Three Thoughts is a new feature GoldandBlack.com will run every Monday morning in-season.

Last week, I was jokingly suggesting to people that maybe the Big Ten ought to cancel the Big Ten Tournament but bring every team to Chicago or Indy anyway, for an AAU-style jamboree of make-up games, the highest-profile of which could be backloaded to give the TV folks something resembling their money's worth.

Now, even that seems farfetched as a solution for this league to fill in all its gaps, which now seems less and less likely after Nebraska's continued issues, Penn State's extended shutdown, Michigan State's problems and now Michigan's two-week shutdown courtesy of the new COVID-19 variants, a most unwelcome plot twist to all of this.

Look, the Big Ten planned for this and built the schedule accordingly, but as a wise man once said, everyone's got a plan until they get punched in the face, and the Big Ten has indeed been punched in the face.

If you're among those questioning Purdue playing on Friday following the loss of Sasha Stefanovic, I think it's important to note to that this is what everyone involved in college basketball this season signed up for.

This isn't about every school's individual interests, but rather the bigger picture of simply having a season, and if you thought Matt Painter and Mike Bobinski might look at that any other way, then I don't know what to tell you.