1 and 5

It seemed to many that the sky was falling. After a lackluster (and perhaps Duke-hangover-induced) home win over Eastern Michigan, the Hoosiers traveled to bucolic Terre Haute and put forth about at much energy as I will typically exert on my couch on Sunday morning. (Not a lot.) So they lost. Obviously, they should have been able to win that game. They should have been more interested, more energetic. But they weren't, and they paid for it. That was a low day. That's not to take anything away from the Sycamores, who played well, but they shouldn't be able to beat this Hoosier team's backups. All was not well in Hoosierdom. They don't care. They don't play hard. Killingsworth has been reading his press clippings. They settle for jumpers. Davis can't coach. They won't buy me a pony. You've heard it all before. Not good times.

So what was to happen when they faced Kentucky, a team who has dominated the Hoosiers for the past 10 years (IU was 1 and 9 against them in that time), a team whose coach, according to some know-nothing blogger, absolutely owned residence inside Mike Davis's cranium? The Hoosiers pounded those Wildcats. That's what. It was glorious. For once, Kentucky was the team that had no answers inside and couldn't buy an outside bucket. For once, Kentucky turned the ball over and didn't share it. For once, the Hoosiers played hard and came away victorious. Showing amazing prescience, the Big Head Kid predicted the Hoosiers would win, calling it an "all hands on deck game" and pointing out that Kentucky's victories were against the likes of Georgia State and High Point. I didn't know. I thought the BHK's points were good. I thought the Wildcats were down. But I couldn't buy into it. Davis was 0 and 5 against Kentucky. And the Hoosiers lost those games badly. It seemed like Tubby was in his head somehow. Oh and Five. That's not good.

But they did it, and I'm ecstatic. They passed the ball around. Ratliff came off the bench to score 21 points in 21 minutes. And they played excellent defense. It was a big win for my Hoosiers. I'm thinking that many Hoosier fans are back on the bandwagon now. And as I read on the Duke Basketball Report (sure, I don't like Duke, but those people know their stuff pretty well) a couple of years ago, "Okay, all you guys who jumped off the bandwagon - we'll let you back on. But you have to sit in the back ... and keep your damn hands off our beer." Very well said.

As for Davis, he's only 1 and 5 now. But that's a damn sight better than 0 and 5, and he finally got to smoke some bluegrass. Go Hoosiers!