Red hot Hoosiers face tough test

Those who noticed that my column for last Monday's paper had in fact been written by someone else were left asking themselves, "Hey, what happened?"\nThere was some concern (or hope) that the paper had perhaps suspended or fired me for some sort of indiscretion, like making too many "Star Wars" references in one column. Another rumor had it that I had been abducted by aliens. One local tabloid reported that I had been seen in an Albuquerque, N.M., McDonald's with Tupac and Elvis.\nNeedless to say, none of these rumors are true. I was in the wilderness visiting the pack of wolves that raised me and, hence, unable to watch the game last weekend.\nBut enough about me, there are more interesting things to discuss, like the Purdue game.\nThe atmosphere in Assembly Hall Tuesday night was incredible. It was easily the most rockin' the Hall has been since the Illinois game two years ago. In fact, it may have been the most rockin' event to occur since Foghat's 1977 world tour.\nThe game also showed signs of how a rivalry should feel. I find the fact that a scuffle nearly broke out on the floor to be a beautiful thing. The same goes for the chant of "Buscher sucks."\nI found the fact that the crowd had to be warned such an unsportsmanlike chant could warrant a technical foul to be a bit weak, though. Are we really such pantywaists at IU that we can't say anything bad about our most bitter rival? Purdue fans didn't hold back from laying into Tom Coverdale last year. And it's not like we are as cruel as Duke fans, who are seemingly willing to heckle a player for the fact that his mother has been hospitalized.\nGranted, there are times when the crowd does need to be warned. I do hope that the person who threw something onto the court is banned from Assembly Hall for life. But like it or not, heckling is as old as sport itself and will still continue whether or not there are warnings.\nAnd though the crowd helped, the real hero Tuesday night was Roderick Wilmont.\nAs we all know by now, Wilmont's performance was not flawless. But what made him the man of the hour was his ability to not only learn from his mistakes, but to atone for them altogether. Despite airballing a three-pointer early, he had the confidence to nail one late. And after getting caught snoozing on defense when Purdue answered, he came right back and hammered the nail into the Boilermakers' coffin.\nThat was precisely the moment when he went from being Roderick Wilmont to Roderick "The Money" Wilmont. And in the process, he has added himself to the cast of characters that have engineered a turnaround that no one outside of Mike Davis and this roster of Hoosiers could have seen coming.\nAs much of a joy as it has been to watch this five-game winning streak, there is still a lot of work to be done if IU is to compete for an NCAA Tournament bid or even a Big Ten championship. And its biggest test of the season will come tomorrow at Michigan State.\nI know I'm beating a dead horse by saying that IU hasn't won at the Breslin Center since 1991. But as each year passes, that stat will continue popping into stories like this one until something changes. To put it in perspective, IU has been to a bowl game more recently.\nThe Spartans entered the season ranked an unrealistically high No. 3 in the nation, due in part to the media's love affair with Tom Izzo. And though he is a genius recruiter and an X's and O's man, Izzo outdid himself in drawing up this year's non-conference schedule.\nAfter playing five ranked teams early on (and losing to all of them), Michigan State has limped to a 9-8 start. If they want to make it to the Tournament, they desperately need to start winning now.\nSo if IU is able to stop its Breslin Center drought against a team this hungry, there is little doubt that the Hoosiers' turnaround is for real. And there's no telling when it will stop.