History on a loop

 The stars in their courses held true last night in the basketball universe, and that was a good thing. At least there's some status that remains quo in these mad times.

Which is to say, Purdue was its usual efficient self in handling a hot Iowa team on the road, 90-81. Same old Boilers.

Which is also to say, Indiana lost in Madison, Wis., for the 21st straight time, going down 76-64 in a game that was essentially over six minutes in.

Same old Hoosiers.

Fun fact to know and tell: The last time the Hoosiers won at Wisconsin, head coach Mike Woodson was 39 years old. He's 66 now.

Other fun fact to now and tell: The last time the Hoosiers won at Wisconsin, the oldest players on the current roster were still three years away from being born.

That's because it was 1998, right after the 27-year-old Bradley Center opened. That's so long ago, Bob Knight, who died in 2023, was still coaching Indiana. It's so long ago A.J. Guyton, who's 46 now, was playing for him.

In other words, it's been a long damn time since Indiana figured out the Badgers in Madison. And it sure didn't get any shorter last night, when history maintained its loop and the Hoosiers maintained theirs.

Once again, in other words, they couldn't throw it in the ocean from the 3-point arc, missing 20 of their 27 attempts. Couldn't defend the 3-point arc, either, where Wisconsin shot 41.4 percent (12 of 29). Got 15 points on 5-of-13 shooting from Mackenzie Mgbako; 11 on 4-of-12 shooting from Luke Goode; and 10 from Myles Rice. And not a whole lot from anyone else.

As has been noted, the evening's suspense lasted all of six minutes. By that time, Wisconsin led 24-4, the Bradley Center was howling, and for the rest of the night Indiana was essentially trying to climb Everest in board shorts and flip-flops.

Needless to say, the Hoosiers didn't make the summit. It was the sixth loss in their last seven games, they've gone from 13-3 to 14-9, and March is just a month away.

Remember last fall, when Woodson gathered his latest crop of high-end recruits and transfer portal studs, and even people who should have known better were picking the Hoosiers to contend for the Big Ten title, and maybe even win it?

Seems like a long time ago.

Seems like, I don't know, 27 years ago, maybe.