An Indiana sighting, Part Deux

 In which the Hoosiers, well, disappear into the night out there in the flat expanse of Iowa.

The Hoosiers had won five straight coming to Iowa City, fooling even the Blob ("Not much of a feat," you're saying) into thinking that these were different Hoosiers, more reliable Hoosiers, the kind of Hoosiers who were as likely to make a deep run in March as they were to make their connecting flight home after one tournament game.

And then, this: Iowa 85, Indiana 60.

And then, an epic flameout two nights after kicking USC to the curb by 13 -- the same USC who beat No. 13 Illinois by 10 in Champaign yesterday.

Same old song. Different verse.

And as they say, everyone contributed. Luke Goode, who scored 16 points and was 4-of-5 from Threeville against USC, had this stat line: three points on just four shots, zero rebounds, zero assists, zero steals in 22 minutes. Fellow starter Trey Galloway was even more inert; in 20 minutes, he took just two shots, missed them both, and finished with zero points, zero assists, zero steals, zero blocks and one rebound. He did have four turnovers, however.

Among the regulars, only Oumar Bello (a 10-point, 13-rebound double-double) and Myles Rice (12 points, five assists) scored in double figures. No one else did, although Mike Woodson subbed liberally, playing Bryson Tucker 23 minutes, Kanaan Carlyle 22, Anthony Leal 21 and Langdon Hatton 16 -- which is exactly the number of minutes Mackenzie Mgbako played in scoring six points.

You can surmise from this, if you're a more generous soul, that some sort of creeping crud is running through the Indiana locker room and Mgbako and several other Hoosiers have come down with it. This would explain a few things.

Of course, you can also surmise from this that Indiana was already down 10 at halftime and Woodson was sick, too -- sick of watching his starters flounder. I lean toward a combination of the two.

In any event, away we go again. Tuesday Indiana gets Illinois in Assembly Hall. If I were a betting man, I'd put some coin down on  the Hoosiers to win. It would be just like them.

Or, you know, just like the usual Hoo-Hoo-Hoosiers. Heaven forbid.