RUNNING THE FLOOR: Brief return to normal

It had been months, but it really seemed more like years.

This hall – as it’s purported – wasn’t close to capacity, but when those flags hit the parque surface, the floor rumbled like it hadn’t since that dead winter of nine months ago.

And for perhaps the first time since that fateful February night against Purdue, the result on the floor was close to the norm as well. 

For one night – and perhaps one night only – Indiana was Indiana again.

It wasn’t just the score, and it wasn’t just the stat sheet. There was a feeling Wednesday night inside Assembly Hall that has been missing since ... I’m not even sure how long.

There is an energy that surrounds everything a storied sports program does, one that is indescribable but also undeniable. Ohio State has it. Notre Dame has it. IU wants it back.

When Nick Williams slammed home victory in the last five minutes, and Malik Story further salted the game with an up-and-under layup seconds later, Hoosier fans rose to their feet and screamed, and for a few brief moments, it came back.

“This is as good as we have seen. This was awesome,” Crean said, chuckling like a man who thought he’d seen it all until just a few minutes ago. “It was tremendous, it really was. It was hot, it was the way you envision it to be.”

Oh, it went away again when Tom Crean’s bunch lost focus late and let a 20-point lead halve itself before the game ended, predicting that this trip down memory lane will be more rare than regular.

But the fact remains, the Hoosiers were clearly better in every way Wednesday night, turning a four-point halftime advantage against a respectable, well-coached team into a 10-point win that was never that close after the break.

“I give all the credit to Indiana. They out-played us,” TCU coach Jim Christian said after the game, reeling off the ways his Horned Frogs were beaten.

For the first time all year, the Hoosiers outran, out-jumped, out-shot and, yes, even out-defended an opponent.

There will be more moments like these, rare though they may be, before this season ends. The Hoosiers showed in flashes tonight what they can become – and perhaps will become – next year, and the year after that.

Losing will almost assuredly outlast winning more often than not in Tom Crean’s first year in Bloomington, according to the majority. 

But for one night, months of sweated worry paid off. Hoosier fans got to exhale, deeply. Everything looked OK.

Now inhale again, because it’s time to go to Kentucky.

See you Friday.