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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 11 • 5 T his coming week, thousands of miles apart, an ocean literally be- tween them, in polar-op- posite climates, two differ- ent Purdue teams will be striving for the same thing: Legitimacy. First, on Saturday, it will be the football team, host- ing bipolar Northwestern in what might be polar conditions in West Lafayette, the Boiler- makers needing to back up the distinct prog- ress made this season with the most impor- tant component of progress: Actual results. As of today, Purdue has gone from help- less one-win outfit last season to much more able and competitive, but with only two more wins to show for it. To the discerning eye, progress has been significant. On paper, to this point, it's been modest. There will be no bowl game, but an end- of-season double-header against the schizo Wildcats and troubled Indiana affords an op- portunity to make this season a resounding success and maybe capture both momentum and hearts and minds heading into 2015. It won't be easy. Purdue's midseason momentum has gone flat, in part due to a pair of blown knee ligaments, but that's not to say it can't be recaptured against a dulled end-of-season schedule. It goes both ways, though. Lose both these games and when you look back on things, how's it look? Purdue would still be loser of 15 of 16 Big Ten games under its coach, with the lone win over middling Illinois, soon to be coached by somebody else. Anecdotal evidence of progress wouldn't be altogether disqualified, but the black-and-white realities of the sport would remain terribly unkind. It would inevitably affect recruiting, fan interest and offseason morale as much if not more than a pair of wins would boost those things. At worst, get one of these games. It's imperative. For basketball, it'll be in balmy Maui that the most unproven of teams will get a chance to prove itself. So far, so good for the newcomer-heavy Boilermakers through three games — assum - ing a thumping of a hopeless Grambling team Thursday night — but it's just fool's gold, far as I'm concerned, until the competition elevates. Kansas State, months removed from an NCAA Tournament appearance with a couple of grown men on its front line, provides that challenge. A win over Bruce Weber's Wildcats would be huge for Purdue. It would be a potential résumé win should the Boilermakers be in po- sition to need a résumé in three months, but it'd also likely put the Boilermakers up against mighty Arizona in Round 2. Just setting foot on the floor against the perennial power would serve as RPI ste- roids and the ultimate measuring-stick game for the Boilermakers, a potential massacre Purdue would seem mature-beyond-its-years enough to learn from. Early returns are good for Purdue. It passes more and more willingly. It shoots better and smarter. It communicates and listens. It plays and acts like a better team than its dysfunc- tional predecessor. That's all fine and good. But Purdue needs to win games, too, and that's the best way to prove that that appar- ent organic improvement is a real thing. For football, it's playing out the string of a bowl-less season and for basketball, it's too early in the season to have any idea at all what lies ahead. These games are played at very different junctures in the seasons of two programs at very different places in their history, football trying to build into something, bas - ketball trying to rebuild into something. They're two very differ- ent teams searching for vali- dation, football buoyed by a beyond-reproach senior class and basketball hinging so much of its hope to a group of a half dozen newcomers. These are important games for both, with the most important of labels on the line, something both programs lacked prior to this season. Legitimacy. j Neubert can be contacted at BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com F R O M E D I T O R B R I A N N E U B E R T Proving Grounds C E L E B R A T E O U R S E N I O R S ! 94 th Purdue Football Senior Appreciation Banquet Sponsored by the Lafayette Kiwanis Club Sunday, December 7, 2014, 12:45 p.m. Purdue Memorial Union Ballrooms Honoring the 2014 Boilermaker Football Team Media Partners Tickets available through Purdue Athletic Ticket Office (765-494-3194, Toll-Free 800-497-7678) or email sporttix@purdue. edu