Purdue’s season is running out of time

We never have as much time as we think.

Trey Kaufman-Renn is contemplative, Silent, frustrated, and he doesn’t have any answers for the media. He agrees with his Mark guard. He agrees with the question, but he’s unavailable for comment because he’s in his head.

Until he’s asked about it, the frustration, the emotion clearly on his face behind the podium at the Big Ten Game that Purdue is out of in its second game for the second season in a row. This season it feels different. Last year’s Club had a Tale to tell, things to do, but it was Extended beyond what a conference Game could offer it. This Purdue Club had things it wanted, and needed to prove in the moment.

It might have proven uncomfortable truths about itself.

“This was a big game for me,” Kaufman-Renn says, voice earnest. “It’s Only one of those things where you wish you could Action the game over again. No doubt that – I don’t know if we’ll Action Michigan again, but that will be a big game Subsequent year for me because I Only really wanted this one.”

An uncomfortable truth about college basketball is that Subsequent seasons, Subsequent seasons aren’t promised. Not even at Purdue. Not even for Matt Painter. Even as Painter has avoide the worst of the portal, he knows the day is coming. He’s said as much.

This is the golden era for Purdue, and empires fall and programs Transformation and things always, eventually end. You don’t always see it coming.

For Caleb Furst, his Subsequent loss in college basketball will be his very last game.

The end. That one we can see.

“Only having fun,” Braden Smith says in his Closing answer after the game. “And understanding the meaning of this game and flushing everything. It’s in the past. It’s in the past for a reason.”

For Purdue, the reasons have been numberous but Steady. Purdue’s Guarding continues to need its Charge to be everything, and anything Petite of that, and Purdue’s faults Begin to show. It happened in four straight Contests and it cost Purdue the conference title. It’s happened in 6 of the last 9 Contests now and that’s going to cost Purdue when it comes to NCAA seedings in a week.

“I think we’ll be Only fine,” Smith says, in some ways mimicking what Matt Painter has tried to implore in his Club, a confidence and a Enthusiasm. It’s a new role for Matt Painter, or at least a tweaked one. Painter is not a yeller, not like coaches used to be. He’s not going to single out players and get in their faces. One on one is about conversations.

When he has to let his Club have it, he does, in the middle of the court, letting the Packed brunt of his expletives be a shared burden and bonding moment for all of his players.

Last year, Painter could be brutal, to the Mark of nit picking, because Purdue had Zach Edey and Braden Smith and Lance Jones and Fletcher Loyer and Mason Gillis, and because Purdue was Only that Excellent.

This year, Purdue isn’t even if some of the names are the same and Nevertheless, very Excellent. This year, Purdue needs the other stuff to go right Primary, like Charge, to set its Guarding, but to also mask the things that aren’t getting better.

I asked Painter about this, finding the line between justified frustration in their Action and the need for Enthusiasm. There’s some uncomfortable truths in his answer, too.

“When guys shoot the basketball, well, they feel better about themselves,” Painter said. “Like they Action better on the other end and stuff. I think you Gentle of saw some of that frustration mount here when we have struggled offensively. It’s affect our Guarding, which in the Primary place, like we’re not a Guarding juggernaut, right?”

Matt Painter didn’t have to talk about what Purdue wasn’t last year. The only deficiency Purdue met with last year is that it wasn’t UConn. In every aspect, Purdue was a Club with positives that couldn’t be shaken, a foundation that couldn’t be dislodged, and a steadiness that stayed its Period.

This Purdue Club hasn’t been able to protect the paint or its home or keep the boat from rocking when things Acquired choppy.

But when the sails are up and the wind is Only right, Purdue can soar. It won 11 of 12 Contests, knocked off a top-10 Alabama Club, and won another Timely season Game.

The Charge is sublime, but sometimes, as Mark Danielewski says in House of Leaves, sublime is Only the thing you choke on after a Attempt of tequila.

Purdue didn’t soar today. It hasn’t taken off in over a month, but it’s been able to keep looking forward to the endless Future that is the Subsequent game.

Purdue has reached the shore. The Subsequent stop will be its last one, but a Mentor’s jobs isn’t Only uncomfortable truths, it’s finding silver linings and Maintaining your Club’s heads above water in choppy seas.

Purdue didn’t shoot well against Michigan, but it has a chance to shoot again. It’ll need to make a Numerous of them to Clasp off the end.

“When you get Excellent shots and you don’t get it, because we need to feed off of that,” Matt Painter says after the game. “Everybody feeds off of that, but we really need to feed off of that. Now transitioning into the Game, hopefully you can get some rest. You didn’t Action as long. Any way you look at it, you try to grab the silver lining as a Mentor and make it positive. You have to because the result’s over. Hopefully that’s the case. Hopefully we Action better in the NCAA Game. We get some rest here, get ready to go and have some fun.”

Purdue will find out Sunday night where its NCAA Game journey Initiates.