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.

On Friday, Purdue landed a commitment from a borderline-elite basketball recruit — its second (out of two) for the 2021 class — and he was a player the Boilermakers had every reason not to get.

Trey Kaufman will come to Purdue from a portion of the state from an Indiana-and-Louisville stronghold. He committed to Purdue a few months after it (technically) took another player at his position, requiring a recalibration of the plan for both he and Caleb Furst, a situation that might be a knockout punch in a lot of case. He held offers from bluebloods, national champs and regional powers alike.

Kaufman is another recruiting win for Matt Painter and his program as part of the finest run of recruiting this program has known in my frame of reference. Purdue is getting terrific players and beating formidable programs for them, and it's doing it consistently.

It's not just the accumulation of talent that tells you where things are for Purdue right now In terms of its cachet with recruits these days, it's how they're accumulating that talent.

Hear me out as I explain my point.