Over and out

 In the end, Mike Woodson turned his back on it all.

In the end, he walked away from his bench, from his staff, from his team with 5:20 to play and Nebraska leading his Indiana Hoosiers by, I don't know, eleventy gazillion points. Got the heave-ho after his second technical foul in less than four minutes, Woody did, which suggests it was less a spontaneous outburst than a deliberate act of I-can't-watch-this-anymore.

Hardly anyone could, if you bled cream-and-crimson. Any hopes Indiana had of getting its season beyond about 11:30 last night was swept away in a torrent of Nebraska 3-pointers, same as in the previous two meetings between Hoosiers and Huskers.

 Once again, Kesei Tominaga -- who is either the Big Ten men's version of Caitlin Clark, or she's the women's version of Tominaga -- toasted Indiana's perimeter D like a marshmallow over a bonfire, dropping four threes and 23 points. Brice Williams joined in with four threes and 23 points of his own.

All told, the Huskers made 14 threes in 23 tries, a 43.8 percent clip. They were an even 50 percent from everywhere, 30 of 60. And they ended whatever suspense there was going to be by scoring the last 17 points of the first half, ballooning a six-point lead to 23.

Tore the heart right out of Woodson's Hoosiers, who'd won five straight coming into Friday with mostly heart and grit. The second half was just marking time until the end -- or, for Woodson, until he just couldn't watch anymore.

This will happen when you see your team getting wadded up like scrap paper. It will happen when you see the opponent's lead climb to 33 points before settling in to a 27-point scalding, 93-66.

A lot was made in the postmortem about Kel'el Ware and Malik Reneau not showing up and the Hoosiers, without Trey Galloway and then Anthony Leal after the latter twisted his ankle, once again being helpless defensively at the arc. But this was less about what Indiana didn't do than what Nebraska did, especially during that 17-0 rip that ended the half and, effectively, the game.

On the defensive end, the Huskers got into Indiana's preferred passing lanes, stealing or disrupting its entries to Ware and Reneau time and again. And on the offensive end, it was lightning ball movement more than lazy defense that got Tominaga, Williams and the rest open looks from Threeville.

And they knocked 'em down. Hell, they even knocked down looks that were only semi-open, and what are you gonna do about that?

As for Woodson ... well, sometimes optics matter, and the optic of his receding back was as bad as it gets. It suggested (or really more) a commander abandoning his troops. It suggested, or more, that he was simply done with this season -- and maybe done with this team.

Now we get to see if this team is done with him.

All that's certain at this point is Leal and Galloway have signed on for another hitch, and beyond that, no one knows nuttin'. The Hoosiers only recruit, 6-7 stud Liam McNeeley, bailed on his tentative commitment a week ago, and Woodson's got no other recruits on the hook anyone knows about. Ware will go to the NBA, and maybe co-Big Ten Freshman of the Year Mackenzie Mgbako, and God knows what Malik Reneau will decide to do in the era of the transfer portal.

Which seems to be the only thing Woodson's banking on right now.

It's gonna be a hell of an offseason, in other words. To state the obvious.