Indiana Could Write Book on Fun

ATLANTA —  Bob Knight and Indiana--funny how they ended up in the same area code again-- arrived at this year’s Final Four on different missions. Knight is here to sell his book, while Indiana is quickly moving on to the next chapter.

The gap between Knight and the program he once coached edged a bit more Cumberland on Saturday night when Indiana upset Oklahoma in the first national semifinal game with a thoroughly storybook and joyful display of basketball.

These have not always been terms attached with Indiana basketball.

Knight’s best teams always had passion, but his Hoosiers played less for fun than for fear of reprisal.

What has transpired during Indiana’s magical five-game run to Monday’s national title game against Maryland has been a basketball glasnost. The new Hoosiers come with openness--and an open locker room!

They are glib and revealing. You could almost hug them.

At what point during the Knight reign would the following scene have been imaginable: (Here’s a clue: The answer is “never.”)

Saturday night, knowing victory was near, Indiana Coach Mike Davis buried his head in his hands.

Hoosier guard Dane Fife, who had done a masterful defensive job on Oklahoma guard Hollis Price, went over to comfort his coach.

Fife put his hands on Davis’ head.

“I thought he was crying,” Fife said. “I said, ‘Get your head up, we’re in the national championship game!’ Then I said, ‘Man, you put too much lotion on your hair.’”

With Indiana tethered to Knight, there were always battle lines. Knight made you admire his teams, whether you liked him, or them, or not. Along the way to three national titles, there were few laughs and almost no middle ground.

These Hoosiers are a hoot. With all the underdog talk going around, you’d think it was Valparaiso making this run, not one of basketball’s most storied programs.

Yes, the story of Knight-less Indiana is quickly tumbling toward myth.

Saturday’s game featured a career performance from a reserve, Jeff Newton, who scored 19 points. It featured a clutch performance from a freshman guard, Donald Perry, who scored 10 points in 11 minutes and knocked down important free throws in the end.

It included a straitjacket job from Fife, a player accused of sharpening his elbows before games, who held the Sooners’ Price to a one-for-11 shooting night.

And, inspirationally, it featured a courageous performance from guard Tom Coverdale, who joins the annals of players who have crawled off a trainer’s table into the starting lineup

It wasn’t so much what Coverdale did Saturday as it was the fact he did it at all.

If Indiana wins the national title, expect a song written about Coverdale to the tune of “Davy Crockett,” ending with the verse, “king of the Hoosier Frontier.”

In last week’s regional final victory, Coverdale badly wrenched his left ankle against Kent State. He writhed on the floor and watched postgame ceremonies from a wheelchair.

“I’ve come a long way in a week,” Coverdale said. “Right after the game, even the doctors said there was no way I could play.”

Coverdale played 29 minutes Saturday. He limped up and down the court like a 45-year-old rec-league player. His ankle was taped and braced.

You know what? Coverdale didn’t play all that well. He finished with more turnovers, five, than points, three, but that wasn’t the point, right?

That wasn’t the point when Willis Reed limped out to defeat the Lakers.

“We’ve got to have Cov on the floor,” Hoosier forward Kyle Hornsby said. “He’s our on-the-floor leader. You could see he was in obvious pain.”

News of Coverdale’s condition was front-page news last week in the Bloomington papers.

Coverdale said Davis informed him he would start after Friday’s practice.

“I knew I was going to play this week, no matter how bad it was,” Coverdale said

Coverdale is a bit young to rank his performance with others on the inspirational front burner.

He does not recall in real time the night in 1988 the Dodgers’ Kirk Gibson hobbled to the plate and arm-poked a limp-off, game-winning homer in the World Series against Oakland. More than the act itself--it was Gibson’s only at-bat of the series--the moment invigorated the underdog Dodgers and inspired an upset series win.

“I’ve seen that replay a lot,” Coverdale said of Gibson’s homer. “But this doesn’t compare to that unless we win a championship.”

In fact, Coverdale wishes he could have done more.

After the game, as he sat near his locker, his left foot submerged in an ice bucket, Coverdale almost savagely criticized his own game.

“The leadership was good, except for me,” Coverdale said.

“I thought my timing was off,” he said.

“I think I wore down in the end,” he said. “I made turnover after turnover in this game.”

Coverdale even said Davis made the right decision in benching him in the closing minutes in favor of the freshman Perry.

“Man, I was being stupid out there,” Coverdale said. “Without Donald Perry, we would not have won tonight.”

Coverdale wanted to go back in the game in the end but had the sense to realize, “They didn’t need to put me back in.”

That said, Coverdale would not have missed the game for anything. He will now do anything to get back on the floor Monday. He said his ankle got worse the more he played, to the point it hurt every time he cut.

But how do you limp away from this moment? To etch your name into Hoosier basketball lore? To be part of the team with a chance to win a national title two years after Knight was fired and the program supposedly was left a shambles?

“The best thing in sports is when you prove people wrong,” Coverdale said. “And show people you can do it.”

In this tournament, Indiana has replaced Missouri as the show-me state.

As Knight peddles his wares, the Hoosiers peddle on.

“Most people always say, ‘I’m ready to play the next game right now,’” Coverdale said. “I’m not. I need the whole day and a half to get ready.”

Chances are, he’ll be ready.