Saturday night in East Lansing, explained

Sooo, Archie Miller is not presiding over A) a train wreck, B) a dumpster fire, C) a Hazmat site. Right?

I mean, I presume that's the general gist now, two days after the Indiana Hoosiers jumped up and did whatever that was in East Lansing Saturday night. I presume everyone's doing a fast 180 on IU, now that it won a roadie no one on Earth or several other planets thought it had a prayer of winning.

To be sure, there was a lot of head-scratching over Indiana 79, Michigan State 75 in overtime, because Michigan State was Michigan State and the Hoosiers were losers of seven straight games and looking more lost and dysfunctional by the minute. And then they lose Juwan Morgan, the only glue guy they had ...

And, well. It seemed literally inexplicable, what happened. Until, that is, you stopped to consider it was so simply explainable everyone overlooked it.

In other words: The Hoosiers finally hit a few shots.

A team that couldn't throw it in large bodies of water for the entire month of January suddenly threw a handful in a much smaller target, and, voila, it became a much better team instantly. Meanwhile, Michigan State missed a bunch -- the Spartans were 9-of-21 from the 3-point line and an abysmal 8-of-22 at the free throw line -- and became a much worse team instantly.

Funny how that happens. Or, you know, not.

In any case, the Hoosiers entered Saturday's game shooting right around 45 percent and just shy of 30 percent from 3-point. Which meant opponents could pack the middle to take away Romeo Langford's penetration and not have to worry about getting burned on the kick-out.

So what happened Saturday?

Simple: The Hoosiers were 10-of-20 from the arc. Now, that could have just been an out-of-body experience, and maybe they'll go right back to Brick City against Iowa this week. But for one night, hitting a few shots meant they were a lot harder to defend, and therefore less constrained on the offensive end.

Funny how that happens.

Or, you know, not.