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GOLDANDBLACK EXPRESS • VOLUME 25, EXPRESS 24 • 7 BY BRIAN NEUBERT BNeubert@GoldandBlack.com P urdue's done so much the past two months, improbably winning a dozen Big Ten games and finishing in a third-place tie in the conference it finished behind everyone else in a year ago. The question now becomes: Is it enough? For the NCAA Tourna- ment, that is. Purdue still has at least one Big Ten Tournament game to play. The Boilermakers hope, though, they've done enough to put themselves in the NCAA field regardless of what happens at the United Center. In that sense, the Il- linois game was a must, particularly after the Boil- ermakers allowed 12- and nine-point first-half leads to get away in road losses at Ohio State and Michi- gan State prior. With the Illinois win, in which Purdue came back from down 13 in the first half, using a defense-driven 24-4 run bridging the two halves, the Boilermakers fin- ished the regular season with a 12-6 record. Following are take- aways from the week: S A good sign headed into the postsea- son: Purdue has started making jump shots, shoot- ing 43 percent in its last four games. It didn't nec- essarily translate to great team results — the Boilermak- ers were 18-of-39 in losses in Columbus and East Lansing and just 6-of-18 in their win over Illinois — but that's no reason to think, obviously, that Purdue is worse when it's making the shots it's spent most of the season missing. Rapheal Davis has really improved as a selective shooter, shooting a team- best 38 percent in Big Ten play, and Kendall Stephens and Dakota Math- ias finished the season well with big games on the road against some of the Big Ten's better teams. S Purdue's ability to make big shots at the end of shot clocks this sea- son has been one of those little things that quietly accumulates through the course of a season and when all is said and done can be looked back on as something that really impacted a season. Seems like every game the Boilermakers score important buckets and take a stab at opponents' spirit by beating the buzzer. Davis has a knack. S Here's wondering what A.J. Hammons took from the Michigan State game. He was roughed up and grew frustrated as it was allowed to go on. It clearly affected him and led to a rare lackluster showing for him this Big Ten season. The Big Ten's field goal per - centage leader was 3-of-12 and out- played by a wide margin by Spartan center Matt Costello. Maybe in the long run, such an experience might head off "next time," because you never know who you might see in the NCAA Tour- nament. Every team and every year are different, but Purdue does have a history of getting bounced from the Dance by bigger, more physical teams. If it makes the field and faces such a matchup, maybe Hammons will be better prepared for it because of that experience. S Backup point guard has been so strange this season, as Bryson Scott and P.J. Thompson have taken turns being buried on the bench then show - ing up from out of nowhere to come up big in big games. For Scott, it was Indiana; for Thompson, it was Illinois. j FLASH FORWARD Opponent: TBA — Big Ten Tournament Location: United Center (Chicago) When: 2:30 p.m. ET Friday Notables: As the Big Ten Tournament's No. 4 seed, Purdue earned one of the event's coveted double-byes to Friday, when it'll face fifth- seeded Iowa, 12th-seeded Nebraska or 13th-seeded Penn State. … In- terestingly, any team the Boilermakers face in their postseason debut will be a team it faced only once during the regular season. Purdue was 3-0 in its meetings with those teams, though it needed a minor miracle to win at Penn State in overtime and needed a comeback in the final minute to sneak past the Hawkeyes at home. … Iowa closed the regular season on a six-game winning streak. … Illinois is the only team in Pur- due's half of the bracket that played the Boilermakers twice this season. A LOOK BACK AT THE LAST WEEK OF BASKETBALL M E N ' S B A S K E T B A L L G O L D B O X E S L I N K T O G A M E S T O R I E S Tom Campbell P.J. Thompson helped spur Purdue's comeback vs. Illinois.