newspaper reporter put it in a story about me, I was going to be ‘Buckets’ from that point on.”
Word of Riddell’s shooting prowess reached the coaching staff, and Riddell received a call from Foster the night before the walk-on tryouts to encourage him to attend. He did, and later that night he received a call asking him to come to Mackey to meet with Painter, who informed him that he was a member of the team.
“I remember how small I felt as I walked down the steps to the court in Mackey Arena, and the first time I went I didn’t get on the court at all. But I kept coming, and eventually, they let me play.”
Riddell’s freshman year was a tough one for the team. In the 2005-06 season David Teague tore an ACL the first day of practice. Carl Landry played a handful of games before an injury ended his season, and several other players were sidelined. Suddenly, Riddell went from the last man on the bench to become part of the rotation. He shot 61% from 3-point range and averaged just over 2 points and 6 minutes a game, but Purdue finished last in the Big Ten in Painter’s first season.
As players like Chris Kramer, Keaton Grant, Robbie Hummel, E’Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson entered the program, Riddell saw his playing time decrease the next two seasons, although he was put on scholarship after his freshman year. He earned his way back into the rotation as a senior, shooting 46% from 3-point range and scoring 13 points in a win over Penn State. The team finished second in the Big Ten, won the conference tournament and advanced to the Sweet 16.
As he played, Riddell was maximizing his time in the classroom. He had briefly considered following his father’s path as a cardiologist but instead chose his mother’s profession as an accountant. He especially enjoyed a class taught by Scott Sorensen, a fellow Harrison High School alum and Phi Gamma Delta brother. Knowing he would need a fifth year of school to acquire the credit hours needed to sit for the CPA exam, he doubled back to his basketball roots.
“I talked to coach Painter, and he let me be a student assistant for my fifth year,” Riddell says. “I was basically a glorified practice player, but it allowed me to stay close to the program while I finished my degree.”
Following graduation, Riddell took a job with Dauby O’Connor & Zaleski, a public accounting firm in Carmel. After a year at TWG Development, he returned to public accounting with Heman Lawson Hawks in West Lafayette. There, he reconnected with the basketball staff.
“Our firm sponsored some basketball banquets, so I would see the coaches at those events,” he says. “Then, I was put in charge of preparing tax returns for coach Painter and some of the other staff members, as well as helping with forms for their basketball camps.”
At the same time, the Learfield Purdue Sports Network was looking for a radio analyst for men’s basketball broadcasts. Rob Blackman had held that role until play-by-play voice Larry Clisby was stricken with cancer, and they reversed positions for a couple of seasons. When Clisby, who passed away in 2021, stepped away after the 2019-20 season, the color commentator role was open.
Painter suggested Riddell for the role, and when director of basketball operations Elliott Bloom called to gauge his interest, it didn’t take long for Buckets to say yes. But he walked into a challenging situation, as his first season on the microphone was during the pandemic.
“We didn’t travel to most of the road games during that year, and my first broadcast was calling a game off a TV screen in a little studio in Ross-Ade Stadium. I was really nervous and it took me a while to adjust,” he admits.
Blackman could sense the difficulty his new partner was having.
“I could tell his head was spinning during that first game,” Blackman says. “It’s tough enough to start a new job where you don’t have any background, but the technology made it even more difficult. But he picked everything up quickly. He’s done a great job.
“Bobby has the advantage of having played and briefly coached under coach Painter. He is very good at explaining to people what the team is supposed to be doing and what it actually looks like.”
“I got emotional, but I was able to keep it together. I was so relieved and so happy for coach Painter and the entire team. I had to pinch myself…”
After the first season, Riddell realized he would need to find a different full-time job if he wanted to continue his broadcasting career and maintain a family life, which now includes three boys and an 8-month-old daughter.
“It’s still hard to believe how all this has happened. You couldn’t script it any better.”
“In the public accounting sector, March is a tremendously busy time. It’s also a very important month in college basketball. So I looked for a job that would be a little more in line with an 8-to-5 schedule,” he says.
In the summer of 2021, Riddell joined the Purdue Research Foundation as an accounting manager, where he works primarily with accounts receivable and payroll duties. The job allows him to be hybrid, which lets him work from his hotel when the basketball team is on the road.
After heartbreaking NCAA Tournament losses, particularly as a #1 seed to #16 Fairleigh Dickinson in 2023, last season was nirvana for the lifelong Boilermaker. Purdue advanced to the Final Four for the first time since 1980, and Riddell found himself trying to describe the moment in the final seconds of the win over Tennessee in the regional final in Detroit.
“I got emotional, but I was able to keep it together. I was so relieved and so happy for coach Painter and the entire team. I had to pinch myself…it was definitely one of the coolest moments of my life,” he says.
The Final Four experience in Phoenix exceeded even Riddell’s lofty expectations, from the welcome reception at the airport to a motivational speech to the team from NBA star Devin Booker. Although Purdue came up one win short of a national title, Riddell will forever cherish the experience, as well as his entire relationship with the program.
“Every time I go to a reunion, I see Brian Cardinal or Brad Miller or Everett Stephens, and I wonder, ‘How did I get in this fraternity?' It’s still hard to believe how all this has happened,” he says.
“I give credit to my dad for convincing me to go to the open gym and thanks to coach Painter for giving me the opportunity. You couldn’t script it any better. I got to play for Purdue, earn a great degree, get a cool nickname, and call one of the historic moments in program history. It’s a dream come true.”
