BLOOMINGTON — The distance from Bloomington to West Lafayette by road is 116 miles.

The distance between the Purdue University men’s basketball team and the Indiana University men’s basketball team this season is a bigger gap.

On Tuesday night, the Boilermakers showed fans at Assembly Hall why they can dream of winning an NCAA title this season, and the Hoosiers showed why they can only hope to improve enough to be selected for the NCAA tournament.

The full-house building was loud and then louder, typical of an IU-Purdue rivalry game, but reviewing the Hoosiers’ recent history with a lack of consistency, it was a legitimate question which IU team version would show up. Would it be good IU, which could play with anyone? Or would it be bad IU, which can give up points to anyone?

The 16-2 Boilermakers, ranked No. 2 in the nation this week after a lengthy run at No. 1, handled the 12-6 Hoosiers 87-66. Big man Zach Edey, the 7-foot-4 center with the light touch around the basket, scored 33 points and gathered 14 rebounds. The stats show why he is the reigning national player of the year.

If anyone believed this would be a giant-versus-giant matchup with IU 7-foot sophomore Ke’lel Ware, they were mistaken. Edey, a senior, showed what a difference experience can make. Ware, who almost immediately got into foul trouble covering Edey, finished with five points and six rebounds, uncharacteristically low production for him.

As Purdue, certainly looking like the Indiana state champion for 2023-24 and likely the Big Ten Conference champ, too, built a 51-29 halftime margin, there were hints it was all about the fouls.

Really, it was all about the cohesiveness with which Purdue played. The Boilermakers had Fletcher Loyer with 19 points and Lance Jones with 17. Purdue made 22 out of 27 free throws, while IU got to the line for just nine tries.

IU was outshot from three-point land, 7-for-19 compared to 8-for-24, and was outrebounded 42-34. The Hoosiers made one major run coming out of the locker room for the second half, cutting the lead to nine points. But in the end, the final margin just about equaled the first-half spread.

This outing was only days after the Hoosiers turned in a solid 74-62 victory over Minnesota. But this year, the Gophers are not the Boilermakers.

“Well, we got smacked the first half, and you’ve got to give them credit,” Indiana coach Mike Woodson said of Purdue’s start. “I thought they were more tougher. Yeah, there were a lot of fouls called against us, but they set the tone. I thought we came out with good intentions back and forth there, eight, nine, 10 points. And then we couldn’t make shots. You know, that was a big difference in the first half, and they made shots and they got to the free throw line, and Edey had a lot to do with that.”

Ware was neutralized by foul trouble, and then so was Malik Reneau, the 6-9 sophomore who is usually a major presence in the low post. Although Reneau did grab nine rebounds, he scored just eight points. IU’s scoring leader was Trey Galloway with 17 points.

Galloway’s two three-pointers sparked IU’s 13-2 second-half start, but that was during the roughly 10-minute stretch when IU played its best.

“I think the first half, it’s we (did) get some dumb fouls and unnecessary fouling and stuff,” Galloway said. “That’s the difference between playing hard and like not smart, and I think we had some fouls and we had foul trouble, and it got away from us a little bit.”

After missing weeks with a leg injury, there was much fanfare about the return to the lineup of point guard Xavier Johnson a couple of games ago. But Johnson did not even start Tuesday and scored zero points with zero assists in 19 minutes. He has not steadily looked like his best self recently.

Johnson was injured for the second half of last season, needed an exemption to play a sixth year and then got hurt again this season. His IU experience is beginning to resemble Michael Pennix Jr.’s from the football team. That is not good for either him or the hoops team.

It doesn’t get much easier for the Hoosiers. The Big Ten never does. On Friday night, IU is at Wisconsin, currently ranked No. 11 in the country.

There is no shame in losing to Purdue — maybe some extra pain given the in-state rivalry and geographical proximity — because Purdue is going to beat a lot of people this season. But IU must show more maturity and high-level consistency to beat all of the Minnesotas left on the schedule.