 |
| |
|
 |
 |
|
|
Everybody loves the Hoosiers Indiana one step from joining all-time great underdogsPosted: Sunday March 31, 2002 1:43 AMUpdated: Sunday March 31, 2002 6:24 PM
For the next two days, the Indiana Hoosiers will be America's Team. Until the past couple weeks, they barely qualified as Bloomington's team, so divided was the IU community over Bob Knight/Mike Davis. But here they are, heading into Monday night's championship date with Maryland, living out the famous movie that bears their name. Like the small-town Hickory Huskers in Hoosiers, these unsung Hoosiers have marched all the way to the title game behind a scrappy group of players and a coach who once felt unwanted. They're a team that lost 11 games this season. Kansas, Maryland and Oklahoma entered Saturday with that many combined. They're a team whose head coach has 46 career victories. Their next opponent's, Gary Williams, has 480. They're a team with only one legitimate NBA prospect. The Terps have as many as four. They're a team that will be a decided underdog against Maryland, just like they were against both Duke and Oklahoma. And we all know how much America loves its underdogs. The Hoosiers are playing the role of the 2002 New England Patriots, who started their season 3-4 and ended it knocking off the exalted St. Louis Rams. Or Sarah Hughes, the unsung teenage figure skater who upstaged the more-decorated Michelle Kwan to capture Olympic gold. Even Rudy, a Notre Dame guy, must be pulling for the Hoosiers somewhere. Underdogs have always played a part in college basketball. While it's too early to say for sure where these Hoosiers will rank among them, there's no question who they'd be compared with if they were to somehow defeat Maryland. N.C. State in 1983 and Villanova in '85, with the emotional Davis a suitable fit to play the role of Jimmy Valvano or Rollie Massimino. Or Kansas in '88, who, like Jared Jeffries and the Hoosiers, were a relatively low seed (six) with one clearly identifiable star, Danny Manning. Michigan in '89 had a relatively high seed (three) and sufficient star power (Glen Rice, Rumeal Robinson), but Steve Fisher's sudden ascension to head coach just before the tourney provided a storyline comparable to the one IU's Davis has been living the past two years. And even before Monday's game, Indiana joins the ranks of '96 Syracuse. Just as the Hoosiers' Big Ten title was obscured by their sharing it with three other teams, the John Wallace-led Orangemen emerged from a Big East that also included Allen Iverson (Georgetown), Ray Allen (UConn) and Kerry Kittles (Villanova). Like Indiana, all great stories. And, like Indiana, only possible in the NCAA tournament. If this were college football, Indiana would be playing in the Citrus Bowl. If this were the NBA playoffs, Indiana would be playing Maryland best-of-seven. But when it's just one game, anything is possible. Just like in Hoosiers. Just like the Hoosiers.
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||
