When you look back on Indiana's thousand-point win at Purdue Wednesday night, what's just as troubling as what happened was that the Boilermakers seemed to let it.
You know, when Indiana was god-awful during its scorched-earth period, those teams were annoyingly difficult for Purdue to beat when Purdue was the infinitely better team.
Garbage time on Thursday night was at least a chance to send a message. Instead, it saw a 22-point halftime lead nearly doubled.
That's hard to do.
Indiana is really, really, really good, mind you. Coming into Thursday night, I thought Michigan was clearly the best team in the Big Ten. I was wrong. It's 1A and 1B and it doesn't matter which is which.
You don't pay for this site to read nice things about IU, but you have to acknowledge it.
Here is what Indiana has: Experience, with a bunch of seniors who've played through the worst of times, just like David Teague and Carl Landry had many years ago at Purdue; shooters all over the place; an elite big man; and a pair of juniors who were the real difference-makers on that team and are again this year. The passion those guys play with is the engine that drives that team.
Wednesday night's game was a chance to show such passion. You saw what happened.
Forget Victor Oladipo, Purdue just needs a Will Sheehey.
How would those guys respond to being down 30 on their home floor had the tables been turned? Folks are obsessed with the acquisition of talent, but rankings and star ratings say nothing about the size of players' hearts and, um, onions.
When Matt Painter listed off guys he thought "fought" to the end, he named two freshmen and a walk-on. That was it.
Yes, Indiana is absolutely loaded and blessed with the mental wherewithal to pull off an absolute dismantling of the Boilermakers in what was supposed to be a harrowing environment, in between two of its biggest games of the season. It was diabolical how Indiana did what it did, like Terminator-type stuff.
Purdue is young. That is no excuse for what happened Thursday night, not at this stage of the season. Not ever. No team should ever be 37 points better than Purdue, not in West Lafayette or anywhere.
But the fact remains Purdue is young.
At this time next year, Purdue has to be ready to beat Indiana again as things balance out some after Indiana's upswing - the seasons the Hoosiers have built toward, endured all that losing in anticipation of - just coincided with the Boilermakers' retooling/rebuilding/re-whatevering.
Experiences like this one need to help make this group into a top-25 sort of team next season. In time the sting of what Wednesday night will fade, but in the moment, Wednesday night was rock bottom for Purdue since it got good again under Matt Painter.
But much better days should lie ahead, though this game again reminded that we might have a better chance of seeing the Loch Ness Monster than we do A.J. Hammons seeing his senior year in West Lafayette.
Purdue's problems are intangible. It's not the most talented team in the country - blame recruiting all you want - but it's not Rensselaer High School's J.V. girls team, either. This Boilermaker team right now is talented enough to be an NCAA Tournament team. It won't be, but it has ability enough collectively to be.
Indiana is as talented as any team in the country, but it's not 37 points more talented than Purdue.
But it is 37 points more mature, more experienced, more focused and, surprisingly, more driven than Purdue.
You saw that in that second half, when the home team got 21 points from its big man and still couldn't so much as instill a single anxious moment for its visitors, who pressed and shot threes and show-boated to a win over unprecedented lop-sidedness.
Again, that's hard to do.
Blame Matt Painter all you want. I'm sure Wednesday night's game triggered a referendum on his entire existence on the Internet, right or wrong. He'll be the first to tell you the fact that his team's not playing the way it's supposed to is on him and his coaches. But these players have to listen. They have to grow up and, it's easy for a by-stander like myself to say, man up.
Coaches don't turn into idiots, contrary to popular belief. Purdue's success under Painter has not been about a couple of assistant coaches wagging the dog. Different is automatically construed as awesome after games like Wednesday night, but the formula in place works. History has shown that.
Purdue showed distinct improvement, I thought, during its run of four wins in five games. I don't want to say it's all out the window now, but it hardly seems to matter now.
There was no one player, no one X or no one O that would have made much of a difference for Purdue Wednesday night. Hammons getting in early foul trouble seemed like a game-changer, but turned out only to be the difference between losing by 37 and losing by a non-record-breaking but no less embarrassing margin.
It was intangibles that were the difference between Indiana and Purdue. IU has grown into (and recruited) theirs; Purdue must now follow suit, starting with the game in Bloomington coming up. The Boilermakers will be the pig at the luau that day.
If that ship is gonna go down, at least point it at something and do some damage. Figuratively speaking, of course.
That's exactly what Purdue didn't do when it had absolutely nothing to lose against Indiana Wednesday.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2013. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
You know, when Indiana was god-awful during its scorched-earth period, those teams were annoyingly difficult for Purdue to beat when Purdue was the infinitely better team.
Garbage time on Thursday night was at least a chance to send a message. Instead, it saw a 22-point halftime lead nearly doubled.
That's hard to do.
Indiana is really, really, really good, mind you. Coming into Thursday night, I thought Michigan was clearly the best team in the Big Ten. I was wrong. It's 1A and 1B and it doesn't matter which is which.
You don't pay for this site to read nice things about IU, but you have to acknowledge it.
Here is what Indiana has: Experience, with a bunch of seniors who've played through the worst of times, just like David Teague and Carl Landry had many years ago at Purdue; shooters all over the place; an elite big man; and a pair of juniors who were the real difference-makers on that team and are again this year. The passion those guys play with is the engine that drives that team.
Wednesday night's game was a chance to show such passion. You saw what happened.
Forget Victor Oladipo, Purdue just needs a Will Sheehey.
How would those guys respond to being down 30 on their home floor had the tables been turned? Folks are obsessed with the acquisition of talent, but rankings and star ratings say nothing about the size of players' hearts and, um, onions.
When Matt Painter listed off guys he thought "fought" to the end, he named two freshmen and a walk-on. That was it.
Yes, Indiana is absolutely loaded and blessed with the mental wherewithal to pull off an absolute dismantling of the Boilermakers in what was supposed to be a harrowing environment, in between two of its biggest games of the season. It was diabolical how Indiana did what it did, like Terminator-type stuff.
Purdue is young. That is no excuse for what happened Thursday night, not at this stage of the season. Not ever. No team should ever be 37 points better than Purdue, not in West Lafayette or anywhere.
But the fact remains Purdue is young.
At this time next year, Purdue has to be ready to beat Indiana again as things balance out some after Indiana's upswing - the seasons the Hoosiers have built toward, endured all that losing in anticipation of - just coincided with the Boilermakers' retooling/rebuilding/re-whatevering.
Experiences like this one need to help make this group into a top-25 sort of team next season. In time the sting of what Wednesday night will fade, but in the moment, Wednesday night was rock bottom for Purdue since it got good again under Matt Painter.
But much better days should lie ahead, though this game again reminded that we might have a better chance of seeing the Loch Ness Monster than we do A.J. Hammons seeing his senior year in West Lafayette.
Purdue's problems are intangible. It's not the most talented team in the country - blame recruiting all you want - but it's not Rensselaer High School's J.V. girls team, either. This Boilermaker team right now is talented enough to be an NCAA Tournament team. It won't be, but it has ability enough collectively to be.
Indiana is as talented as any team in the country, but it's not 37 points more talented than Purdue.
But it is 37 points more mature, more experienced, more focused and, surprisingly, more driven than Purdue.
You saw that in that second half, when the home team got 21 points from its big man and still couldn't so much as instill a single anxious moment for its visitors, who pressed and shot threes and show-boated to a win over unprecedented lop-sidedness.
Again, that's hard to do.
Blame Matt Painter all you want. I'm sure Wednesday night's game triggered a referendum on his entire existence on the Internet, right or wrong. He'll be the first to tell you the fact that his team's not playing the way it's supposed to is on him and his coaches. But these players have to listen. They have to grow up and, it's easy for a by-stander like myself to say, man up.
Coaches don't turn into idiots, contrary to popular belief. Purdue's success under Painter has not been about a couple of assistant coaches wagging the dog. Different is automatically construed as awesome after games like Wednesday night, but the formula in place works. History has shown that.
Purdue showed distinct improvement, I thought, during its run of four wins in five games. I don't want to say it's all out the window now, but it hardly seems to matter now.
There was no one player, no one X or no one O that would have made much of a difference for Purdue Wednesday night. Hammons getting in early foul trouble seemed like a game-changer, but turned out only to be the difference between losing by 37 and losing by a non-record-breaking but no less embarrassing margin.
It was intangibles that were the difference between Indiana and Purdue. IU has grown into (and recruited) theirs; Purdue must now follow suit, starting with the game in Bloomington coming up. The Boilermakers will be the pig at the luau that day.
If that ship is gonna go down, at least point it at something and do some damage. Figuratively speaking, of course.
That's exactly what Purdue didn't do when it had absolutely nothing to lose against Indiana Wednesday.
Copyright, Boilers, Inc. 2013. All Rights Reserved. Reproducing or using editorial or graphical content, in whole or in part, without permission, is strictly prohibited. E-mail GoldandBlack.com/Boilers, Inc.
