The first step of a new season?

Wow, how good does that feel? Seriously, Sunday's 78-71 win over Michigan State was more refreshing than a breeze up your shorts during the summer. \nThe Hoosiers came out on fire and proceeded to out-hustle, out-execute and out-play the Spartans for most of the game's 40 minutes. IU played its best half of basketball in months, leading 43-31 by halftime. Despite a furious rally by the Spartans, the Hoosiers kept their cool and put the game away on the strength of a Marshall Strickland three-point play with 2:40 remaining and a Robert Vaden 3-pointer with 1:53 on the clock. Hey, by the way, who is this Vaden kid? He's pretty good, when did we get him? He finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds and five assists to lead IU in all three categories. \nSo what does this win mean? \nIt means the Hoosiers are now at .500 in the conference and sit just a half game behind Michigan for fifth place. It means that over the past two seasons, coach Mike Davis' team is 15-1 at home in Big Ten play, and its only loss was to Iowa by three points when he was at home with the flu. It also means the Hoosiers are back. \nDespite a recent string of poor play that made Bode Miller look good in the clutch, the Hoosiers seemed to have, at least for an afternoon, regained their swagger. Marco Killingsworth found his long-lost rhythm in the post and is once again imposing his will on opposing big men. The team is rebounding better than it has all year -- it lost the rebound battle by two Sunday -- but that's an improvement compared to a -10 rebounding differential at East Lansing, Mich., earlier in the season. And it only committed 10 turnovers yesterday to Michigan State's 14. \nThe Hoosiers were moving the ball, fast breaking and playing smart ... Where have these guys been? Even Adam Ahlfeld is back on his game, running three-fourths of the way across the court to greet his teammates during timeouts. It was only halfway for the past few weeks. Adam -- you're my favorite Hoosier. Keep up the good work and you guys could be headed for big things. \nI've said all year that when the Hoosiers play well, they can compete with anyone in the nation and they proved it yesterday against an immensely talented Spartan team. If IU can keep up this level of play and maintain its energy level for the rest of the regular season, it could be primed to make a serious run in the Big Ten and (gasp) NCAA tournaments. \nSure, I'm being optimistic, but it's hard not to be after Sunday. Every Hoosier fan should feel re-energized right now. So bring on those cellar-dwelling, engineer chumps from Purdue.