It's funny, our Boilers made a tiny bit of noise last winter when  February run helped them dig out of a hole that they had made for themselves in December. Purdue never reached the top-25...but they beat some good teams along the way and reminded us what it feels like to have fun in a gymnasium in the dead of winter. On top of beating good teams, Purdue beat the HELL out of IU once and embarrassed them at Ass Hall a second time. You'd think IU fans would remember that...I guess not.

EsPN writer and IU shill has allowed his employer to taint his already errant line of thought. Many IU fans that I talk to really believe IU sucks...even with a high level recruit, many are still skeptical if Crean can get a team into the upper echelon of the nation again. After all, this IU team has shown a whole bunch of nothing the last two seasons. Their lack of defense has been noteworthy. Sure, they have some scorers, but their matador style defense has forced them to get into arms races that they can't win.

The guy that Tom Crean sees in his sweaty nightmares, AJ Hammons, is returning for his Senior season. So is Ray Davis. Both pistol-whipped his boys on Keady Court and in Bloomington. Atop of that, there's this young guy who's recently arrived on campus...who is large and motivated. Oh yeah, he's also pretty highly ranked. Do you think Haas will get any better in this off-season? Me too. He scored a quiet 11 points versus the Hoosiers in Ass Hall.

All signs, interviews, practice reports and general rumors point to a Purdue basketball team that is uber-motivated to do big things this winter. Slights like Brennan's premature top-25 no show for our Boilers should only fuel the fire for The Forces of Good.

If there's one thing we've learned, it's that polls don't really matter and respect is something that's earned. Both true. That said, bulletin board material works to motivate the right group of players. From the looks of it, the experienced, deep Boilers already have a  sizable chip on their collective shoulder...Stuff like this should help.

Purdue will have a chance to prove a ton of people wrong...and if you've been reading this site the last few weeks, you know that we all can't wait for basketball season to arrive.

Even a few years later, the role of underdog feels familiar...and the disrespect still fits like a glove.