Atlanta ? Your choice tonight is a team with a sense of destiny or a team with a sense of humor. Not your classic matchup, and with destiny you have to give the points.
In this corner are the stallions, in that corner the mules. Different styles, different baggage. Maryland is still explaining away Len Bias. Indiana continues to apologize for Bobby Knight.
Maryland has lost to Arizona, Oklahoma, Duke and North Carolina State. Indiana has gone down 11 times and is 1-2 against the state of Wisconsin.
“They beat Wisconsin unconscious,” Hoosiers coach Mike Davis noted of the Terrapins, and “Wisconsin beat us at home.”
Put it this way. When was it that Indiana began to believe it was national championship material?
“Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we would get here,” said Dane Fife, senior defensive specialist and lead realist.
Maryland. Same question:
“I kind of knew since last year, with the success we had and everything we went through, that we would be here in this national championship game,” said Lonny Baxter, rebounding whiz and scarred veteran.
Last year is when Davis was tapped reluctantly to replace the sainted Knight, and he claims that season shouldn’t count against him.
“This is really my first year,” he said Sunday.
Last year is also when Gary Williams took the Terrapins to the Final Four in Minneapolis, where they treated a 22-point lead against Duke like a cat with a hairball.
“I knew that we weren’t satisfied with what happened in the Final Four last year,” the coach said. “These guys never wavered. You could tell the first day of practice the intent of this team. These guys were willing to do whatever it took to get here.”
The Hoosiers, on the other hand, might have wavered. Or maybe that’s just the way they run. Davis says his players are so slow that he challenged three of them to a race last fall, and he pulled a hamstring before he could win.
The Indiana players were asked Sunday if they were more athletic than people realize.
“No,” Fife replied.
“I can dunk,” volunteered Kyle Hornsby, a 6-foot-5 forward from Anacoco, La. “Just not very well.”
Other talents will be required if the Hoosiers are to beat the 712-point spread tonight and pull off the greatest Final Four surprise since Villanova spilled Georgetown. Surely Indiana remembers that.
If this team gets any looser, it will have to be Super Glued to keep it from falling off the bench. The Hoosiers haven’t practiced on Sunday all year, and Davis made no exception this time. Davis himself stayed up until 4:30 Sunday morning helping his friends and relatives enjoy the victory over Oklahoma.
Even the coach’s lips are loose. In a freewheeling hour with reporters, he mumbled not once, but twice, that he’d like a raise, that his goal is to coach in the NBA and that the plays he gets the most credit for calling are usually the ones his players decline to run.
And then there are the Terrapins, carrying three future pros, a No. 1 seeding and the expectations of metropolitan Washington, D.C., into tonight’s confrontation. Like Davis, Willliams was up late Saturday night as well.
“When we got back, we met with the coaches, went over what tapes we had, what we had to do to get ready for Indiana,” he said.
“I tried to get a couple hours’ sleep at 2:30, but I couldn’t. I got up, watched tape and went over the scouting reports. I haven’t had a chance to get back to my phone and see who’s called.”
It might have been destiny. Or the Hoosiers ordering a pizza.
Atlanta ? Your choice tonight is a team with a sense of destiny or a team with a sense of humor. Not your classic matchup, and with destiny you have to give the points.
In this corner are the stallions, in that corner the mules. Different styles, different baggage. Maryland is still explaining away Len Bias. Indiana continues to apologize for Bobby Knight.
Maryland has lost to Arizona, Oklahoma, Duke and North Carolina State. Indiana has gone down 11 times and is 1-2 against the state of Wisconsin.
“They beat Wisconsin unconscious,” Hoosiers coach Mike Davis noted of the Terrapins, and “Wisconsin beat us at home.”
Put it this way. When was it that Indiana began to believe it was national championship material?
“Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we would get here,” said Dane Fife, senior defensive specialist and lead realist.
Maryland. Same question:
“I kind of knew since last year, with the success we had and everything we went through, that we would be here in this national championship game,” said Lonny Baxter, rebounding whiz and scarred veteran.
Last year is when Davis was tapped reluctantly to replace the sainted Knight, and he claims that season shouldn’t count against him.
“This is really my first year,” he said Sunday.
Last year is also when Gary Williams took the Terrapins to the Final Four in Minneapolis, where they treated a 22-point lead against Duke like a cat with a hairball.
“I knew that we weren’t satisfied with what happened in the Final Four last year,” the coach said. “These guys never wavered. You could tell the first day of practice the intent of this team. These guys were willing to do whatever it took to get here.”
The Hoosiers, on the other hand, might have wavered. Or maybe that’s just the way they run. Davis says his players are so slow that he challenged three of them to a race last fall, and he pulled a hamstring before he could win.
The Indiana players were asked Sunday if they were more athletic than people realize.
“No,” Fife replied.
“I can dunk,” volunteered Kyle Hornsby, a 6-foot-5 forward from Anacoco, La. “Just not very well.”
Other talents will be required if the Hoosiers are to beat the 712-point spread tonight and pull off the greatest Final Four surprise since Villanova spilled Georgetown. Surely Indiana remembers that.
If this team gets any looser, it will have to be Super Glued to keep it from falling off the bench. The Hoosiers haven’t practiced on Sunday all year, and Davis made no exception this time. Davis himself stayed up until 4:30 Sunday morning helping his friends and relatives enjoy the victory over Oklahoma.
Even the coach’s lips are loose. In a freewheeling hour with reporters, he mumbled not once, but twice, that he’d like a raise, that his goal is to coach in the NBA and that the plays he gets the most credit for calling are usually the ones his players decline to run.
And then there are the Terrapins, carrying three future pros, a No. 1 seeding and the expectations of metropolitan Washington, D.C., into tonight’s confrontation. Like Davis, Willliams was up late Saturday night as well.
“When we got back, we met with the coaches, went over what tapes we had, what we had to do to get ready for Indiana,” he said.
“I tried to get a couple hours’ sleep at 2:30, but I couldn’t. I got up, watched tape and went over the scouting reports. I haven’t had a chance to get back to my phone and see who’s called.”
It might have been destiny. Or the Hoosiers ordering a pizza.
Atlanta ? Your choice tonight is a team with a sense of destiny or a team with a sense of humor. Not your classic matchup, and with destiny you have to give the points.
In this corner are the stallions, in that corner the mules. Different styles, different baggage. Maryland is still explaining away Len Bias. Indiana continues to apologize for Bobby Knight.
Maryland has lost to Arizona, Oklahoma, Duke and North Carolina State. Indiana has gone down 11 times and is 1-2 against the state of Wisconsin.
“They beat Wisconsin unconscious,” Hoosiers coach Mike Davis noted of the Terrapins, and “Wisconsin beat us at home.”
Put it this way. When was it that Indiana began to believe it was national championship material?
“Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we would get here,” said Dane Fife, senior defensive specialist and lead realist.
Maryland. Same question:
“I kind of knew since last year, with the success we had and everything we went through, that we would be here in this national championship game,” said Lonny Baxter, rebounding whiz and scarred veteran.
Last year is when Davis was tapped reluctantly to replace the sainted Knight, and he claims that season shouldn’t count against him.
“This is really my first year,” he said Sunday.
Last year is also when Gary Williams took the Terrapins to the Final Four in Minneapolis, where they treated a 22-point lead against Duke like a cat with a hairball.
“I knew that we weren’t satisfied with what happened in the Final Four last year,” the coach said. “These guys never wavered. You could tell the first day of practice the intent of this team. These guys were willing to do whatever it took to get here.”
The Hoosiers, on the other hand, might have wavered. Or maybe that’s just the way they run. Davis says his players are so slow that he challenged three of them to a race last fall, and he pulled a hamstring before he could win.
The Indiana players were asked Sunday if they were more athletic than people realize.
“No,” Fife replied.
“I can dunk,” volunteered Kyle Hornsby, a 6-foot-5 forward from Anacoco, La. “Just not very well.”
Other talents will be required if the Hoosiers are to beat the 712-point spread tonight and pull off the greatest Final Four surprise since Villanova spilled Georgetown. Surely Indiana remembers that.
If this team gets any looser, it will have to be Super Glued to keep it from falling off the bench. The Hoosiers haven’t practiced on Sunday all year, and Davis made no exception this time. Davis himself stayed up until 4:30 Sunday morning helping his friends and relatives enjoy the victory over Oklahoma.
Even the coach’s lips are loose. In a freewheeling hour with reporters, he mumbled not once, but twice, that he’d like a raise, that his goal is to coach in the NBA and that the plays he gets the most credit for calling are usually the ones his players decline to run.
And then there are the Terrapins, carrying three future pros, a No. 1 seeding and the expectations of metropolitan Washington, D.C., into tonight’s confrontation. Like Davis, Willliams was up late Saturday night as well.
“When we got back, we met with the coaches, went over what tapes we had, what we had to do to get ready for Indiana,” he said.
“I tried to get a couple hours’ sleep at 2:30, but I couldn’t. I got up, watched tape and went over the scouting reports. I haven’t had a chance to get back to my phone and see who’s called.”
It might have been destiny. Or the Hoosiers ordering a pizza.
Atlanta ? Your choice tonight is a team with a sense of destiny or a team with a sense of humor. Not your classic matchup, and with destiny you have to give the points.
In this corner are the stallions, in that corner the mules. Different styles, different baggage. Maryland is still explaining away Len Bias. Indiana continues to apologize for Bobby Knight.
Maryland has lost to Arizona, Oklahoma, Duke and North Carolina State. Indiana has gone down 11 times and is 1-2 against the state of Wisconsin.
“They beat Wisconsin unconscious,” Hoosiers coach Mike Davis noted of the Terrapins, and “Wisconsin beat us at home.”
Put it this way. When was it that Indiana began to believe it was national championship material?
“Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think we would get here,” said Dane Fife, senior defensive specialist and lead realist.
Maryland. Same question:
“I kind of knew since last year, with the success we had and everything we went through, that we would be here in this national championship game,” said Lonny Baxter, rebounding whiz and scarred veteran.
Last year is when Davis was tapped reluctantly to replace the sainted Knight, and he claims that season shouldn’t count against him.
“This is really my first year,” he said Sunday.
Last year is also when Gary Williams took the Terrapins to the Final Four in Minneapolis, where they treated a 22-point lead against Duke like a cat with a hairball.
“I knew that we weren’t satisfied with what happened in the Final Four last year,” the coach said. “These guys never wavered. You could tell the first day of practice the intent of this team. These guys were willing to do whatever it took to get here.”
The Hoosiers, on the other hand, might have wavered. Or maybe that’s just the way they run. Davis says his players are so slow that he challenged three of them to a race last fall, and he pulled a hamstring before he could win.
The Indiana players were asked Sunday if they were more athletic than people realize.
“No,” Fife replied.
“I can dunk,” volunteered Kyle Hornsby, a 6-foot-5 forward from Anacoco, La. “Just not very well.”
Other talents will be required if the Hoosiers are to beat the 712-point spread tonight and pull off the greatest Final Four surprise since Villanova spilled Georgetown. Surely Indiana remembers that.
If this team gets any looser, it will have to be Super Glued to keep it from falling off the bench. The Hoosiers haven’t practiced on Sunday all year, and Davis made no exception this time. Davis himself stayed up until 4:30 Sunday morning helping his friends and relatives enjoy the victory over Oklahoma.
Even the coach’s lips are loose. In a freewheeling hour with reporters, he mumbled not once, but twice, that he’d like a raise, that his goal is to coach in the NBA and that the plays he gets the most credit for calling are usually the ones his players decline to run.
And then there are the Terrapins, carrying three future pros, a No. 1 seeding and the expectations of metropolitan Washington, D.C., into tonight’s confrontation. Like Davis, Willliams was up late Saturday night as well.
“When we got back, we met with the coaches, went over what tapes we had, what we had to do to get ready for Indiana,” he said.
“I tried to get a couple hours’ sleep at 2:30, but I couldn’t. I got up, watched tape and went over the scouting reports. I haven’t had a chance to get back to my phone and see who’s called.”
It might have been destiny. Or the Hoosiers ordering a pizza.
