Bubbleicious

And now comes the endgame for your Indiana Hoosiers, who get Ohio State at home today and appear poised to pay back their faithful for all the booing lately by subjecting them to three weeks of torture.

Which is to say, the bracketologists have the Hoosiers squarely astride the infamous bubble right now. And that's where they seemed destined to remain.

The Indiana team that found its mojo in that inexplicable victory at Michigan State did exactly what so many folks expected next, which is come home and lose to Iowa. Yeah, the Hoosiers fought. Yeah, they played smarter and tougher and made some more shots. And, yeah, it still wasn't good enough.

This is because what was only suspected during their seven-game downhill toboggan run has become perfectly obvious: These Hoosiers just aren't very good. They've got the alleged lottery pick in Romeo Langford, and the senior leader in Juwan Morgan, and not a whole lot else. They're good enough to put it together for Ws some nights -- watch them knock off Ohio State today -- but not good enough to do it for three, four, five games in a row.

And so, they're going to ride the bubble right to the bitter end. Or the not bitter end, as the case may be.

Certainly the latter still breathes air. Across its last five games, IU has so-so Ohio State and Meh-nnesota, which just got torched by struggling Michigan State. But two of their last three home games are against the hottest team in the Big Ten right now (Purdue) and a stout Wisconsin team. And they've got Iowa again, this time in Iowa City.

Win at least one of those, and take care of business today and against the Golden Gophers, and they're a 16-win team from a tough conference with, presumably, just enough resume to squeak into Da Tournament. But beating Ohio State and Minny alone isn't going to be enough. The Hoosiers need Purdue's pelt or Wisconsin's or Iowa's.

Are they capable of pulling that off?

Sure.

Are they just as capable of not pulling it off?

Sure again.

They are what they are, these Hoosiers. OK when they've got it going. Awful when they don't. Nothing special either way.