Opening Act May Steal Show

We’ll try to hurry this Indiana-Oklahoma game advance story along so as to make way for the really important game advance story featuring Kansas and Maryland.

We’ll keep this short and tight and to the point because, while today’s Indiana-Oklahoma winner technically moves on to Monday night’s national title game, the first of the two national semifinals at the Georgia Dome has sort of a consolation-game feel to it.

For one, it’s the first game, an opening act, something to watch until the pizza guy arrives. All-powerful and dictating CBS has the choice of determining which game it wants to save for prime time, and there was never a doubt which game CBS was going to squeeze for optimal ratings effect.

Let’s face facts: Neither Indiana (24-11) nor Oklahoma (31-4) is a top-seeded team. In a nut, Indiana is a nice story and Oklahoma is a football school.

Neither has a head coach named Williams desperate to win the at-long-last championship that will forever rid him of the label “best coach never to have won a title.”

The presumption here is that Kansas vs. Maryland has everything you want in a title game; too bad it’s not. Too bad one of the Williams coaches, Roy or Gary, has to leave Atlanta without a ring. Too bad the brackets couldn’t be rearranged.

So wouldn’t it be something if the Indiana-Oklahoma winner ended up winning it all?

It’s not a far-fetched assumption if you consider the evidence. Oklahoma, a No. 2-seeded team most considered a No. 1 based on merit, has defeated Maryland and Kansas this season.

You could look it up. Oklahoma whipped Maryland by 16 points on Dec. 21 and then, quite impressively, deflated Kansas in the Big 12 Conference tournament championship game, ending the Jayhawks’ 18-game winning streak.

You could argue Oklahoma is really the team to beat and has the easiest path to Monday’s title game, given its timely matchup against a gutsy-but-wounded Indiana squad that may or may not field its starting point guard.

The game may hinge on the availability of Indiana junior Tom Coverdale, who could not participate in last week’s South Regional net-cutting ceremony because he was in a wheelchair.

Against Kent State, Coverdale turned his left ankle about as severely as one could without requiring a plaster cast. He did not practice all week and did not practice Friday at the Georgia Dome, although he did take a few practice shots.

His status is questionable, which makes Indiana’s status questionable.

Will he play?

“Right now, it’s really hard to tell,” Coverdale said. “They haven’t allowed me to do much on it.”

To suggest Coverdale is important to Indiana’s cause is to suggest Bob Knight has a temper. Coverdale has limped his way to the Final Four. He first rolled his left ankle midway through a first-round victory over Utah, played hurt in victories over North Carolina Wilmington and Duke and then turned his ankle with 9:35 left in last week’s regional final victory over Kent State.

Coverdale is the Hoosiers’ second-leading scorer at 12.2 points a game. He and forward Jared Jeffries are the team’s best pressure players, each having scored 70 points in the final five minutes of Indiana games this year.

Coverdale was off his game in the victory over Duke, but it was his shot, his only basket, with 1:01 left that gave Indiana its first lead.

Coverdale is also a key defender. He held Duke’s Jason Williams to six-for-19 shooting and Kent State’s Trevor Huffman to two for seven.

If Coverdale can’t go, you wonder how Indiana can make up the points on offense and defense.

If Coverdale can’t go, the point guard spot falls to Hoosier freshman Donald Perry, who averages 13.5 minutes and 2.3 points.

“I’m ready,” Perry said Friday. “I’m ready right now to help this team.”

Now would be a good time.

“He has no choice but to be ready,” Coach Mike Davis said.

Of course, Oklahoma players think this is all a hilarious ruse. Any competent Sooner assistant coach could have easily compiled a list of injured and/or ill players who have risen from wheelchairs and/or training tables to lead their teams to inspirational wins.

Remember Willis Reed against the Lakers? Notre Dame quarterback Joe Montana in the Cotton Bowl? Kirk Gibson in 1988?

Heck, there’s already been one Lourdes-like healing in this tournament, if you recall the saga of Kirk Hinrich, Kansas’ junior guard. Hinrich “badly” injured his ankle in an opening-round victory over Holy Cross. Williams, the Jayhawk coach, all but counted him out for the second-round game against Stanford. Fans were lighting candles in Lawrence.

Two days later, Hinrich played 21 minutes.

“He was on the sideline,” Oklahoma guard Ebi Ere said. “Didn’t practice, he came back that next game and got him 20.”

Hinrich actually scored only 15 points against Stanford, but Ere’s point was that he and his teammates didn’t just fall off the Boomer-Sooner wagon.

“Yeah, I think he’s going to play too,” Sooner guard Hollis Price said of Coverdale. “He’s probably hurt, but this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance right here.”