There’s a difference between joy and relief.Joy is doing something for the first time, without expectations, and that’s what happened after McNeese’s 69-67 upset win over Clemson on Thursday.McNeese had never won in the NCAA Tournament. This team, under Will Wade, had never knocked off a top-25 team. On Thursday, on college basketball’s grandest stage, it accomplished both. Clemson got through the entire ACC schedule with just two losses. McNeese needed just one game to hand Clemson its only tournament loss it gets.

So when McNeese’s president and AD met Will Wade on the court, joy filled Amica Mutal Pavilion. McNeese hasn’t been burdened by experience or expectations.

Purdue, Purdue knows pressure. You could say that pressure and expectations and coming short of those expectations were the defining traits of the last twenty years under Matt Painter who inherited that same burden from Gene Keady. That is, before last year’s NCAA Tournament where Purdue finally broke through and made it to the Final Four and all the way to the title game.

Broke through is the right phrase for that, too. Purdue, as a program, as players, as coaches, as fans, had built up the pressure year after year, one double-digit upset followed by another. Purdue had been so good, for so long, in so many places that it craved the last bit of validation.

That’s why when Purdue finally broke through, relieving its loyal and basketball obsessed fan base and program, it was beyond exhileration and cheers. Robbie Hummel, former player and current radio and tv color man, had tears. Matt Painter got emotional. Fans were emotional. It was as much of an exorcism in Detroit as it was a celebration.Decades of pain vanished for Purdue when it took down Tennessee in the Elite Eight. A breath of relief let out when Purdue dominated and took it to Grambling State in the first round of tournament last season. Each win was met with as many breaths of relief as it was cheers.It’s part of why Purdue players, all of them except for the freshmen having been around Purdue long enough to understand, to feel, to have been there, to played in these games, choose stoicism over shouts. This is what they’re supposed to do. This is how they avoid another summer of being the target of every internet troll.

Purdue broke through last season, but the wound of St. Peter’s, Fairleigh Dickinson, North Texas, and Arkansas Little-Rock still has healing to do. Each win puts Purdue one further game away from the headlines, but Purdue also understands, it’s just one loss away from those same narratives turning from cliches back to truth.

Something about the weight of crowns and trophies probably applies.

Purdue also knows, McNeese isn’t just another double-digit seed.