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(Official) Mike Davis to Leave Indiana at the End of the Season

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OSUBasketballJunkie

OSUBasketballJunkie

Never Forget 31-0
Dispatch

2/14/06

BIG TEN BASKETBALL

Davis seems resigned to his fate at Indiana

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

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Mike Davis, who missed Indiana’s game against Iowa on Saturday reportedly because of the flu, was well enough yesterday to spend 10 minutes with reporters on the Big Ten’s weekly coaches’ teleconference.

But he still sounded sick — sick of being the coach at Indiana. And he left the distinct impression he may not be much longer.

"I just think Indiana needs to have one of their own, someone who has played here so they can embrace him," Davis said when asked why he thinks Indiana fans have been so hard on him in the six seasons since he replaced the legendary Bob Knight, whose firing for a "pattern of unacceptable behavior" created a firestorm in the state that still hasn’t been doused completely.

"They need that," Davis said. "I’m not upset about it, I’m not disapointed about it. I think they need that, I really do, because these players deserve better."

Without injured forward D.J. White, Indiana has lost five of six — three on the road, two at home to Iowa and No. 1-ranked Connecticut — after starting the season 12-3 overall and 4-1 in the Big Ten.

The Hoosiers play twice more on the road this week, at Penn State and Illinois, after having lost their past three on the road — at Iowa, Wisconsin and Minnesota — by an average of nearly 17 points.

The sudden turn of fortune turned even the normally supportive students against Davis on Saturday before the game against Iowa and native son Steve Alford, the star of Knight’s last NCAA championship team and now Iowa coach.

The Indianapolis Star reported Saturday that some fans, including students, had talked of wearing black shirts to the game to create a "blackout effect" in Assembly Hall. Some previous games this season had seen "whiteout" promotions in which fans were encouraged to wear white shirts as a show of unity, the newspaper said.

In response, Floyd Keith, executive director of the Black Coaches Association, contacted Indiana athletics director Rick Greenspan to say he was troubled by the racial implications of the protest, The Star reported.

Davis is black.

"You could look at it in different ways, but it can also be perceived that this ‘blackout’ meant they wanted to get the black guy out," Keith told the newspaper.

The Star reported Sunday that there were "a few" black shirts in the student section. That did little to placate Davis, who in a telephone interview from his home Saturday night reportedly was "incensed" that fans felt the need to make a statement when the Hoosiers went into the game with only one more loss in the standings than the conference-leading Hawkeyes.

"It’s been incredible that my job has been discussed for six years. Every year it’s, ‘Will he be there next year?’ " Davis said yesterday. He has a 109-74 record, led the Hoosiers to the NCAA championship game in 2002, his second season, but has not gotten them in the tournament the past two years.

"It’s really, really taken an effect on our players not just this year but every year I’ve been here because no matter what I do, if we play for it all or not, it’s still the same.

"I don’t know any family that can go through knowing that their family members may be losing their job, or questioned about it on a daily basis, and withstand it."

Davis denied during the Saturday night interview with The Star that he resigned last week, first in the locker room after the loss at Wisconsin on Wednesday, then after practice Friday. His absence for the game Saturday gave steam to the rumors.

"It’s not true," he said.

But it might be only a matter of time.

Asked at another point in the teleconference yesterday if he had a preference where the Big Ten tournament is permanently located in a couple of years, in Chicago or just up the road in Indianapolis, Davis said, "It doesn’t matter to me."

There was a hint of a laugh from him after he said it. And perhaps a hint of resignation in his voice.

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They don't dislike Davis because he's not from Indiana. They want him gone because he's not a good coach. I recall last year when a close friend of mine in law school and Indiana alum would watch every Indiana game. It was a team that quite simply played below its talent level in just about every game. He can't gameplan. He can't develop players. He's like Lloyd Carr - he lived off that run to the title game against Maryland.

The only reason this Indiana team is even above .500 is the outstanding abilities of Marco Killingsworth, a player not developed by Mike Davis.

The situation is bad in Indiana, but he's only making it worse. If he doesn't feel like he's the right man for the job, then he should quit now.
 
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I haven't been a fan of Indiana since they let BK go. I think it was incorrectly done and an insult to one of the best coaches to ever coach the game. That said, I never really liked Mike Davis as a coach, at all. However, I do feel sorry for for what he has had to go through at the school. It was and will be a very rough job for anyone to come into.
 
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I've never been impressed with Davis's coaching ability. IU's run to the title game is the only reason he is still head coach now. His teams always seem to underachieve. They do not seem well prepared, and they don't seem to make in game adjustments. His teams seem to react to what the other team is doing instead of making the other team react.

IU's recent recruiting shows that the high school kids see this ship sinking, all the better for us. :biggrin:
 
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I'll give you a good reason why they want Davis gone. Look at who he lost to Thad next year. That's right, Oden and Conley both play in Indiana. If Matta can continue to steal the best out of Indiana then Davis should be out of a job.
 
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Thump said:
That's funny, I remember him taking a less than favorable team to the National Title game not long ago.

Frankly, I think he's gotten a raw deal and will excel at another school.
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He has very much gotten a raw deal. He knew that it wouldn't be easy to follow Knight and I think it was just a matter of time before the fans turned against him.

He is going to go somewhere and take a team far.
 
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Thump said:
That's funny, I remember him taking a less than favorable team to the National Title game not long ago.

Frankly, I think he's gotten a raw deal and will excel at another school.
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And I remember his teams underachieving the last 3 years badly. The last two years, he tried to run some one-man offense around Bracey Wright alone, and was surprised when he found out that in college basketball, it's a team game. And this year, he's doing to the same thing around Killingsworth.

Maybe if he'd develop his young guards a little better, Indiana might have been playing to their potential right now.

Quite simply, you can't live off of one run this long. If you underachieve at a school like Indiana for 3 years in a row, you don't have a job anymore.
 
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