Purdue's season is running out of time

We never have as much time as we think.

Trey Kaufman-Renn is contemplative, quiet, frustrated, and he doesn't have any answers for the media. He agrees with his point 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 Tournament that Purdue is out of in its second game for the second season in a row. This season it feels different. Last year's team had a story to tell, things to do, but it was far beyond what a conference tournament could offer it. This Purdue team 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 just one of those things where you wish you could play the game over again. No doubt that - I don't know if we'll play Michigan again, but that will be a big game next year for me because I just really wanted this one."

An uncomfortable truth about college basketball is that next seasons, next 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 change and things always, eventually end. You don't always see it coming.

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

"Just having fun," Braden Smith says in his final 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 consistent. Purdue's defense continues to need its offense to be everything, and anything short of that, and Purdue's faults start to show. It happened in four straight games and it cost Purdue the conference title. It's happened in 6 of the last 9 games now and that's going to cost Purdue when it comes to NCAA seedings in a week.

"I think we'll be just fine," Smith says, in some ways mimicking what Matt Painter has tried to implore in his team, a confidence and a positivity. 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 team have it, he does, in the middle of the court, letting the full brunt of his expletives be a shared burden and bonding moment for all of his players.

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

This year, Purdue isn't even if some of the names are the same and still, very good. This year, Purdue needs the other stuff to go right first, like offense, to set its defense, but to also mask the things that aren't getting better.

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

"When guys shoot the basketball, well, they feel better about themselves," Painter said. "Like they play better on the other end and stuff. I think you kind of saw some of that frustration mount here when we have struggled offensively. It's affect our defense, which in the first place, like we're not a defensive 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 team with positives that couldn't be shaken, a foundation that couldn't be dislodged, and a steadiness that stayed its course.

This Purdue team hasn't been able to protect the paint or its home or keep the boat from rocking when things got choppy.

But when the sails are up and the wind is just right, Purdue can soar. It won 11 of 12 games, knocked off a top-10 Alabama team, and won another early season tournament.

The offense is sublime, but sometimes, as Mark Danielewski says in House of Leaves, sublime is just the thing you choke on after a shot 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 horizon that is the next game.

Purdue has reached the shore. The next stop will be its last one, but a coach's jobs isn't just uncomfortable truths, it's finding silver linings and keeping your team'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 lot of them to hold off the end.

"When you get good 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 tournament, hopefully you can get some rest. You didn't play as long. Any way you look at it, you try to grab the silver lining as a coach and make it positive. You have to because the result's over. Hopefully that's the case. Hopefully we play better in the NCAA Tournament. We get some rest here, get ready to go and have some fun."

Purdue will find out Sunday night where its NCAA Tournament journey begins.