Purdue's gonna kill 'em, I suppose.
The guy to my left, a life-long friend, says something like this while drawing on one of those long-ass Churchill cigars in a local establishment that still allows a guy to draw on long-ass cigars. It's Friday afternoon, bending toward Friday evening. The ritual sacrifice of a wayward Indiana basketball team to its archrival Purdue is less than four hours away.
"Maybe," I reply. "But I dunno. This feels like one of those situations where you think it's gonna be a blowout and then for some weird reason it goes right to the end instead."
And, yes, I really did say this. Yes, I really did have this vague feeling Indiana, which had explored strange new worlds of losing in dropping four of its previous five games, was inexplicably going to get its back up for its ancient foe.
But I didn't really believe it.
It wasn't really this "ah-ha" moment when the clouds parted and I was bathed in the glow of revealed wisdom.
It was just ... a feeling. And I had it because I've been around sports long enough to know that nothing can faster turn assumptions into chopped liver.
Fast forward to halftime in Mackey Arena, and, hey, look at this, Indiana is actually leading going to the locker room, 41-37.
Fast forward to 5:55 or so to play, and Indiana leads by six, 67-61.
Fast forward to 15 or so seconds to play, and Indiana still leads by one, 76-75, and that sound you hear is the Paint Crew and every other hostile in Mackey saying, "What the FUDGE?"
Only, like Ralphie in "A Christmas Story," they didn't say "fudge."
And then, of course, the universe right itself.
Trey Kaufman-Renn dropped a hook shot with 11 seconds showing, and Purdue led 77-76.
Then Myles Rice scurried down the floor for Indiana, Gicarri Harris blocked his shot and Fletcher Loyer collected the remains.
Four free throws down the well iced it as Purdue survived the uprising, 81-76.
You could say it was a case of Indiana gonna Indiana, and you wouldn't be wrong. Across the aforementioned last 5:55, after all, the Hoosiers were outscored 20-9. Purdue made plays when it needed to make plays, as Purdue tends to do, and Indiana didn't, as Indiana tends to do.
The Hoosiers also turned it over 20 times against the Purdue ball pressure; Braden Smith, who seems to have more than the standard number of hands in those situations, had six of Purdue's 13 steals to go with his team-high 24 points and seven assists. Indiana counterpart Myles Rice, meanwhile, wound up on the bench for half the game and wound up with zero points, two turnovers and one assist.
However.
However, the Hoosiers did outrebound Purdue 32-26, and Mackenzie Mgbako scored a game-high 25 points on 10-of-17 shooting including 3-of-8 from that notorious forbidden zone, the 3-point arc. Luke Goode came off the bench to hit three triples and score 13 points in 34 minutes, and Trey Galloway emerged from wherever he's been hiding to score 15 points, dish five assists, take three rebounds and make a steal in 25 minutes.
Of course, he also turned it over six times. Bad with the good, as ever with these Hoosiers.
Shocking stat of the night, other than Indiana leading with the game almost done: The Hoosiers actually outshot the Boilers from the arc, dropping 7 of 19 while Purdue inexplicably clanked 11 of its 13 attempts.
Not-at-all-shocking stat of the night: In the last 11 seconds, Purdue outscored Indiana 6-0. Also, the Boilers won for the 16th time in the last 20 meetings. Also-also, Matt Painter is now 6-3 against Mike Woodson.
Same "L", different day, in other words, for Woodson and Indiana.
If not quite the "L" everyone was expecting.
