AP PhotoLEXINGTON, KY. ? Once again, Indiana is a Final Four team, although this time with Mike Davis as its coach. And all it took was nearly perfect three-point shooting.
The Hoosiers made their first eight long-range shots and close to 80 percent overall, cruising past upstart Kent State, 81-69, Saturday night in the South Regional to return to the national semifinals for the first time since 1992.
“Going to the Final Four is really, really big for the program,” said Davis, who took over when Bob Knight was fired in 2000. “To be here this year after all we’ve gone through is a blessing.”
In the stands Saturday, a sign read: “Knight-time is over, it’s a new Da-vis!”
Indiana (24-11) at No. 5, the lowest-seeded team left in the tournament will play Oklahoma next Saturday in Atlanta.
The Hoosiers knocked off top-seeded Duke on Thursday.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” said Dane Fife, who led Indiana with 17 points. “We’ve done what we came down here to do. Now we’ve got to go get Oklahoma.”
Kent State’s 21-game winning streak ended, as did its attempt to become the first 10th-seeded team in the Final Four.
That’s largely because Indiana finished 15-for-19 on threes 78.9 percent, the fifth-highest ever in an NCAA tournament game. The 15 made set a school record.
“If we had had 10 people out there, I don’t think we could have stopped them from shooting tonight,” Kent State’s Andrew Mitchell said. “At some point you just realize, ‘Hey, these guys aren’t missing.’ When (they’re) shooting like that, I don’t think anybody can find a defense to stop it.”
Indiana stunned by Kent State in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament gets a chance to add to its five national championships, the last of which came in 1987, under Knight.
A bit of symmetry: Like Davis, Knight took the Hoosiers to the Final Four in his second season at the school, 1973.
“Today I was so nervous about the game. My stomach was in knots,” Davis said.
Six players hit three-pointers for Indiana, with Fife going 5-for-6. Kyle Hornsby added 16 points for the Hoosiers, who tied for the Big Ten regular-season title.
“Give Indiana credit,” said Kent State coach Stan Heath, whose team started the season 4-4. “I haven’t seen a shooting display like that in my 13 years of coaching.”
Antonio Gates scored 22 points, and Mitchell added 19 for Kent State (30-6), a Mid-American Conference school in a regional final for the first time.
Indiana led by as many as 20 points, and had to weather one sustained run when point guard Tom Coverdale left with about 9 1/2 minutes remaining after re-injuring the left ankle he sprained in the first round of the tourney.
Kent State used a 13-0 run to draw within 59-52, but Fife, one of two Indiana seniors, stemmed the rally by making what else? a three-pointer with a little more than 6 minutes to go.
“That took guts and nerve, and he has it,” Heath said. “That might have been the play of the game.”
Coverdale, the regional’s MVP, had 14 points and seven assists, and Big Ten player of the year Jared Jeffries scored 10.
After Indiana cut down the nets to celebrate, Jeffries pushed Coverdale around the Rupp Arena floor in a wheelchair. Coverdale wore a piece of net around his neck.
“It is hard to tell right now how I will feel,” Coverdale said. “They are doing everything they can and so am I to make sure I play” against Oklahoma.
Playing on rival Kentucky’s home floor Saturday, Indiana seemingly couldn’t miss a shot early. The Hoosiers’ frenzied red-and-white-clad fans got louder and louder each time the ball dropped through the net.
“We looked out there, (and) I was trying to figure out how Indiana got so many tickets,” Heath said. “It was a sea of red. It made it feel like it was a road game.”
The Hoosiers made 12 of their first 18 shots, including all eight three-point attempts by five players, to lead by 20 at the 8-minute mark. Indiana was up 40-28 at halftime.
Fife’s fourth three of the game gave the Hoosiers a 59-39 lead with 10 1/2 minutes left.
“It was frustrating,” Heath said. “We tried different things. We tried to stop Jeffries. We tried to tighten up on the shooters. We even tried a zone for a few possessions.”
When Davis became head coach, he had the unenviable task of following Knight, a coach who led Indiana to three national championships and won more than 600 games there.
While Davis now is two victories away from a title, Knight’s first season at Texas Tech ended with a first-round loss.
During the postgame celebration Saturday, Hornsby went over to Myles Brand, the university president who placed Knight under a zero-tolerance policy in 2000 and then dismissed the coach.
“We weren’t all that fond of (Brand) at the time,” Hornsby said. “I looked at him and shook his hand and said, ‘We’ve come a long way.’
“And he said to me, ‘We sure have.'”
AP PhotoLEXINGTON, KY. ? Once again, Indiana is a Final Four team, although this time with Mike Davis as its coach. And all it took was nearly perfect three-point shooting.
The Hoosiers made their first eight long-range shots and close to 80 percent overall, cruising past upstart Kent State, 81-69, Saturday night in the South Regional to return to the national semifinals for the first time since 1992.
“Going to the Final Four is really, really big for the program,” said Davis, who took over when Bob Knight was fired in 2000. “To be here this year after all we’ve gone through is a blessing.”
In the stands Saturday, a sign read: “Knight-time is over, it’s a new Da-vis!”
Indiana (24-11) at No. 5, the lowest-seeded team left in the tournament will play Oklahoma next Saturday in Atlanta.
The Hoosiers knocked off top-seeded Duke on Thursday.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” said Dane Fife, who led Indiana with 17 points. “We’ve done what we came down here to do. Now we’ve got to go get Oklahoma.”
Kent State’s 21-game winning streak ended, as did its attempt to become the first 10th-seeded team in the Final Four.
That’s largely because Indiana finished 15-for-19 on threes 78.9 percent, the fifth-highest ever in an NCAA tournament game. The 15 made set a school record.
“If we had had 10 people out there, I don’t think we could have stopped them from shooting tonight,” Kent State’s Andrew Mitchell said. “At some point you just realize, ‘Hey, these guys aren’t missing.’ When (they’re) shooting like that, I don’t think anybody can find a defense to stop it.”
Indiana stunned by Kent State in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament gets a chance to add to its five national championships, the last of which came in 1987, under Knight.
A bit of symmetry: Like Davis, Knight took the Hoosiers to the Final Four in his second season at the school, 1973.
“Today I was so nervous about the game. My stomach was in knots,” Davis said.
Six players hit three-pointers for Indiana, with Fife going 5-for-6. Kyle Hornsby added 16 points for the Hoosiers, who tied for the Big Ten regular-season title.
“Give Indiana credit,” said Kent State coach Stan Heath, whose team started the season 4-4. “I haven’t seen a shooting display like that in my 13 years of coaching.”
Antonio Gates scored 22 points, and Mitchell added 19 for Kent State (30-6), a Mid-American Conference school in a regional final for the first time.
Indiana led by as many as 20 points, and had to weather one sustained run when point guard Tom Coverdale left with about 9 1/2 minutes remaining after re-injuring the left ankle he sprained in the first round of the tourney.
Kent State used a 13-0 run to draw within 59-52, but Fife, one of two Indiana seniors, stemmed the rally by making what else? a three-pointer with a little more than 6 minutes to go.
“That took guts and nerve, and he has it,” Heath said. “That might have been the play of the game.”
Coverdale, the regional’s MVP, had 14 points and seven assists, and Big Ten player of the year Jared Jeffries scored 10.
After Indiana cut down the nets to celebrate, Jeffries pushed Coverdale around the Rupp Arena floor in a wheelchair. Coverdale wore a piece of net around his neck.
“It is hard to tell right now how I will feel,” Coverdale said. “They are doing everything they can and so am I to make sure I play” against Oklahoma.
Playing on rival Kentucky’s home floor Saturday, Indiana seemingly couldn’t miss a shot early. The Hoosiers’ frenzied red-and-white-clad fans got louder and louder each time the ball dropped through the net.
“We looked out there, (and) I was trying to figure out how Indiana got so many tickets,” Heath said. “It was a sea of red. It made it feel like it was a road game.”
The Hoosiers made 12 of their first 18 shots, including all eight three-point attempts by five players, to lead by 20 at the 8-minute mark. Indiana was up 40-28 at halftime.
Fife’s fourth three of the game gave the Hoosiers a 59-39 lead with 10 1/2 minutes left.
“It was frustrating,” Heath said. “We tried different things. We tried to stop Jeffries. We tried to tighten up on the shooters. We even tried a zone for a few possessions.”
When Davis became head coach, he had the unenviable task of following Knight, a coach who led Indiana to three national championships and won more than 600 games there.
While Davis now is two victories away from a title, Knight’s first season at Texas Tech ended with a first-round loss.
During the postgame celebration Saturday, Hornsby went over to Myles Brand, the university president who placed Knight under a zero-tolerance policy in 2000 and then dismissed the coach.
“We weren’t all that fond of (Brand) at the time,” Hornsby said. “I looked at him and shook his hand and said, ‘We’ve come a long way.’
“And he said to me, ‘We sure have.'”
AP PhotoLEXINGTON, KY. ? Once again, Indiana is a Final Four team, although this time with Mike Davis as its coach. And all it took was nearly perfect three-point shooting.
The Hoosiers made their first eight long-range shots and close to 80 percent overall, cruising past upstart Kent State, 81-69, Saturday night in the South Regional to return to the national semifinals for the first time since 1992.
“Going to the Final Four is really, really big for the program,” said Davis, who took over when Bob Knight was fired in 2000. “To be here this year after all we’ve gone through is a blessing.”
In the stands Saturday, a sign read: “Knight-time is over, it’s a new Da-vis!”
Indiana (24-11) at No. 5, the lowest-seeded team left in the tournament will play Oklahoma next Saturday in Atlanta.
The Hoosiers knocked off top-seeded Duke on Thursday.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” said Dane Fife, who led Indiana with 17 points. “We’ve done what we came down here to do. Now we’ve got to go get Oklahoma.”
Kent State’s 21-game winning streak ended, as did its attempt to become the first 10th-seeded team in the Final Four.
That’s largely because Indiana finished 15-for-19 on threes 78.9 percent, the fifth-highest ever in an NCAA tournament game. The 15 made set a school record.
“If we had had 10 people out there, I don’t think we could have stopped them from shooting tonight,” Kent State’s Andrew Mitchell said. “At some point you just realize, ‘Hey, these guys aren’t missing.’ When (they’re) shooting like that, I don’t think anybody can find a defense to stop it.”
Indiana stunned by Kent State in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament gets a chance to add to its five national championships, the last of which came in 1987, under Knight.
A bit of symmetry: Like Davis, Knight took the Hoosiers to the Final Four in his second season at the school, 1973.
“Today I was so nervous about the game. My stomach was in knots,” Davis said.
Six players hit three-pointers for Indiana, with Fife going 5-for-6. Kyle Hornsby added 16 points for the Hoosiers, who tied for the Big Ten regular-season title.
“Give Indiana credit,” said Kent State coach Stan Heath, whose team started the season 4-4. “I haven’t seen a shooting display like that in my 13 years of coaching.”
Antonio Gates scored 22 points, and Mitchell added 19 for Kent State (30-6), a Mid-American Conference school in a regional final for the first time.
Indiana led by as many as 20 points, and had to weather one sustained run when point guard Tom Coverdale left with about 9 1/2 minutes remaining after re-injuring the left ankle he sprained in the first round of the tourney.
Kent State used a 13-0 run to draw within 59-52, but Fife, one of two Indiana seniors, stemmed the rally by making what else? a three-pointer with a little more than 6 minutes to go.
“That took guts and nerve, and he has it,” Heath said. “That might have been the play of the game.”
Coverdale, the regional’s MVP, had 14 points and seven assists, and Big Ten player of the year Jared Jeffries scored 10.
After Indiana cut down the nets to celebrate, Jeffries pushed Coverdale around the Rupp Arena floor in a wheelchair. Coverdale wore a piece of net around his neck.
“It is hard to tell right now how I will feel,” Coverdale said. “They are doing everything they can and so am I to make sure I play” against Oklahoma.
Playing on rival Kentucky’s home floor Saturday, Indiana seemingly couldn’t miss a shot early. The Hoosiers’ frenzied red-and-white-clad fans got louder and louder each time the ball dropped through the net.
“We looked out there, (and) I was trying to figure out how Indiana got so many tickets,” Heath said. “It was a sea of red. It made it feel like it was a road game.”
The Hoosiers made 12 of their first 18 shots, including all eight three-point attempts by five players, to lead by 20 at the 8-minute mark. Indiana was up 40-28 at halftime.
Fife’s fourth three of the game gave the Hoosiers a 59-39 lead with 10 1/2 minutes left.
“It was frustrating,” Heath said. “We tried different things. We tried to stop Jeffries. We tried to tighten up on the shooters. We even tried a zone for a few possessions.”
When Davis became head coach, he had the unenviable task of following Knight, a coach who led Indiana to three national championships and won more than 600 games there.
While Davis now is two victories away from a title, Knight’s first season at Texas Tech ended with a first-round loss.
During the postgame celebration Saturday, Hornsby went over to Myles Brand, the university president who placed Knight under a zero-tolerance policy in 2000 and then dismissed the coach.
“We weren’t all that fond of (Brand) at the time,” Hornsby said. “I looked at him and shook his hand and said, ‘We’ve come a long way.’
“And he said to me, ‘We sure have.'”
AP PhotoLEXINGTON, KY. ? Once again, Indiana is a Final Four team, although this time with Mike Davis as its coach. And all it took was nearly perfect three-point shooting.
The Hoosiers made their first eight long-range shots and close to 80 percent overall, cruising past upstart Kent State, 81-69, Saturday night in the South Regional to return to the national semifinals for the first time since 1992.
“Going to the Final Four is really, really big for the program,” said Davis, who took over when Bob Knight was fired in 2000. “To be here this year after all we’ve gone through is a blessing.”
In the stands Saturday, a sign read: “Knight-time is over, it’s a new Da-vis!”
Indiana (24-11) at No. 5, the lowest-seeded team left in the tournament will play Oklahoma next Saturday in Atlanta.
The Hoosiers knocked off top-seeded Duke on Thursday.
“It’s an unbelievable feeling,” said Dane Fife, who led Indiana with 17 points. “We’ve done what we came down here to do. Now we’ve got to go get Oklahoma.”
Kent State’s 21-game winning streak ended, as did its attempt to become the first 10th-seeded team in the Final Four.
That’s largely because Indiana finished 15-for-19 on threes 78.9 percent, the fifth-highest ever in an NCAA tournament game. The 15 made set a school record.
“If we had had 10 people out there, I don’t think we could have stopped them from shooting tonight,” Kent State’s Andrew Mitchell said. “At some point you just realize, ‘Hey, these guys aren’t missing.’ When (they’re) shooting like that, I don’t think anybody can find a defense to stop it.”
Indiana stunned by Kent State in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament gets a chance to add to its five national championships, the last of which came in 1987, under Knight.
A bit of symmetry: Like Davis, Knight took the Hoosiers to the Final Four in his second season at the school, 1973.
“Today I was so nervous about the game. My stomach was in knots,” Davis said.
Six players hit three-pointers for Indiana, with Fife going 5-for-6. Kyle Hornsby added 16 points for the Hoosiers, who tied for the Big Ten regular-season title.
“Give Indiana credit,” said Kent State coach Stan Heath, whose team started the season 4-4. “I haven’t seen a shooting display like that in my 13 years of coaching.”
Antonio Gates scored 22 points, and Mitchell added 19 for Kent State (30-6), a Mid-American Conference school in a regional final for the first time.
Indiana led by as many as 20 points, and had to weather one sustained run when point guard Tom Coverdale left with about 9 1/2 minutes remaining after re-injuring the left ankle he sprained in the first round of the tourney.
Kent State used a 13-0 run to draw within 59-52, but Fife, one of two Indiana seniors, stemmed the rally by making what else? a three-pointer with a little more than 6 minutes to go.
“That took guts and nerve, and he has it,” Heath said. “That might have been the play of the game.”
Coverdale, the regional’s MVP, had 14 points and seven assists, and Big Ten player of the year Jared Jeffries scored 10.
After Indiana cut down the nets to celebrate, Jeffries pushed Coverdale around the Rupp Arena floor in a wheelchair. Coverdale wore a piece of net around his neck.
“It is hard to tell right now how I will feel,” Coverdale said. “They are doing everything they can and so am I to make sure I play” against Oklahoma.
Playing on rival Kentucky’s home floor Saturday, Indiana seemingly couldn’t miss a shot early. The Hoosiers’ frenzied red-and-white-clad fans got louder and louder each time the ball dropped through the net.
“We looked out there, (and) I was trying to figure out how Indiana got so many tickets,” Heath said. “It was a sea of red. It made it feel like it was a road game.”
The Hoosiers made 12 of their first 18 shots, including all eight three-point attempts by five players, to lead by 20 at the 8-minute mark. Indiana was up 40-28 at halftime.
Fife’s fourth three of the game gave the Hoosiers a 59-39 lead with 10 1/2 minutes left.
“It was frustrating,” Heath said. “We tried different things. We tried to stop Jeffries. We tried to tighten up on the shooters. We even tried a zone for a few possessions.”
When Davis became head coach, he had the unenviable task of following Knight, a coach who led Indiana to three national championships and won more than 600 games there.
While Davis now is two victories away from a title, Knight’s first season at Texas Tech ended with a first-round loss.
During the postgame celebration Saturday, Hornsby went over to Myles Brand, the university president who placed Knight under a zero-tolerance policy in 2000 and then dismissed the coach.
“We weren’t all that fond of (Brand) at the time,” Hornsby said. “I looked at him and shook his hand and said, ‘We’ve come a long way.’
“And he said to me, ‘We sure have.'”
