Lame Duck Hoosier

Mike Davis is resigning as head coach of Indiana University Basketball, effective at the end of the 2005-06 season. My initial thought on this was how much I feel for a man who seems to be one of the good guys in the game for having to deal with the increasing expectations of antsy boosters and a rabid fan base. The fact of the matter is, the rules of what he needed to accomplish basically changed a little less than halfway through his tenure. Brought in as Bob Knight's replacement a few months before the 2000-01 season, his job at that time was simply to put a good face on Indiana Basketball. He was viewed as the saint that would slowly restore dignity to a program wracked with the bad behavior of the boorish Knight. Then, something happened that changed all of that: the Hoosiers went on that magical, unexpected run through the NCAA tournament (I'm still bitter about how that ruined my bracket that year, by the way...).

After that, the expectations of Davis became the same as they are for every other Division I coach: compete at the highest level, and advance in the NCAA tournament. Suddenly, they didn't care how good of a guy he was, as long as he won. It's true that his teams haven't in fact produced results on the court, including the last two seasons in which they failed to even make the NCAA tournament and this season where they've lost 6 of 7 to fall dangerously close to the wrong side of the bubble. How much of that is due to the fact that Indiana fans, spoiled by the success of Knight's teams, placed more and more pressure on Davis to repeat his 2002 tournament success? I'd say it's at least a factor.

Then again, was Davis's choir boy image ever really that important to begin with? People around IU Basketball said it was in September 2000, and maybe they even believed it. However, the bottom line is that no one cared about how much of a jerk Knight was until his teams started missing the Sweet 16 year after year. He could toss all the chairs he wanted as long as he advanced in the NCAAs. It was the same situation with Davis. Sure, it looked good to the rest of the nation to hire a coach that wouldn't get his hands anywhere near his players' throats, but just like any other basketball power, a cage mentor's success at IU is measured solely in wins, losses, and NCAA tournament banners. That's not exactly earth-shattering news, but it certainly paints a different picture of the Davis hire than then-Indiana A.D. Myles Brand tried to offer 6 years ago.

I'd like to see Davis land on his feet somewhere soon, because like I said he seems to be a quality human being. He has also shown he can take a team to the upper echelon under the right circumstances. I don't think given the way the last few seasons have gone, plus his obvious frustration with IU's powerful boosters, that he'll land a major job. What he might be able to do with great success, though, is follow in the footsteps of another coach that was maligned by a powerful fan base. Matt Doherty is having a great year at Florida Atlantic after being drummed out of Chapel Hill. I think that a mild-mannered coach such as Davis wouldn't have a problem swallowing his ego enough to take a lower-profile job. In fact, given his obvious exasperation with the powers that be at IU, he may even prefer it.