No Seconds for Hungry Indiana

No more glowering Bob Knight. No more motion offense.

But one year later, Indiana’s first-round NCAA tournament fate is the same.

Back home again in Indiana.

On a dark day for the Big Ten Conference, Kent State sent Indiana packing with a 77-73 upset of the fourth-seeded Hoosiers--first-round losers against Pepperdine last year and bumped in the first round in five of the last seven years.

“It’s extremely disappointing, to the point of being sickening,” Indiana center Kirk Haston said after scoring 29 points.

It was a blow as well to Coach Mike Davis, hoping to land the job permanently.

“Well, I don’t know, they said they were going to wait until the season is over,” Davis said.

“It’s over. We’ll see next week.”

Trevor Huffman--a nephew of Jamie Huffman, who played on the 1979 NCAA championship team with Magic Johnson at Michigan State--led the way for Kent State.

He made drive after seemingly unstoppable drive, a couple of three-pointers and a floating, high-banking shot that gave the Golden Flashes the lead for good with 3:24 left in the game.

Somebody asked if it was the biggest game he has ever won.

“Probably,” Huffman said. “I never beat a Big Ten opponent.”

Coach Gary Waters whispered in his ear.

“Oh, yeah,” Huffman said with perfect comic timing. “We beat Northwestern.”

The laughter took a while to subside, as will the drubbing the Big Ten took Thursday when Ohio State and Wisconsin also were upset in the first round.

Indiana (21-13) led by 12 in the second half, but plays like Demetric Shaw’s steal and layup and the five offensive rebounds Rashaun Warren gathered in with his quick hands and well-timed jumps helped bring Kent State back.

Along with that, an injury Indiana guard Tom Coverdale suffered in the first half caught up to the Hoosiers.

“The first half, when I made a save out of bounds, I hit my hip pretty hard,” Coverdale said. “I couldn’t move or walk without hurting. No excuses: I should have been able to play through it and do what I’ve done for the team all year. I didn’t.”

That was the ballgame, in Davis’ eyes.

“No excuses, but Coverdale really is the only point guard we have,” he said.

Coverdale tried to keep playing, but he was part of a key exchange in the final five minutes when he was called for a foul and a technical for something he said to the official.

“I asked him what I did and he looked at me and ‘T’d’ me up,” Coverdale said. “If that deserves a technical I guess I deserved it.”

Kent State (24-9) made one of three free throws on the exchange for a two-point lead.

Indiana cut the lead to one again, but then Huffman nailed a three-pointer off an inbounds play just before the shot-clock buzzer, and Kent State led by four with 2:34 left.

The Golden Flashes’ lead was never less than two again, and Huffman made two free throws to make it six with eight seconds left.

In the Indiana locker room, it was reassessment time.

Again.

“Everybody’s down,” forward Jared Jeffries said. “We’re trying to figure out what happened. We’re supposed to be the [No.] four seed, supposed to go to the Sweet 16. When you don’t play as hard as you can, this is the result.”

Cincinnati 84, Brigham Young 59--The fifth-seeded Bearcats (24-9) led by only five at halftime but outscored No. 12 Brigham Young by 20 in the second half.

Guard Steve Logan scored 21 points to lead four players in double figures for Cincinnati.

Mekeli Wesley scored 25 for the Cougars (24-9).