The Weekly Word is GoldandBlack.com's weekly, obviously, column covering Purdue football, basketball and recruiting, as well as college sports issues, the true meaning of life, or whatever other topics might come to mind in a given week.

This Purdue team whose season ended in profound disappointment on Friday night, its season is over and its time together is over. The Boilermakers will look very different next season.

It'll be less talented, but Purdue will still wear "Purdue" across its chest, and, Matt Painter will hope, play more like it.

This was not a team that jibed with the way people tend to view Purdue teams.

It didn't stop the Boilermakers from winning 29 games, but it did stop them from winning championships and at least reaching the Elite Eight.

It was very clear very quickly that this was not a typical team, for better. This team was awesomely talented and gifted offensively But as the season went on, it was very clear, too, that this was not a typical Purdue team, for worse.

Matt Painter's basketball sensibilities never got through to this team, at least in any sort of enduring manner. Nor did Purdue's typical basketball identity. There's no rule that says every team has to be the same, but this one actually belied its program's historical identity. This was not a great "little things" team.

Even during its much improved run over the final six weeks or so of the season, this was never a defensive-minded group. This was never a group you could bet on to get that pivotal loose ball.

And this was never a group you could trust to not turn the ball over 15 times with a championship — or the season — on the line. This was never a team you could trust to not allow one turnover to turn into four, like a Gremlin you'd just poured water on.