The old rah-rah

 I don't know much ("No kidding," you're saying), but I do know a few things. And here's one I know:

Trayce Jackson-Davis ain't no Jon Moxon.

Remember that scene in "Varsity Blues," when Moxon, the team's quarterback, gathers his West Canaan Coyotes in the locker room at halftime and gives them the old rah-rah? That whole "Let's be heroes" bit?

Corny as hell. But a little more inspiring than what TJD says he told the Indiana Hoosiers in a players-only meeting the other day.

What TJD told the guys, according to TJD, was just to relax and take it one game at a time, one possession at a time. If they did that, they'd be fine.

Not exactly Moxon/Herb Brooks/Rockne stuff. But somehow it seems to have worked.

That's because the Indiana team that had lost three straight and was playing like a bunch of goofs abruptly disappeared. A pack of killers emerged in its place. 

First the Hoosiers took apart an admittedly understrength Wisconsin team in Assembly Hall, 63-45. Then they laminated a streaking Illinois bunch over in Champagne-Urbana by 15, as TJD went for 35, nine and five. 

In those two games, Indiana has outrebounded its opponents 81-59 and harassed them into 42-of-118 shooting (35.5 percent). And suddenly the bunch of goofs were all "Hey, where did THESE guys come from?"

They've been so good, even the perpetually sour fan base has been compelled to dial it down to a dull roar. I'm sure they're just waiting for These Guys to go back to wherever they came from, because, you know, they're Indiana fans. And frankly there are no guarantees that won't happen at some point.

Basketball is a game of ebb and flow, after all, and in a season that stretches from November to early April it will ebb and flow plenty. Tom Izzo brings his Michigan State Spartans into Assembly Hall tomorrow, and they're always a tough takedown. And so who knows what happens if the game's tight and Izzo starts gnawing at the refs the way he's always allowed to do.

In other words: We shall see.

But at least the viewing ought to be fun now.