Survivin', advancin'

 Time to come clean this a.m., you citizens of Candy-Stripe Nation. When it got to halftime up there in Minneapolis last night, did you lapse into Scooby-Doo mode?

As in: Ruh-roh.

Because here was Penn State just five points adrift of Your Hoosiers, and the Nittany Lions had just spent 20 minutes sending out search planes for their missing shooting eye. The Nittanies were 7 of 33 from the floor in those 20 minutes. They missed 13 layups in 14 tries. They almost literally couldn't have shot any worse if you'd blindfolded them and spun them around five times.

And they were only down five.

Which meant Your Hoosiers had mostly wasted a glorious chance to blow this second-round Big Ten tournament game into the stratosphere and moon-walk into the quarterfinals. And without Trey Galloway, who was in streets on the bench with a bum knee.

Instead ...

Instead, it turned into the usual grind in the second half, with the good news being Indiana suddenly has an appetite for grinding. And so down to the end it went, and here came Anthony Leal to play the hero again, and Indiana survived and advanced, 61-59.

Kel'el Ware, again playing as if Indiana coach Mike Woodson was holding a family member hostage, put up another double-double (18 points, 14 rebounds), blocked three shots and caused a lot of those missed Penn State layups by altering a pile of others. Malik Reneau added 12 points and eight boards; Mackenzie Mgbako scored 11 points, took five rebounds, blocked two shots and dished a couple of assists: and Xavier Johnson put up a four-point, six-rebound, five-assist stat line while turning it over just three times.

And then there was Leal, the Hoosiers' Swiss Army knife, who got 17 minutes thanks to Galloway's absence and turned them into eight points, four rebounds, a steal and the tip-in with five seconds to play that got the Hoosiers the win.

After which he successfully kept the ball out of Penn State standout Ace Baldwin's hands on the ensuing inbounds pass.

And so on Indiana goes to the quarters today, lugging a five-game winning streak mostly notable for its scruffiness. If Woodson's crew has spent most of the winter looking for a definable brand, they seem to have at last found one: Winning ugly.

Which, of course, is better than losing ugly.

Today?

Today the Hoosiers get Nebraska, who has handled them easily in two previous meetings. Logic says the Cornhuskers should do so again, especially if Galloway can't go and the depleted Indiana backcourt has to deal with Huskers star Keisei Tominaga, who's already mulched the Hoosiers twice this season.

In other words, this could get ugly. Or it could get, you know, ugly.

The latter being what Indiana does these days. And for which, consequently, Candy-Stripe Nation should have its fingers crossed.