Or in other words: What do we take away from Minnesota 73, Purdue 69?
Other than, you know, an observation guaranteed to get Purdue fans upset at the Blob, and perhaps revive old favorites like You Hate Purdue, You're Just Another IU Guy and The Only Time You Ever Write About Purdue Is When They Lose.
The observation: Was this the most Purdue thing ever?
Here we've got the Boilermakers all the way up to 11th in the polls ... here they're 22-7 overall and winners of 13 of their last 14 games ... here all they've got to do is beat a middling Minnesota team to lock up a regular season Big Ten title no one expected them to win after graduating four starters ...
And they lose. Of course.
Because how many times, Purdue fan, has your team gotten your hopes up and then dashed them? Be honest, now. A lot, right?
In any case, the hottest team in the Big Ten went up to Minneapolis and tripped over a footstool like Dick Van Dyke. Now the Boilers have to beat Northwestern on the road just to get a piece of the Big Ten title -- albeit a Northwestern team that has lost its last 10 games and is dead last in the conference.
Here's the upside to that, though: Just in time for the postseason, the Boilers got a refresher course in what got them where they are, and what can prevent them from getting further.
What got them where they are is getting multiple people involved. What can prevent them from getting further is what happened last night, when they reverted to a team that leaned too heavily on its one surpassing talent, Carsen Edwards, and not enough on those that have complemented him so well since the first of the year.
Edwards scored 22 points to lead four Boilers in double figures, but he took 31 shots, missing 24 of those. That was almost half of Purdue's 68-shot total.
That was how Purdue lost games in December. And it's how the Boilers lost last night.
Something Matt Painter, who's done the best coaching job of his career this season, will no doubt remind them of. Call it a silver lining.
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