Indiana, being Indiana

 Your Indiana Hoosiers holstered their fourth straight W yesterday, on Senior Day, and because they're Your Hoosiers they raised as many questions as they answered, same as ever. Indiana is always gonna Indiana, it seems, and you might as well just accept that, Perpetually Disgruntled Fan Base.

These Hoosiers, see, will make you wonder "Where did this come from?", occasionally for minutes at a time. Then they'll make you wonder how Mike Woodson still has a job. Then they'll jack around and win the game while you're still wondering the former.

It's just what they do, at least currently. It's what they did yesterday.

They were in against Tom Izzo's Michigan State Spartans, and for about 15 minutes, give or take, they looked like the best team in America not quartered in Houston or West Lafayette. Blew a 17-point hole in the narrative with maniacal D and domination in the paint, Your Hoosiers did. And then ...

And then, I don't know, they wandered off to smell the roses or whatever.

Which is to say, the Spartans put the 17-point deficit on a diet, getting it down to five by halftime. Then they blew past Indiana like it was a stalled vehicle, building a seven-point lead early in the second half. Then the Hoosiers bestirred themselves, fought back, got it even, and on down to the end it went.

Finally it was 65-64, Indiana, and Michigan State had the basketball, and a shot went up and the ball got batted around and finally a Hoosier emerged with it. And, hey look, another W.

Once again Kel'el Ware was a monster, going for 28 points and a dozen rebounds on 13-of-19 shooting. Low-blocks sidekick Malik Reneau had 16 to go with five boards and five assists. Mackenzie Mgbako, the third Musketeer, added 13 and six boards.

Indiana outrebounded MSU 39-33. The Hoosiers limited Michigan State to 38.5 percent shooting (25 of 65) and 32 percent (8 of 25) from Threeville. And they did it with their senior point guard and catalyst, Trey Galloway, playing spectator for all but seven minutes after he dinged up his leg.

And now they're 18-13 overall and 10-10 in the Big Ten, same as Michigan State and good for sixth place in the final conference standings. They'll thus escape having to play a Wednesday game in the Big Ten tournament in Minneapolis this week, and will likely face 11-seed Penn State, which plays conference bottom feeder Michigan on Wednesday.

Penn State's already beaten the Hoosiers twice this season, by 14 and nine points, respectively. But that was then, and this is now.

Now they potentially look like this year's version of last year's Nittany Lions, who surprised everyone by reaching the title game of the conference tournament after coming in as an afterthought.

Except ...

Except Penn State was a 10-seed last year. Indiana's seeded four spots higher. So maybe the Hoosiers have played their way out of that analogy.

Or, you know, not. Because remember who we're talking about here, and what their theme is.

It's Indiana. And -- once more, with feeling -- Indiana gonna Indiana.