Boiler down

 I have no earthly clue where your Purdue Boilermakers are going to wind up once the NCAA bracket wheel stops spinning tomorrow night. That's for the committee and the slide-rule boys to figure out.

I do know this, however: Since Matt Painter figured out some stuff back in January, everyone else seems to have figured out what Painter figured out.

This after Michigan took the Purdues apart like a cheap toy in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten tournament yesterday, winning 86-68 by doing what seemingly everyone has been doing against the Boilers for the last six weeks. The formula rarely varies: Take away the 3-point line, pound the ball inside where it's basically Trey Kaufman-Renn against the world, and keep Braden Smith from taking over the game. Voila.

The Wolverines did a lot of that yesterday, and it again left the Boiler Up crowd Boiler Down. On the offensive end, the primary Michigan bigs, Danny Wolf and Vlad Goldin, combined for 33 points, 19 rebounds and seven assists. And on the defensive end, they all but silenced Smith and Fletcher Loyer from the 3-point arc, where they missed 11 of their 13 tries.

Smith, the Big Ten's Player of the Year,  did what he does, recording 12 points, four rebounds and six assists. And TKR did what he could, scoring 24 points and grabbing nine boards a day after going for 30 and seven in a tougher-than-it-should-have-been 67-61 win over USC.

But Caleb Furst, whose insertion into the Purdue lineup helped ignite the Boilers' surge back in January, chipped in just four points, though he did work the glass for five offensive rebounds and seven total. Cam Heide, a pick-me-up off the bench when he's right, had almost as many fouls (2) as points (3). The only other bright spots were Gicarri Harris and Myles Colvin,who combined for 20 points and were 4-of-7 from the arc.

Which meant everyone else was 3-for-15. 

This is certainly not the endgame everyone foresaw back on Feb. 7, when the Boilers dismissed USC by 18 to briefly ascend to the top of the Big Ten. They were 19-5 overall then and 11-2 in conference; six of the 11 Ws were by double digits, including a 91-64 floor-waxing of Michigan in Mackey. Since Dec. 21, they'd lost just twice.

And then ...

And then they lost their next four, including a 15-point loss at Indiana in which the Hoosiers crushed them 48-21 in the second half. And now they're 3-6 in their last nine games heading into Da Tournament, which makes you wonder not just where they'll land but how long they'll stay there.

Is this a Sweet Sixteen team?

Maybe. 

Is this a team that could lose to, say, Wofford in the first round?

Also maybe.

That's where we are now.