It’s Arc of Triumph for Indiana

LEXINGTON, Ky.--The simple uniforms and the short-haired shooters of Indiana are back in the Final Four.

For the first time since 1953, a coach other than Bob Knight is taking them there.

A hail of Hoosier three-point baskets beat Kent State, 81-69, in the NCAA South Regional final Saturday in front of a roaring crowd of 22,435 at Rupp Arena, most of them in red.

After the last of the 15 three-pointers Indiana made in 19 attempts had splashed through the net, Coach Mike Davis pointed to the stands.

Then he strode through press row to hand the game ball to Myles Brand, the Indiana University president who was hung in effigy after firing Knight and naming Davis interim coach two seasons ago.

Indiana’s victory should be remembered for the toughness and grit and incredible shooting of the Hoosier players, who made their first eight shots from long range without a miss. But, as usual, Knight looms almost as large as the game.

“I saw President Brand during the celebration,” said guard Kyle Hornsby, who made four of five three-pointers and scored 16 points. “I can remember back when we weren’t--I’m going to go ahead and say this--we weren’t all that fond of him at the time.

“But I looked at him and shook his hand and even gave him a hug and said, ‘We’ve come a long way. I remember what it was like back then. We’ve come a long way.’ He grinned, and smiled and said, ‘Yeah, we have.’”

Knight took Indiana to five Final Fours--the first in 1973, the most recent in 1992--and won three NCAA titles in 29 seasons. But it has been Davis’ team since Knight was fired for violation of a so-called “zero-tolerance policy” after what turned out to be his final, controversial run-in, with a student.

Davis had a rough go with an Indiana following still loyal to Knight--now the coach at Texas Tech, which lost to Southern Illinois in the first round--but Brand might have seen that turmoil fade as the clock ticked down Saturday.

“I think the fans have come to know Mike and come to understand Mike Davis and this team,” Brand said. “This is the future of Indiana basketball, right here.”

Two days earlier, Indiana upset top-seeded and defending national champion Duke by coming from 17 points down to win behind the inside play of 6-foot-10 sophomore Jared Jeffries.

Against a Kent State team that opened in a zone defense and tried to collapse on Jeffries, Indiana (24-11) turned its three-point shooters loose and they responded with a mind-boggling display of 79% accuracy after shooting 39% during the season.

The 15 three-pointers set Indiana’s school record in tournament games, but the percentage was short of the record of 89% set twice on eight-of-nine shooting.

Dane Fife made the first two three-pointers for Indiana, and the Hoosiers were off. Hornsby made the third, center Jarrad Odle made the fourth and then Hornsby made another. By then, the lead was 15-4, and it would grow as large as 20 points before halftime.

Indiana didn’t miss a three until A.J. Moye misfired with a little more than six minutes left in the first half--and by halftime the Hoosiers had made nine of 11.

They shot 64% overall, and their 78.9% from three-point range was the fifth-highest by any team in an NCAA tournament game.

For Kent State (30-6), a 21-game winning streak came to an end. Every time Kent State fought back, getting as close as seven points with 61/2 minutes to play, Indiana made another three and then locked down on defense. The Hoosiers made forward Antonio Gates work for every one of his 22 points and took guard Trevor Huffman out of the game.

“I hope Coach Knight was watching, because he probably saw a lot of his teaching in the way we played,” said Fife, who made five of six three-point tries, scored 17 points and had a shouting match with Davis worthy of a Knight confrontation after being pulled.

“As usual, if a foul is called on me, it wasn’t a foul,” Fife said. “I think Coach didn’t believe it when I said I didn’t foul him. Neither did anyone else in the stadium, 22,000 of them.

“We had our cute little argument.... Then he put me back in. We had a little hug after the game.

“[But] you can’t mention us, as far as I’m concerned, and how hard this team plays without mentioning Coach Knight. Coach Davis is the main catalyst in this whole ordeal, but Coach Knight is a reason a lot of us came here.

“Believe me, I watched his first game. But we’ve got our own team. For whatever reason, he’s not our coach. We’ve got a new coach, and a new system. Our team did a great job of making that transition, but I will always root for him.”

There was a new Hoosier hero at every turn.

Guard Tom Coverdale made three of four three-point attempts and scored 14 points before leaving with a sprained ankle in the second half.

His defense on Huffman--held to a mere eight points and seven shots--helped Coverdale earn honors as most outstanding player despite not finishing the game.

The Indiana players made sure he snipped a strand of the net.

“Tom, he’s hurting every week. Something’s the matter with his back, his eyelid, his ankle,” Jeffries said. ... “It was important to get him up there. Emotionally, he leads us, and he’s just a really big part of this team.”

They all were. So, in an odd way, is Brand, who had the team over to his home for dinner about six weeks ago.

“I’m so thankful to President Brand,” Davis said. “What you have to understand is it took great courage for him to name me interim coach at Indiana, because this is a big-time program.... I could never show him how much I appreciate the opportunity.”

Consider it an opportunity they all grabbed.

“This means a lot, because we’ve created something new,” Jeffries said. “There was a lot of tradition that was kind of taken away--not taken away, but kind of exiled, when Coach Knight was fired. Now with this team, Coach Davis has created something new.”

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Three-mendous

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