Davis and Goliath: Indiana's coach has the confidence of his players, and it shows in their play, but he is wrestling with the giant that is Bob Knight's legacy

Sporting News, The, Jan 21, 2002 by Mike DeCourcy

The jar sits on a counter in the Indiana Hoosiers training room. It silently beseeches all who pass to be generous with their donations. But that is not getting it done, because as lunchtime passes on this Saturday afternoon, there are but a few lonely coins scattered at the bottom.

Mike Davis sees it is time make a personal appeal. As he calls an end to the shootaround that prepares IU for a game against Penn State, he issues a simple plea for the "Help Pay Coach Davis' Fine" drive. "The more money you put in there," he says with a grin, "I'll know you care about me."

This says much about the state of Indiana basketball in the Mike Davis era. It suggests the players are relaxed enough with their coach to make a joke at his expense, that communication is clear enough he will laugh along and that, at last, the man in this job has a sense of humor others can appreciate. It also testifies to the fact Davis did something foolish enough to receive a $10,000 fine from the Big Ten. He still has much to learn about being a major-college head coach.

IU is a curious laboratory in which to pursue that education. Thanks largely to Davis' predecessor, Indiana has more NCAA championships than all but two schools, more NCAA appearances than all but four and more tournament victories than all but five. Meeting this kind of standard is imposing enough. But Indiana following the implosion of Bob Knight's tenure presented challenges that might have daunted even the most veteran coach. Knight didn't just leave behind a legacy. He left nuclear fallout.

Davis has had his own explosive moments. The bursts of honest passion led to his being perceived as "angry man" which is inaccurate. He is as gentle and approachable as any big-time college coach, but he consumes so much criticism that it eventually manifests itself in his public statements. He frequently has been bitten by his own sound bites.

The opening week of the Big Ten season was brutal in that regard.

First there was his tirade against game officials after a loss to Butler--and the ensuing fine. That was a good day compared with the news that blared from the Bloomington Herald-Times the morning after the Hoosiers' league-opening victory over Northwestern: "Davis blasts Knight."

Under subpoena, Davis was deposed by attorneys in a lawsuit filed against Knight by former assistant coach Ron Felling. Davis believed his testimony would remain private, but Indianapolis TV station WTHR won a motion to have it unsealed. Davis was compelled to answer questions about Knight's comportment and coaching methods. He was asked whether he considered Knight to be a bully. Rather than commit perjury, he said, "yes."

When his answers were revealed, he faced the renewed wrath of Knight zealots. Davis' answers were considered a breach of loyalty after Knight hired Davis as an assistant in 1997. But how is a committed, church-going Christian, asked to swear before his God and his country, supposed to respond? Is he supposed to place the code of the locker room above the law?

"I know I can coach pretty well," Davis says. "I know I can make adjustments, what it takes to win. It's just the other stuff. I love coaching here. I really do. But it's frustrating, the craziness. It's like somebody's always trying to get you."

Any time he wants, Davis can get a minimum estimate of the number of Hoosiers who most likely are on his side. Fans still coming to games after all that happened must be invested in IU's success. As Indiana defeats Penn State in its first Big Ten game at Assembly Hall this season, the crowd is 14,453. That's a lot of friends for anyone. But this basketball-crazy state has more than 6 million residents. That's a lot more potential saboteurs.

"The thing that really gets me is, I don't know what percentage of people that it is," Davis says. "If I knew it was 80-20, if I knew it was 70-30, I'd be fine. But I don't know. And when you don't know the percentage of people that support you, it's in the back of your mind.

"It's like tonight. We're sitting there down 22-8, and a normal coach can sit there and say, `We're going to be OK. Just keep coaching.' But in my mind ... everything is going through my mind. What if we lose?"

After Knight was fired in September 2000, some fans felt obliged to choose between their school and their coach. Now that Knight is working again, Davis sees Texas Tech sweatshirts and bumper stickers around Bloomington. And yeah, it bugs him. It seems the circus never plans to leave town.

"You've got 30 years of tradition, you can't get rid of it in a year and a half," says Hoosiers star forward Jared Jeffries, who grew up here. "It's going to take a long time ... until an Indiana team establishes itself without Bobby Knight. Until a team can do that, people are always going to sit there and remember Coach Knight."

Break from the past

In his first 1 1/2 seasons, Davis had nine victories against top 25 teams. Last year's Hoosiers, which finished 21-13 overall, established a conference record for field-goal defense. Although last year's team, like this one, did not enjoy a lot of perimeter speed, Davis managed to emphasize the team's toughness. "We'll fight you from beginning to end," Davis says. At the 2001 Final Four, in the lobby of the Minneapolis Hilton, defensive wizard Jerry Tarkanian approached Davis and told him the Hoosiers' defense was the best defense he had seen.