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

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BuckeyeRob said:
I applaud what he did. They had him on to interview him for his reality show and Bobby was upfront and frankly polite about asking them to stick to what they said they were going to interview him for.

He has more stones than a lot of people. I would have done the same thing. Get up, put the earpeice down and walk out.
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Yanking the ear-piece out and walking off the set does not in my book equal being frankly polite, whether upfront or after the fact.

All he had to do was make one simple statement - to the camera - after the host finished her question and it would all be over. The simple statement would have been something like ...

"That is IU's business and Mike Davis' business, it is none of my business. Beyond that I will say no more."

Instead BK once again makes himself the story, acting as if it physically impossible to acknowledge, let alone answer a simple question.

Great coach, lousy interview. At times like that it does not strike me that Knight has stones, more like he has rocks in his head.
 
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you really think that would have made a difference gk? They ignored his responses and kept following up with... but surely you much have an opinion based on your history there. This wasn't a press conference, this was a voluntary interview. I would imagine that he told them in advance he would not answer questions about the matter.
 
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jwinslow said:
you really think that would have made a difference gk? They ignored his responses and kept following up with... but surely you much have an opinion based on your history there. This wasn't a press conference, this was a voluntary interview. I would imagine that he told them in advance he would not answer questions about the matter.
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I'm sure there was some media gamesmanship at work here. Did they ask him the question because they honestly thought BK was going to give a candid analysis? More likely they thought it would provoke him into providing an oh so precious sound byte or video clip to create a story around. Rather than give them that, he simply got up and left. Of course, absent anything actually newsworthy, it is spun into a story of it's own. "This is newsworthy because we say it is."
 
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buckeyeman06 said:
Just herd Thad Matta's name as a possible choice for head coach at Indiana on espn news.

Any chance at all this could happen?
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He was coy with his answer, and he did coach at Butler (I think?) but no, I think that as long as the NCAA doesn't hand down some ridiculous penalty, Matta is here to stay for a while. He is probably in a better position at this point (i.e. in 2006) than being coach at IU anyway.
 
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It didn't take long for the media to throw out some names. Indiana will go after Alford and Randy Whitman first and foremost. They are looking for an alum to come back and coach. Much like the OSU football program was searching for when they selected coach Tressel. Matta is not going anywhere anytime soon.
 
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LINK
Indiana's Davis to step down after season

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana coach Mike Davis, the embattled heir to one of college basketball's elite programs, resigned Thursday after months of speculation and increased criticism during the Hoosiers' late-season slump.

Davis, under intense pressure almost from the moment he succeeded Bob Knight in 2000, will remain with the team through the end of this season.

"I felt like it was time for this program to be united," Davis said at a news conference. "I want our players to get it out of their minds whether coach Davis is returning. It's time for Indiana basketball to move forward."

IU president Adam Herbert said Davis initiated discussions about a coaching change a few days before the Feb. 4 game against Connecticut. Athletic director Rick Greenspan said a new coach probably won't be hired until after the Final Four in April.

Davis said he had dealt with rumors almost every year about whether he would return and believed it was time to move on. "I wanted it to be on my terms," Davis said.

Davis has won 109 games and was the first Indiana coach -- Knight included -- to start with three straight seasons of at least 20 victories. He took the Hoosiers to the NCAA finals in 2002, losing to Maryland in the championship game, but did it with many of the Knight holdovers.

His personality often caused consternation among fans. Davis spoke openly and honestly about his emotions -- a trait that often created trouble.

Less than two months into his tenure at Indiana, after an embarrassing loss to Kentucky, Davis said he wasn't "the right man for job." The next season, fans bristled when he said he wanted to coach in the NBA one day.

"Coach Davis assumed one of most difficult challenges any coach can accept -- following a legendary predecessor," Herbert said. "He has responded to these challenges with character, graciousness, with concern for the welfare of his players and with a determination to raise our program into the ranks of the very best in the nation."

On Monday, Davis said IU fans needed a former Indiana player to coach the team so they could embrace him.

Fans weren't the only ones concerned with some of Davis's comments.

"I think Mike is a really good person and he operated in what appeared to be an open fashion," said former IU trustee Stephen Backer. "But he was probably a little too honest with his feelings and emotions."

Backer also indicated Indiana may have expected too much from Davis, who took over one of the nation's top programs with no head coaching experience.

"It was almost a no-win situation for him -- unless he won three straight national titles," Backer said.

After Knight was fired in September 2000, most of the players had threatened to quit. Several days later, they agreed to stay if the Hoosiers made one of Knight's assistants the coach.

"I felt like we were a family and our family was being torn apart, and I didn't want it torn apart any more," said IPFW coach Dane Fife, one of the players who fought for Davis and later coached under him.

Davis was named interim coach and another assistant, John Treloar, was named associate coach. In March 2001, then-president Myles Brand removed the interim tag from Davis' title after he went 21-13 and got the Hoosiers into the NCAA Tournament.

But once Knight's players had left, the team's fortunes began to plunge.

Indiana was .500 in the Big Ten and lost in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2003. The next year, the Hoosiers were 7-9 in the conference and finished 14-15 overall, their first losing season since 1969-70, two years before Knight arrived.
Indiana went 15-14 last season but failed to make the NCAA Tournament for the second straight year.

Greenspan appeared to give the coach a vote of confidence, however, but he coupled his support with an expectation that Davis this year would reach certain "ambitious and achievable" goals, which he did not specify.

With Auburn transfer Marco Killingsworth in the lineup this season, the Hoosiers (13-9, 5-6 Big Ten) got off to a 10-2 start and were ranked among the nation's Top 10, temporarily muting the criticism.

But an 87-73 loss at Michigan State started the current slide, which now stands at six losses in the past seven games.

Davis missed Saturday's game -- a 70-67 loss at home to Iowa -- because of illness. He was back on the bench for the next game Wednesday, a 71-68 loss at Penn State.
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coastalbuck said:
I'll say it again, I never liked him as a coach, but I feel sorry for him. The pressure he faced was sick, he probably deserved better.
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Except that he wasn't really qualified for the job in the first place. I don't wish him bad as he moves on his way, but he didn't deserve the job, and with some more experience, maybe he'll do better next time.
 
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