Meanwhile, in Mackey ...

That one scene in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Maybe that's the only way you explain this now.

You know the scene: Richard Dreyfuss is sitting in his truck at a railroad crossing and all of a sudden he's bathed in harsh white light and his truck dies, pffft, like that. He grinds the starter, but the thing is deader than roadkill. The glovebox pops open, and the contents start flying around the truck. The crossing sign starts swaying wildly back and forth.

Then the light disappears and it all stops. And Dreyfuss' truck magically starts running like a watch again.

It is, of course, all the work of a UFO.

Mackey Arena, well, kind of looks like a UFO.

So, there you go. Your official explanation for another inexplicable night for the basketball Purdues.

They're 13-10 and exactly what that record implies, which is good enough to win some nights and bad enough to lose on an almost equal number of nights. And here comes 17th-ranked Iowa, which has won six of its last seven games including an 18-point shellacking of then-No. 9 Maryland and a seven-point win over No. 20 Illinois, which itself had reeled off seven straight wins.

So what happens?

Purdue 104, Iowa 68 happens.

The Hawkeyes are humming right along, and then, like Richard Dreyfuss and the UFO, the lights blaze on and the truck dies and stuff starts flying around. They go 23-of-54 and 6-of-25 from the 3-point line while Purdue shoots 63 percent (41-of-65) and a ridiculous 56 percent from beyond the arc (19-of-34), and the Boilermakers tenderize them like Swiss steak. The 36-point win is the worst beatdown the Purdues have ever administered to a ranked team in Mackey, and it's the third such beatdown they've administered this season to a ranked team.

Virginia, then ranked fifth, limped away a 29-point loser in December. And Michigan State, then No. 8 in the polls, took a 29-point shot to its, um, self-esteem in January.

Now this. Now 104 points from a team that, not all that long ago, was managing just 37 in a loss to Illinois.

Of course, that was at Illinois. In Mackey, last night, the Purdues passed 37 points sometime shortly after the national anthem, or so it seemed. By halftime they had 61.

Sixty-one. At halftime.

That's exactly how many points they scored in the entire game in their last outing, a wheezing 61-58 W last Saturday at Northwestern, the worst team in the Big Ten.

Now it's on to the big in-state wrestling match with Indiana, which no one can figure out, either. The Hoosiers looked to have found their identity after solid wins over Ohio State, Nebraska and Michigan State, but then they gagged away a six-point lead in the last 68 seconds against Maryland and got dusted on the road by Penn State and those same Buckeyes. Now they get Purdue, their enigma-in-arms.

Not in Mackey, though. In Assembly Hall. So you know what that means.

Indiana, which has built more houses from the 3-point line this season than a dozen bricklayers, will hit every one they put up. Purdue will miss every one it puts up, and score 37 points again. And the Hoosiers will win going away.

Or not, you know. Or not.