Indiana Gets Alford, Iowa in Final

When Mike Davis took over back in September, no one expected Indiana to contend for a Big Ten title.

The fallout from Bob Knight’s firing was just too messy, too public to overcome in one season. There were so many distractions, there was no way Indiana could excel.

Look at Davis’ Hoosiers now. They’re in the Big Ten tournament final against Iowa after knocking off No. 4 Illinois 58-56 Saturday. Iowa, coached by former Indiana guard Steve Alford, beat Penn State, 94-74.

Tom Coverdale had 17 points, and Kirk Haston blocked Frank Williams’ last-second layup attempt.

“When the season started, the players stepped up and said we wanted coach Davis to be here or a lot of us probably wouldn’t have come back,” Coverdale said. “If he’s not the coach after what he’s done, something’s wrong.”

The Hoosiers (21-11) have won nine of their last 11 games, and Davis is the first Indiana coach to win 21 games in his first season. In one year, Davis has already won more games in the Big Ten tournament (two) than Knight managed in three years (one).

“I feel real good about this ball team right now,” Davis said. “Our confidence is sky-high.”

It should be. Illinois, the tournament’s top seed, probably had a chance to lock up the No. 1 seed in the Midwest Region of the NCAA tournaments after No. 2 Michigan State lost to Penn State on Friday night.

Instead, Illinois (24-7) had its sloppiest and most disorganized efforts of the season. The Illini shot 33%.

In the other Big 10 game, Iowa (21-11) was led by Reggie Evans, who scored a career-high 30 points and had a tournament-record 18 rebounds--matching the total for the entire Penn State team. The Hawkeyes shot 57% and made 36 of 48 free throws.

Penn State (19-11) got a career-high 26 points from Gyasi Cline-Heard.