Down, up, down. Rinse and repeat.

 OK, then. I think I have this figured out now.

Until I don't, that is.

Which will probably happen tonight.

Which will probably happen because, really, who has Your Indiana Hoosiers figured out? Including Mike Woodson?

The Candy-Stripe Brigade is howling for his head now, and it's getting harder and harder to dismiss it as just the demented raving of lost-in-the-past geezers pining for the good old days of 1987.  Not after Saturday.

Not after the Hoosiers soiled Assembly Hall with that 14-point crater job against a sub-.500 Penn State club. 

Not after Woodson sounded thoroughly clueless in the postgame, lamenting how flat his guys were without acknowledging that he's the one who's supposed to un-flatten them.

He's put together a team with two excellent big men and no one who can either shoot the three or defend it. Worse, he's put together a team that leaves its heart in the locker room occasionally, and sometimes seems to be following Coach's lead when it does.

That's harsh, admittedly. And probably unfair. But when the Hoosiers no-show the way they did Saturday, it would be refreshing to hear Woodson punched a hole in the whiteboard at halftime and threatened to make them run the Assembly Hall steps until they stepped on their tongues if they didn't un-stick their heads from their hindparts.

Instead, all he did was call them out in the postgame. And absolved himself with one of the lamest "All I can do is coach 'em" laments ever.

Here's the thing, though:

I think tonight the Hoosiers go into Columbus and give the Ohio State Buckeyes everything they can handle. Maybe even win on the road in the Big Ten for the first time this season.

I say this because it's been the pattern with Indiana lately, as the Hoosiers have lost six of their last nine. The three they won, though, came after disheartening -- and heartless -- losses.

Lost by 16 at Nebraska; beat Ohio State 71-65. Lost by nine at Rutgers; beat Minnesota 74-62. Lost by 21 to Purdue, by 12 at Wisconsin and by eight at Illinois; beat Iowa 74-68.

Down, up. Down, up. Rinse. Repeat.

Now they're coming off by far their worst loss in Woodson's three seasons, so of course they're going to push an Ohio State team that's lost seven of its last eight, including its last two home games. Heck, I'll crawl out on the limb and say IU hangs the W tonight.

And then gets washed Saturday night by Purdue in West Lafayette. Because, you know, down ... up ... down again.

Poor Candy-Stripe Brigade. On top of everything else, they must be hella seasick.