Matt Painter keeps saying it. Purdue keeps saying it. They're not surprised. This is who they've been all summer. They expected to succeed.

But it's not what they're saying, if you know what I mean. It's how they say it. It's not bragging. It almost seems to have happened on accident. That they just woke up this way, the freshman, and the other players, too, but mostly the freshman guards.

"Him[Fletcher Loyer] and Braden[Smith] are very confident," Matt Painter is telling us after the game. I asked him a version of the question I've heard him asked after every game this season. Is this surprising? Is this new? Fletcher Loyer, true freshman guard, he just scored another career-high in points. This time he did it with just 11 shots and all while dishing out 8 assists to zero turnovers. Is the game slowing down for him? Is there something different?

No. This is who he's always been.

"I don't think there was one play where he got away from himself," Painter continues. It's hard not to read perfect into that state line. 20 points. 8 assists. 0 turnovers.

A true freshman playing an almost perfect game. It was almost perfect.