Feud fail

Purdue beat Indiana again last night, and also water is wet, dogs have fleas and the Earth revolves around the sun. 

That's pretty much the state these days of one of college basketball's most ancient blood feuds. It might still be a feud, but right now only one side is bleeding.

That would be Indiana, and the Hoosiers bled plenty last night in Assembly Hall, a haunted house full of coronavirus echoes and musty glories. Indiana was outshot, outfought and outscored by the Purdues, 81-69 -- the fifth straight win for Matt Painter's crew in the Hall, and the sixth straight loss for Archie Miller vs. Painter.

In four-plus seasons at Indiana, he's yet to beat him.

This has the perpetually out-of-sorts Hoosier fan base even farther away from Sorts, and it's getting harder and harder to dismiss them as merely lost-in-the-past grumps. The Hoosiers are now 8-6, despite all the preseason hype about how Miller had more weapons at his disposal than he'd ever, ever had. And yet: 8-6.

Seems like they've been 8-6, on the way to 18-14 or something, for four years now. 

Purdue, meanwhile, keeps beating them, and now it's adding up to some real history. The Boilermakers have beaten Indiana eight straight times now, and the last time they beat the Hoosiers that many times in a row the stock market crashed, the Feds sent Capone up the river and FDR was fist-fighting the Great Depression. In other words, it was from 1929 to 1935, when the Purdues beat Indiana nine straight times.

And the last time either team had a streak like this against the other?

That would be between 1949 and 1955, when Indiana won 13 in a row.

So this is some serious echoing-down-the-years Purdue is up to now, and maybe it's time to put the narrative to rest that this rivalry is perpetually Purdue's blue collars vs. Indiana's blue chippers. Fact is, Purdue gets its share of guys who can play, too. But truth is truth, and the truth here is those five  national championship banners in Assembly Hall, relics though they are, will always paint an extra coat of hype on Indiana's recruits.

Indiana is Indiana. Purdue is Purdue. Which, hype or no hype, right now means Purdue wins.

They won last night because Trevion Williams was a beast down low and their shooters knocked 'em down long and short, hitting 53 percent overall and 11-of-17 from beyond the arc. Williams finished with his usual 22 and 10; Brandon Newman, Eric Hunter and Jaden Ivey were 7-of-9 from three; and the Boilers outboarded Indiana 38-30.

And the Hoosiers?

Couldn't hit water from a boat again, despite all those alleged marksmen they have in stock. They missed 15 of their 18 three-ball attempts in their own barn, and logic suggests you've got to be trying to be that bad. That left it up to Trayce Jackson-Davis again, who once more went one-against-the-world with 25 points. Race Thompson had a 13-10 double-double and Armaan Franklin had 14 off the bench, and that was about it. 

Miller, meanwhile, can thank the 'Rona once more, because once more it kept the faithful away from the Hall. Lord knows what a waterfall of sound would have come thundering down from on high had the place been full.

And not a good waterfall of sound, either. No indeed.