That was, in a word, impressive. Purdue has made opponents' pay after losses in recent years, but Sunday's 79-61 win was among the worst damage the Boilers' have doled out to a Big Ten opponent after a win.

It wasn't even as close as the score indicated; No. 20 Purdue (11-4, 23-1 Big Ten) had Northwestern (10-5, 1-3) buried in minutes after jumping out to a 7-0 lead before the clock read "18:00."

Player stats below, with ratings to follow:

It isn't that Smith is playing much differently than he did over a recent stretch when he scored less than 10 points in three of seven games. He's attacking a little more, perhaps.

The difference is that they are all going down lately, and Smith exemplifies the concept of the hot hand.

Loyer was himself in a game where he didn't need to be anything special.

He was a trusted source of secondary ball handling, per usual, committing no turnovers despite forays into the defense's teeth. On a particular one, late in the first half when the WIldcats were still clinging to a prayer, Loyer dribbled through the traffic of a feisty defense and hit a jumper from the lane, keeping Purdue comfortably ahead.

Kaufman-Renn was the beneficiary of Purdue's offensive rhythm today, rather than a driver of it. But look in the assists column: The junior had four. He's capable of making passes big men aren't supposed to make – like one-armed, side-eye skip passes – but his talent really lies in the speed of his decision-making.

It seems that two starts in a row were all Cox needed to get his mojo back. The freshman has been inconsistent since grand proclamations were made about him in the wake of his caped hero performance against Alabama.

Sunday, he not only spent the majority of his time successfully guarding Northwestern 20-point scorer Brooks Barnhizer (11 points), but added some pizzazz on the other end along the way.

Look now, and he's averaging 5.5 points a game and shooting over 40% from 3. He made a ludicrous, low-shot-clock prayer from the corner in the early second half.

If you watch Caleb Furst on defense, you might get dizzy. The senior keeps his head on a swivel constantly, and his growing rim presence has given Purdue exactly what it needs over its last two games as Furst has started.

Furst also rebounded ferociously. He didn't pull in rebounds Sunday – he wrestled, grabbed and snatched for them.

He added a few nice offensive moments, too, the highlight being a beautiful alley-oop pass from Kaufman-Renn in the post.

The 3s finally came (2-of-4), and Colvin added his signature transition flair. The sophomore was fouled on a lob in the second half, and soon after burst to the rim on the fast break to give Kaufman-Renn a dunk when Colvin's layup attempt lipped out.

His stat line was amusingly empty (no positive stats and four fouls), but Heide did some little things Sunday, especially defensively.

The sophomore played effective reps on Barnhizer and the Wildcats' other 20-point man, Nick Martinelli. He got lucky in the first half to save 2 points, too: Heide fouled Northwestern guard Jalen Leach in transition and he missed both free throws.

Still looks too eager on the defensive end.

Burgess corralled some rebounds, poked his hand in for a deflection in the first half and got on the end of an alley-oop in the second. He drained a 3, too.

A lot is anchored to Game Score, a metric invented by John Hollinger which (quite imperfectly) estimates a player's box score contributions. It's just a starting point for the grades, and it's readily available. During the game, I focus most of my attention on watching defensive reps, box-outs, offensive movement/involvement, and non-assist passing. I'll add all the off-ball value to these grades that my eyes can catch.

Further, these are role dependent – my grades answer a question that goes something like, "How well did a player take advantage of the opportunities they were given?"

Late game heroics earn bonus points, and the opposite is true for important errors. Oh, and I hate missed free throws.