The Hoosier image

So they're a little ... different; Indiana can flat-out play

ATLANTA -- There's this image thing that these Hoosiers have going and, the fact is, it's pretty funny.

Sure, it gets under their skin sometimes and, yeah, they get tired of hearing about it all the time and, worse yet, talking about it. But mostly, this whole "image" of Indiana basketball this year -- it's not all that different from what people have been thinking about Indiana basketball since the 1940s -- is always good for a couple laughs in the Indiana locker room.

You know. Small, slow, scrappy. Just not as athletic as other teams. Just not as talented.

The Hoosiers, of course, love to feed the image. Dane Fife, one of their guards, estimates that Kyle Hornsby, another guard, has tripped 632 times during his career at Indiana. Not playing. Just walking.

"We're probably the last team," Hornsby says, "that you'd look at, athletically."

The Hoosiers laugh at all this because everybody in college basketball thinks of Indiana that way at one time or another. You look out there on the court, you measure the Hoosiers' forwards against the other forwards, their guards against the other team's, their bench against the other side's and the mental tale of the tape never, ever favors Indiana.

Not strong enough. Not tall enough. Too slow. Can't jump. Nice little player, but ...

But, you know, the players laugh for another reason. They laugh because the Indiana Hoosiers, goofy as they may seem to be at times, are in the national championship game Monday night. The Hoosiers have beaten Duke and Oklahoma in this NCAA tournament and a couple other teams that no one gave them a chance to beat -- c'mon, there was no way they could match up in those games -- yet few give them a chance Monday night against Maryland.

They have to laugh.

"I do think we're more athletic than people give us credit for," says Hornsby, which almost has to be true because hardly anyone, hardly ever, gives Indiana credit for being athletic at all. "We have some very athletic post players. I think we're a talented team on the inside, and we have a lot of skill on the perimeter."

Indiana has made it this far because of its talent, because of the marvelously gifted Jared Jeffries, a 6-foot-9 stick of a sophomore forward who was good enough to be the Big Ten's Most Valuable Player. The Hoosiers have made it this far because of Fife, a buzz-headed gym rat who was good enough to be the conference's defensive player of the year. "I'm a tough rat," he says.

The Hoosiers have made it to the brink of their sixth national title because they can defend, they can shoot and they know how to play this game. They are holding teams to about 62 points a game. They have made better than 50 percent of their shots in each of their five tournament wins. In their last two wins, Indiana has nailed almost 72 percent of its 3-point tries.

These guys, obviously, aren't simply 10 left sneakers stumbling around on the court and throwing the ball in the basket once in a while.

"I'm one of the few people that picked Indiana to upset Duke," said Maryland point guard Steve Blake. "They pop some threes, they can beat anybody."

These Hoosiers get a kick out of this image thing for one more reason, though. They see the other teams. They see the players they have to match up against. They know. The image thing? It's not all fluff.

Indiana simply isn't the most athletic team you'll find around. In this Final Four, in fact, the Hoosiers finish a distant fourth. Certainly, Monday night against big, strong, tough, experienced Maryland, the little Hoosiers are looking up.

They've been there before.

"I can say this now because we've already played them," Hornsby said with a good deal of awe, "but to come out on the floor and look at Duke ... they were much bigger and [more] physically built than I ever would have thought they would be."

It will be that way Monday when Maryland trots out 6-foot-10 Chris Wilcox, 6-foot-6 Byron Mouton and 6-foot-8 Lonny Baxter across the front line. Maryland guard Juan Dixon may not be big, but he's the tournament's leading scorer.

How can the Terps look across at Indiana and not think These guys don't look so tough?

Indiana could only hope for so much.

The Hoosiers have this image thing, and some of it may even be true. But know this about the Hoosiers: Image is not everything.

John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.

 

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