After a tumultuous six-year tenure at Indiana, Mike Davis is starting fresh at Alabama-Birmingham

By Cory McCartney, SI.com

Antonie Davis didn't want his dad's new team to play any games. The 8-year-old remembered the end of his father tenure at Indiana all too well, when Mike Davis was under the intense scrutiny from fans that were still clinging to the memory of the icon he replaced. But back home in his native Alabama, as the first-year coach at UAB and away from the ominous shadow of Bob Knight, Davis has found his comfort zone -- and delivered a message to his son that is fitting after his tumultuous time in Bloomington.

"I told him, 'It's not the same here. It's different here,'" said Davis, 46.

Different indeed. Davis resigned after six seasons at Indiana, going from a basketball Mecca boasting five national championship banners in historic Assembly Hall and eight Final Four appearances to a solid, lower-profile Conference USA program as he succeeded Mike Anderson, who left for Missouri.

To some it may appear to be a step backward, but not to Davis. He's come home and couldn't be happier. "This is where I fit in. This is me," he said. "No disrespect to Indiana, but this is who I am and I'm enjoying it. I'm happy about it [and] I feel good about it."

Robert Vaden has seen the change in Davis first hand. The 6-foot-5 junior swingman followed the coach to UAB from Indiana and says he has seen the man he calls a father figure recharged by the new challenge.

"He's around the gym lots of times, whereas in Bloomington he would be around just for practice and he would go home with his family," said Vaden, who is sitting out under NCAA transfer rules this season. "Just being around the gym and being around what he loves and that's basketball, he's around it all the time."

Tough act to follow

In September 2000, Indiana fired Knight for violating a zero-tolerance policy and decided to promote Davis, then an assistant, to interim head coach. Davis came under fire from many Knight loyalists (and Knight himself), but he didn't waiver in his decision to take the job. When he was announced as Knight's successor he stood confidently at a podium, his players flanking him. "I'm sad by the way [the hiring] happened," Davis said at the time. "Everyone knows coach Knight is the reason I'm here and why the players are here. "[But] Indiana basketball is bigger than anyone."

Over the course of the next six seasons, Davis would find that sentiment didn't hold true for many Indiana fans who remained loyal to Knight. As Davis embarked on the most impossible of tasks -- replacing a legend -- the gravity of it all didn't take hold.

"I really wasn't thinking about [following Knight] at the beginning, I just wanted an opportunity to be a head coach and put myself in a situation like I am in now," Davis said. "I never thought about it, but he is the best of all-time, so it was hard for [longtime Indiana fans] to see me be in his position ... it's hard for anyone to see the next guy behind coach Knight, because he just does so much for college basketball."

Davis could not win over the Indiana faithful despite 21 victories his first season and 25 his second en route to an appearance in the national title game, after which he was awarded with an extension through 2007-08. The following season he was hampered by expectations, falling to 14-15 in '03-04 (Indiana's first losing season since 1969-70), his own words -- saying he thought IU's nameless jerseys and candy-stripe warm-up pants hurt recruiting, and that he had a desire to someday coach in the NBA -- and those of Knight, who said in a '05 Sporting News Radio interview that he considered firing Davis before leaving Indiana.