Purdue showed something to Illinois, the Big Ten, and the tournament today

Mom, look away.

Maybe it's because I spent too much time in front of the Orange Krush, and filth is contagious, or maybe it's because I called this on The Old Gold Show yesterday when asking what a Purdue win could mean.

Or maybe it's because I just watched Purdue go to the State Farm Arena and beat Illinois. But there's something about this Purdue team and quite frankly, it's a bit vulgar. So if you're not into that, you can skip past down this segment of text.

But what Purdue showed was more than just winning on the road against the second best team in the Big Ten. Purdue went to Illinois, the last Big Ten challengers, and just showed Illinois a truth about Purdue that was confirmed by big three after big three after big three by Fletcher Loyer, Mason Gillis, Lance Jones, and Braden Smith.

This Purdue team has some f*ck you to them.

Illinois' staffer can act tough in the hallway after the game, mouthing off to a Purdue player, a drive by of fake tough confrontation, but Purdue showed with a Mason Gillis dagger, a Lance Jones banger, a Fletcher Loyer volley, and a Braden Smith knock out blow, this isn't last year's Boilermakers. They don't back down.

There's more than just Zach Edey to this team.

Fairleigh Dickinson came out and took it from Purdue. It's why it's hard for Painter to talk about the game. It shouldn't happen, he knows that, but that 16 seed earned it.

"It's really hard for the loss that we had," Painter said after the game when I ask him about what it means that this team has made it back here. Here, being at the top of the Big Ten by multiple games, again. Here being about to be a #1 seed for the second straight season. "We'd never been a one seed since I've been the coach. You fight to be a one seed. You get beat by a 16 seed. I don't even like talking about it out of respect for our opponent. Because they beat us straight up, right? They earned it. But we had to sit in that for six or seven months before our season started."

You could see it last season, Purdue wilting away from the moment. Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, and Mason Gillis all missing shots, afraid to take shots, not meeting the moment.

You can see it as clearly as you can see that this team is different. When the game got tough, Purdue got tougher.

Last year, it was Zach Edey, standing above everyone else in college basketball hoping his teammates could meet him up there. They couldn't.

But this year, this season, in this game, it wasn't just one or two or three guys coming with Edey. It was all of them.

It wasn't easy. Illinois put some fight to Purdue. Real fight, not just the fake stuff, the Coleman Hawkins stuff, the unnamed Illinois coach stuff, but the Marcus Domask putting his ass into you tough and finding the angles around a 7-4 center who has gotten so much better at shutting those angles off.

Domask did it twice and a brief Purdue 6 point lead turned to a 64-64 tie game on the road.

"Braden Smith's a tough kid. Fletcher Loyer's a tough kid, and Mason Gillis, I think he'd rather fight you than talk to you," Matt Painter said after the game on the podium not knowing he'd be foreshadowing a moment a few minutes later.

Mason Gillis was next to his two guards as Zach Edey talked to media after we followed the tunnels to the player's locker room area. His voice cuts through the audio - it doesn't need to be repeated, but if you're listening to Painter and you've seen Gillis play, you can catch his drift.

The staffer, mouth running, wisely kept walking. Gillis didn't back down on the court. He definitely didn't back down off it either.

A few moments later, Gillis is against the wall, talking to media and we're giving him a hard time a bit, someone is telling him what Painter said about him. Damn right, he agrees.

"For a while we just had to hang in there, right?" Painter said after the game about his team's mental toughness.

Purdue was just 1 of 6 from three in the first half. No one had more than 4 points besides Zach Edey. Domask was doing Domask things, and the good Coleman Hawkins showed up and the spectacular Quincy Guerrier was in attendance, knocking down three first half three-pointers.

Edey, the nation's leading foul drawer, had 18 points in the first half on 13 field goal attempts. He was terrific, but the big man didn't take a free throw until there was 12 minutes left in the game.

But Edey didn't need to shoot to start the second half. He was waiting for it. Illinois doubled hard, both of Purdue's first possessions. Both times, Edey kicked it out to his sophomore guards. Braden Smith knocked down one three, and Fletcher Loyer another.

Loyer and Smith were kids last season, true freshman, playing way above their grade, over anyone's expectations for two guards that young and unheralded.

Now, Loyer and Smith aren't just tough, but problems.

A brief Loyer cold-streak has turned back into clutch Loyer coming in hot in March. Loyer was responsible for the defensive play of the game, and a personal 7-0 to give Purdue one of its first leads of the game in a pivotal turn in the second half.

Then Smith, well Smith just played 38 minutes, and hit three of the toughest, most fuck you threes you've ever seen against one of the most harassing defenders in the country.

And a crowd that gave that player a standing ovation while spewing vulgar and venom for the entire game at Painter and Mason Gillis and Fletcher Loyer, left with a mouth full of crow.

"When you have five guys that all want to take the shot," Zach Edey said after the game. "Everybody's gonna be ready to shoot the shot."

Edey could have been talking about Braden Smith, Fletcher Loyer, Mason Gillis, or Lance Jones.

All four hit clutch shots down the stretch including Jones who has gone through the roughest two-game stretch of his time at Purdue.

Jones is 2 of 15 in the last two games. The chaotic nature of Jones has often led to the good and bad of Jones showing up in different halves of games, but for the last two, his propensity to rush in transition, to force three-pointers, and lose his guy off the ball has limited his positive impact.

That didn't stop Jones from again answering the bell late, when Edey saved an errant Smith pass by deflecting it off the glass and then gathering it before finding Jones in the corner.

Jones, just 1 of 5 from three at that point, knocked down the three to give Purdue a bit of breathing room, 74-68.

"If it was easy, everybody would do it," Loyer said after the game about Purdue's repeated success.

There was nothing easy about what Braden Smith did tonight. He went up against a guard that dwarfs him, a great defender by reputation, but when the game got toughest, Smith answered.

There will be times in the future, in the NCAA Tournament, when Purdue will need a basket. It will draw up a play and the plan will always end in Edey, but plans don't always go as intended.

It will need this Smith to step up and not just orchestrate an offense or fill a role in the offense like he thought his job was last year. He's shown in this final stretch run, he's ready for it.

He's not the only one.

Last year at this time, Purdue was a paper tiger limping towards a post season with a tragic ending.

This Purdue? It's roaring and the tiger is full of expletives.