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.

You know, Purdue's been a fascinating study this season, a strange blend of dichotomies and contradictions and conflicts between what the numbers say and what your eyeballs might.

The Boilermakers have enjoyed a fine season, 27-7 to this point, and the driving force there has been an offense that spent most of the season ranked No. 1 nationally in offensive efficiency.

But that same team turns the ball over too much and misses too many free throws, the combination of which would sure seem to me like peak inefficiency.

Purdue's got one of college basketball's elite penetrators, but also two giants who tend to clog up the lane. Purdue's built to draw fouls, but isn't a particularly good free throw shooting team. Purdue has arguably college basketball's most formidable transition weapon, but doesn't force enough turnovers on defense to generate as many fast breaks as it would take to maximize that resource.

You might call Purdue's balance of Jaden Ivey and the combination of Zach Edey and Trevion Williams to be something of a thunder-and-lightning dynamic, but the thing about thunder and lightning is that they generally don't present themselves together.

Purdue's two silos of offensive output are outstanding, but also kind of contradictory.