WEST LAFAYETTE - So here is Purdue, a little battered, a little ticked, a lot motivated.

Forget silver-lining talk that the Boilers (24-8) were better served by Friday's Big Ten tourney loss that provided several days more rest entering this week's NCAA tourney play.

This is a hungry team, a determined team, a team intent on winning in the tournament that really matters.

“Losing is so awful,” freshmen forward Robbie Hummel said. “There's no silver lining. As a competitor, you don't want to lose any games. You want to win and get momentum going into the NCAA Tournament.”

Momentum, of course, can start at any time, and there's no time better than March.

“We can't do anything about it now,” guard Keaton Grant said about the Big Ten tourney disappointment. “We'll go back to the drawing board and work on our defense. We'll just do what we always do. Nothing is going to change.”

One thing that hasn't changed is Purdue's resiliency. It's been in every game. Its worst loss has been by 10 points, and that was early in the season at Missouri, a game that was a nail-biter until the last few minutes. Five of its losses have come by three points.

Purdue is 3-3 in its last six games, but two of those losses came in overtime - once on the road to Ohio State, once to Illinois in the Big Ten tourney when freshman Demetri McCamey found the Kobe Bryant zone and went 6-for-6 on three-pointers.

Remember, this is a team that beat Wisconsin twice and knocked off Michigan State and Louisville.

Yes, the Boilers will be favored in their NCAA tourney opener, but that's not the point, Grant said. Performing is.

“We've got to focus on each game. In the tournament, no one's looking at records. Everyone's 0-0.”

Nobody cares that Purdue has spent the season playing beyond its youth. The players certainly don't.

“It's tournament time and we have to pick it up another level,” freshman guard E'Twaun Moore said.

No Boiler has picked it up more lately than Moore. He's averaged 18.3 points in his last three games and has made eight of his last 13 three-pointers.

Grant has averaged 14.5 points in his last two games. And Hummel is coming off a double-double (10 points, 11 rebounds) against Illinois.

The biggest area of concern remains rebounding, which is something coach Matt Painter has emphasized all season, with limited success. Illinois and Michigan combined for 21 more rebounds than Purdue in the last two games. The Boilers have offset that by taking care of the ball and playing good defense.

That, at least, has to continue if they are to have a successful opening NCAA weekend. And if losing to Illinois fuels their fire, all the better.

“You can make any experience a positive if you look at it the right way,” Painter said. “Hopefully this makes us even hungrier in the NCAA Tournament. I think our guys will regroup and be ready to go.”