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.
COMING TOGETHER NICELY
It's a big ask, but if Purdue can beat No. 7 Michigan Friday night in Mackey Arena, it's probably time to start talking about the Boilermakers differently.
For the least experienced team in the Big Ten, making the NCAA Tournament this season would be a heck of a deal. But with a 6-3 record through nine games and a half dozen road games already behind it and an abundance of home games to come, a win over the Wolverines might officially qualify plucky Purdue as a Big Ten contender.
Already.
Matt Painter now has not just the youngest team in the Big Ten, but also the hottest, winner of four straight, three straight on the road. It's earned the rare trifecta of wins at the Breslin Center, Assembly Hall and now Value City Arena. Many years, any one of those might be the signature win of your season. For this Purdue team, it's merely January.
A group that looked at Rutgers and Illinois like it didn't quite know how to win yet suddenly appears to have crash-coursed on the matter, coming from behind to defy all real-time win probabilities at Michigan State and Ohio State.
