Boiler down

So, remember a week or so ago, when the Blob counseled patience in the midst of all the This Is The Best Purdue Basketball Team Ever talk, and also the This Is A Final Four Team talk?

Well ... the Blob stands by what he wrote then. And, boy, are those some strange words to type.

I still believe this Purdue team is a damn good basketball team, the best Matt Painter's ever had if maybe not the best the ever. The jury, from where the Blob sits, is still deliberating over that one.

I also believe this is Purdue's best shot at the Final Four in at least 30 years, if everything falls right. Which in basketball it sometimes doesn't.

Like, for instance, the other night, when the Boilermakers led Ohio State nearly all night until a missed shot fell wrong and the Buckeyes got the last-second putback to win it.

Like, say, yesterday, when the Boilermakers and Michigan State were neck-and-neck until a last-second triple fell wrong (from Purdue's perspective), and also right (from Michigan State's.)

So, two big showdown games with the other two elite teams in the Big Ten, and two losses. And what that tells us is that, while Purdue is still a damn good basketball team, it is no less capable of falling down and going boom than any other team in the country this year.

That's because, with the possible exception of Villanova, everybody can be had, and has been. All the alleged elites have lost games they shouldn't have lost. And what does that tell us?

That tells us to buckle up, because it's gonna be one beautiful, wild ride come March.

That tells us, in Purdue's case, that no matter how good a team this, it's still capable of being Purdue in March -- which is to say, capable of doing what it usually does, which is lose in the Madness before it rightfully should.

Maybe this will be the time it doesn't. But just to be on the safe side ... don't be buyin' those Final Four tickets just yet.