For months before Purdue's all-time historic loss to Fairleigh Dickinson, Purdue won basketball games. So much so that Purdue won the Big Ten by three games, earned a #1 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and put themselves in position to be just the second top seed in the NCAA Tournament to lose its first game.

But hindsight is always 20/20, right?

That 2022-23 team didn't fake their way into fooling folks into believing they were worthy of a #1 ranking, a #1 seed, and all the pressure that comes with being a favorite.

Purdue swept a non-conference schedule thate season that featured a four-game stretch against top-20 teams: Marquette, West Virginia, Gonzaga, and Duke.

There's no lucking your way to those kinds of wins.

Purdue started the season 13-0, and when it did lose, Purdue's loss was at the hands of a road hail mary from Ron Harper.

Purdue would respond by winning its next nine games. On February 1st, after an 80-60 win against Penn State, Purdue was 22-1 on the season.

But that doesn't mean there aren't lessons to take from winning, or winning ugly, and it doesn't mean teams can't catch up to you as the season progresses.

It's fitting, considering Purdue's most recent loss, that IU book ended the start of Purdue's warning signs in the 2023 season. The next six games, Purdue would lose four times, three on the road, and once at home to IU who pulled off the sweep of Purdue after getting blanked by the Boilers under the Archie Miller adminstration.

Purdue showed warning signs then about its mortality - an offense with young guards that could be overwhelmed by elite pressure and struggled to actually make shots away from Zach Edey - but those warning signs were too subtle considering how the season started and how Purdue responded by winning its final two regular season games and then taking the Big Ten Tournament.

Sometimes winning is the biggest liar there is.

Sometimes losing is, too.