Take that

 Now this, ladies and gentlemen, is what you call your "payback."

Purdue 93, Indiana 64.

Thirty rebounds for the Boilers; 15 for the Hoosiers.

Sixty-five percent shooting for the Purdues, including 10-of-18 from the 3-point arc.

Fletcher Loyer couldn't miss, hitting all five of his shots including all four from Threeville. Braden Smith did Braden Smith things, bottoming half his 10 shots and dishing eight assists. Down low, meanwhile, Trey Kaufman-Renn and Oscar Cluff combined for 26 points, 14 boards and eight assists, with TKR collecting 20, six and five of those.

After Smith and Loyer opened the game with matching threes, and Tucker DeVries flushed a triple of his own, Indiana never got closer than four points again. Down 17 at halftime, the Hoosiers never trailed by fewer than 16 points  the rest of the way, and were down by as many as 34 in the late going.

"So, in other words, Purdue did what the No. 7 team in the nation is supposed to do against an unranked opponent," you're saying now. "How was this payback, exactly?"

Well, because it's Indiana, silly. And Purdue, silly.

Never the bonhomie will meet with these two, and that was especially true last night, with the Hoosiers coming to Mackey and the Boilermakers ... well, just laying for them. A month ago, see, they walked into Assembly Hall as the better team, and the Hoosiers rolled out Curt Cignetti and the CFP national championship trophy for the paying customers. As you might imagine, that blew the roof off the joint, and the basketball Hoosiers, properly stoked, took down the Boilers 72-67.

Doubtful that left a mark, and especially so for Smith, Loyer, TKR and the rest of the seniors, who were 3-4 in their careers vs. the Hoosiers after that one. Acknowledged as perhaps the greatest class in the school's history, you think they wanted to exit with a losing record against, omigod, Indiana?

Of course they didn't. And of course they, well, didn't.

By 29 points, they didn't, and if it was some major Take That, you could also see it coming from several light years away. The question, of course, is just how much carryover there'll be for Matt Painter's crew.

Four nights ago they played well against the best team in the nation, but ultimately fell by 11 to the Michigan Wolverines. The win last night was their fifth in the six games since the loss in Assembly Hall, and four winnable games remain against 15th-ranked Michigan State and unranked Ohio State, Northwestern and Wisconsin. 

On the other hand ...

On the other hand, they've been maddeningly inconsistent at times this season, losing games they shouldn't have lost and struggling to survive against opponents they should have launched into orbit. They were 10-of-18 from the arc last night, but next time out they might just as easily be 3-of-18. So it goes with this bunch.

On the further other hand (yes, the Blob has three, deal with it), they're playing their best basketball of the season precisely when a basketball team wants to be doing that. So that goes, too.

At any rate, onward. Where else?